Once There Was
Once there was. Monsef, Kiyash. New York : Simon and Schuster Books for Young Readers, [2023].
Once There Was is more than a wonderful YA (and upper Middle Grade) fantasy. It is also a gentle reminder that we can do better in preserving our world, in protecting wildlife, in putting others’ needs above our own.
Marjan has had a difficult life. Her mother died from cancer when she was 7, and her father just died a month ago. He was killed, and Marjan wants to know who did it. She inherited his veterinary clinic, which barely scrapes by. But more than anything, she wants to know what he hid from her and why there is a piece of her missing. Her best friends Grace and Carrie are trying to understand her, but her anger and emptiness makes it hard to get close to her. Marjan has stopped attending school, because she knows her classmates won’t know what to say to her. Her neighbor, Mrs. Francesca Wix, is her guardian, providing food occasionally, supervision and signatures when needed, and love all of the time. She is one of the people who kept an eye on Marjan when her dad had to leave on mysterious business trips.
Then, someone comes to the clinic and gives her a first class ticket to England, telling her she’s needed to heal an animal. Marjan has no veterinary training, and has no idea why anyone would think she can help, but she’s curious about her father, and the person who brings her the information promises they will help her find who killed him. When she arrives in England, she finds a sick griffon. She may not be a vet, but when she touches the griffon, she can sense what is wrong with him. The owner’s son, Sebastian, quickly becomes her friend as she tries to figure out what this special gift means, and why her father never told her anything about it.
She remembers all of the folk tales from Iran, his homeland, that he had told her, and is amazed to realize they are real. She meets the other players in the magical creatures world, and has to decide for herself what is right and wrong when it comes to taking care of the animals.
I can’t say enough about the writing and the storytelling in this book. It is luminous, and makes you feel everything the characters are feeling. The author interspersed folk tales among the main story, illuminating the creatures she’s seeing, and it made me want to pick up a book of Iranian folk tales. But beyond the story of how Marjan learns about this hidden world, there are lessons on how to be a friend, how to care for our world, how absolute power corrupts absolutely, and how to navigate the world when you aren’t sure about anything.
The one question that many have with this book is, who is the audience? It reads more like a young adult book on one page, then more like a middle grade book on the next. I would put it in the Young Adult section, but recommend it for elementary and middle school kids who are ready for something a little more mature than typical middle grade books.
Mary Beth Adams is the Community Engagement Librarian for Alamance County Public Libraries. She can be reached at madams@alamancelibraries.org.