The Night of the Solstice, by L.J. Smith

If L. J. Smith’s reputation rested solely upon her first novel, 1987’s The Night of the Solstice, and its sequel, 1990’s Heart of Valor, she might have been ranked among the classic children’s authors of the late 20th century. But, rather than limiting herself to well-written fantasy for the 12-to-15 crowd, Smith went on to write several pulpy horror/supernatural/romance novels for older teens—highly entertaining books, but not the kind of thing that earns you Susan Cooper or Philip Pullman-esque accolades.

This is unfortunate, because it means that The Night of the Solstice and Heart of Valor fell into undeserved obscurity. Smith’s two stories about the four Hodges-Bradley siblings, Alys, Charles, Janie, and Claudia, are vivid fantasies with strong characters and fast-moving plots. They’re totally worth the effort of hunting through used bookstores or requesting them from your local library—but they’re crying out for a decent reprint.

The Night of the Solstice opens in suburban California, when a talking vixen approaches seven-year-old Claudia Hodges-Bradley as she’s checking the mail. The vixen tells Claudia that a mysterious local house is actually the only doorway between Earth and the Wildworld—a magical place filled with powerful, sinister creatures. The great sorceress who lives in the house has disappeared, leaving the magical passageways unguarded, and the vixen needs Claudia’s family’s help to find her. Claudia accepts the vixen’s story without a blink... but it’s less easy to convince her three older siblings that A) she’s met a talking fox, B) the talking fox lives in the creepy old house on the hill, which is actually a magical passageway to another world, and C) it’s up to them to save humankind from an infestation of evil sorcerers.

Smith has a great ear for dialogue and family dynamics, and she spends a sizable chunk of the book focusing on the relationships between the four Hodges-Bradley children. Fourteen-year-old Alys is a nice girl with a slightly overinflated opinion of her own judgment and sense of responsibility. Twelve-year-old twins Charles and Janie as different as night and day—Charles is easy-going and popular; Janie is brilliant and disturbing. Claudia, the youngest, is sweet, sturdy, and open-minded. Watching the four of them squabble is even more entertaining the saving-the-world stuff in the second half of the novel.

The Night of the Solstice and Heart of Valor are 100% smart, family-friendly, Wordcandy-worthy fantasy, but the only way they’re ever going to earn the readership they deserve is if somebody gives them a reprint worthy of their awesomeness. The original hardback covers weren’t bad, but the mid-nineties paperback covers were ghastly. But readers might get lucky—HarperTeen has just reprinted a collected edition of the first two volumes of of Smith’s Vampire Diaries series (so they haven’t forgotten her entirely), and we’re hoping that publishers will get so desperate to fill the Harry Potter void that they’ll start digging through their fantasy back catalogs, run across these two highly entertaining novels, and re-release them with as many bells and whistles as humanly possible.