Sherwood Smith’s Wren, essays by Claire
Wren by Claire
Here are an illustration and couple of school essays by 11 and 12 year old Claire about her favorite character, used by permission:
Sherwood Smith’s Wren, of Wren to the Rescue, Wren’s Quest and Wren’s War
by Claire Lenander
My favorite character in the Wren Trilogy is, well, Wren. Wren is an orphan
who is very imaginative, likes to tell stories, and wants to become any
thing form a traveler to a pirate Queen. Wren’s description is of a short
girl, slightly chubby, and her only unusual physical feature is her hair. In
the book this is described as “two scalps of hair fought over Wren’s head
and got stuck on it” (or something like that). Wren has two unusual talents:
she is unbelievably good at magic, and the other is, in each book she ends
up getting turned into some kind of creature and she can handle the
transformation back more easily than most people.
The first book, Wren to the Rescue, Wren finds out her best friend, Tess, is
a princess. They go to Tess’s real home, but on the second day Tess is
stolen away, so Wren has to find her. Wren meets up with a boy named Tyron
who is a journey mage and who also wants to rescue Tess, and they end up on
an adventure. They go to the free vale and Tyron doesn’t get the help he
wanted. When they arrive at an inn at the border of Meldrith they meet
Tyron’s friend Conner. He comes along and just after they cross the border
Wren gets turned into a dog. Wren sneaks into King Andreus’s castle. Wren
gets into Tess’s cell and Tess lowers Wren to the cell below. Conner and
Tyron are stuck in the cell below and Tyron warps them all out, they’re all
safe. The End.
The books last five years and over that time Wren and her three friends,
Tess, Conner, and Tyron grow up and mature. They all start out young
children of 11 or 12, and by the end of the third book they are young adults
of 15 or 16 sure of their positions in the world. By the end of the third
book, Tess’s parents have been killed and she becomes Queen. When Tess steps
up in the world so does Tyron as Tess’s chief magician. Conner leaves for
places untold and leaves a trail for Wren (Journey mage) to follow.
Through the books Wren manages to work her way through the dangers and plots
of her evil archenemy, the evil King Andreus of Senna Lirwan. In fighting
the evil king, Wren and co. have help from other countries, yes but they get
bigger help from Idres Rhiscarlan and the Sarmess Twins, all three very
powerful wizards.
Wren’s Profile
By: Claire Lenander
Wren is a very believable person. She is from the Wren Trilogy, by Sherwood
Smith. Wren does not try to do anything for heroism or fame, she just does
the first thing that comes to mind. Until after she does something heroic,
Wren doesn1t realize it is heroic. That is what makes her so believable.
Wren is a smart, funny, and a stout good-hearted friend. In the first book
you could just feel the friendship between Tess and Wren. Later on when
Tess is stolen the first thing that pops into Wren’s mind is to rescue Tess–
forgetting all about gryphs, wolves, and enemy soldiers with an evil king to
top; her mind just jumps to rescuing Tess. Another thing about Wren is that
her mind is quick to judge but she realizes when she makes mistakes and is
quick to try to correct them, just like any normal human would. Wren is
very imaginative. And she spends more time fighting pirates in her brain
than pulling carrots.
Throughout the book, Wren makes errors, blunders, childish pranks, calls
enemy soldiers names, makes her friend Tess laugh, and juggles fruit. All
while growing up and facing decisions that grown men have trouble making (and
even worse she is going through puberty! ) One of the reasons why we can
relate to her is that Wren is scared lots of times, but she faces her fears.
In the third book, she ends up short sheeting the evil king’s bed and tying
all of his clothes in knots.
All in all, Wren is a girl we can relate to and that makes her a humanized
character. I1d say that this a good book and you should read it. One of
the easiest places to get this book is from your local library. However,
Sherwood Smith could certainly use the royalties if you bought her books,
and they are good enough to buy. Sherwood Smith will be the guest of honor
at Mythcon next summer in Nashville, Tennessee.
