The Grimmelings

Thirteen-year-old Ella knows that words are powerful. So she should have known better than to utter a wish and a curse on the same day, even in jest. When the boy she cursed goes missing in the same way as her father several years earlier, Ella discovers that her family is living in the shadow of a vengeful kelpie, a black horse-like creature. With the help of her beloved pony Magpie, can Ella break the curse of the kelpie and save not just her family, but the whole community?  

At the story’s beginning, Ella curses Josh, who disappears shortly afterward. While Josh’s disappearance is one of the main subplots of the story, The Grimmelings also focuses on Ella’s family—her grandmother, mother, and sister. The family has had their share of grief since her grandfather drowned during a terrible storm and her father disappeared without a trace. These two events caused the town to distrust Ella’s family, and some even think they are witches. Through these difficult times, Ella’s family always supports each other, proving that strong women can accomplish much. 

When Ella whispers her wish, Gus—a kelpie in disguise—befriends her. While the mysterious Gus adds interest, much of the story unfolds through Ella’s grandmother, who has secrets of her own. Using Ella’s family as a backdrop, The Grimmelings takes readers on an adventure that introduces Scottish folklore about the shapeshifting kelpies that lead children to their deaths. Information about kelpies is slowly woven into the story, which builds suspense and highlights the theme that people should be careful what they wish for.  

The Grimmelings will have wide appeal since the middle-grade fantasy focuses on family, the kelpie’s supernatural powers, and dealing with the death of a loved one. Rachael King begins each chapter with a definition of one or more words to reinforce the importance of words and show her appreciation of the natural world. For example, “glumfie: moody, grumpy,” and “yirdit: muddy from the earth.” Many readers may be unfamiliar with the book’s vocabulary, which includes cacophonous, malevolent, maelstrom, bairn, and swithering. However, readers should be able to decipher the words’ meanings through the provided definitions and context clues. 

By reading The Grimmelings, readers will learn about Scottish and Irish kelpie folklore. Readers will connect with Ella, who wishes she had a friend to spend time with. While readers will have a more difficult time connecting with Ella’s grandmother, her grandmother is a well-developed character who sacrifices herself to end the curse. The Grimmelings is a suspenseful adventure filled with magic, horses, and plenty of twists and turns that will captivate readers. 

Sexual Content  

• When Ella’s grandmother was young, she dated a boy. After a date, “they kissed.” Later, Ella’s grandmother discovered that the boy was a kelpie in disguise. 

Violence  

• Ella’s grandfather died after he took his boat out to sea. “Ella’s granddad’s dinghy was found dancing on the lake during a Nor’wester, with nobody inside. A week went by before he washed up on the shore.” Later, Ella “had a sudden certainty that her grandfather’s drowning had not been an accident. That some malevolent force, some thing, had come up under his boat and tipped him out, held him under, and drowned him.” Ella discovers that a kelpie killed him. 
• While on a horse ride, Ella sees a dead sheep. “Its head had been removed and blood crisscrossed its body.” The kelpie had killed the sheep. 
• While reading a book, Ella discovers the kelpies live in rivers and lakes in Scottland. The kelpie “is a water sprite that takes the form of a beautiful horse on land and lures children onto its back, where they become stuck fast. The children are taken into the lake and drowned. Some say they are eaten, with only their livers washing up on the shore.”  
• Ella’s grandma tells her about the witch trials. “They dropped them in the loch to see if they’d float. If they did, and they didn’t drown, that proved they were witches and they burned them at the stake. And if they did drown? They were innocent. But dead.” 
• A kelpie in disguise tells a boy, Dominic, to ride Ella’s horse, Magpie. “Magpie reared up, snapping the twine her lead rope was tethered to. Dominic leaned forward and grabbed her mane while his friends whooped, agitating Magpie even more. . . He fell off the back of her, hitting a water trough on his way down with a resounding thud.” Dominic has a broken arm but is otherwise uninjured. 
• When the kelpie, disguised as a horse, tries to tempt Ella onto its back, a black magpie dive-bombs the horse. The magpie’s “beak made contact with the horse’s ears. It was soon joined by another, and the air around them was filled with squawks. . . The horse reared up onto its hind legs and then attacked. It opened its jaw wide . . . It lunged at the birds, grabbing one and crunching, before tossing aside its lifeless body. . .  [the horse] went for them, and each time succeeded in ripping another bird out of the air and throwing its mangled body to where Ella sat, cowering now.” The birds knocked Ella out of her trance.
  
• After Ella’s grandmother refused to run off with the boy, who was a kelpie in disguise, the kelpie grabbed Ella’s grandmother, and “she was stuck like glue to him. She grabbed. . . a set of old horse brasses once worn by working Clydesdales . . . and struck him across the face. . .” After Ella’s grandmother escaped, she left the country to start a new life. 
• When Ella calls the kelpie a monster, “his voice changed, low and gurgling, like bubbling mud. His face took on a sallow look, yellow and green.” The kelpie threatens to “take the things that matter…Then, Magpie stretched out her neck and sank her teeth into his arm.”  
• When the kelpie takes Ella’s sister, magpies attack. One of the birds dies as “the kelpie spat the magpie out of its mouth, and it landed, bloody, on the ground.” 
• The kelpie puts a spell on several children, who jump on his back. One man tries to stop the kelpie, but the kelpie “kicked out with a massive hind leg. Its hoof caught the man in the chest and he went flying. . .” Eventually, the Kelpie returns the children unharmed. 

Drugs and Alcohol  

• After Ella’s grandmother’s family disappears, she goes into the house and finds dinner cooking and a half-drunk beer on the table. 

Language  

• Ella’s horse bites Gus. Afterward, he says, “That little devil bit me.” 
• A group of boys are going horseback riding. The guide tells Ella, “Let’s grab the helmets for these idiots and get going.” 
• “Holy crivvens,” a Scottish dialect exclamation of surprise, is used once. 
• “Oh my God” and “oh God” are used as an exclamation several times. 
• When Ella’s mom sees the kelpie for the first time, she asks, “What the devil is that?” 

• A boy calls Ella a stupid girl. 
• Ella calls the kelpie a coward. 
• When a horse follows the kelpie into the lake and dies, Ella’s mom says, “What the hell?” 

Supernatural 

• A boy tells Ella, “My dad says you’re a house of witches, and you can’t pay your rent.” Ella replies, “You’re cursed, Josh Underhill. Better watch out!” That day, Josh mysteriously disappears. 
• When Ella’s horse becomes pregnant, the family “joked that a mystery horse had flown in on wings, or that faeries had got to her. An immaculate conception.” 
• A young boy shows up trying to befriend Ella. The boy is a kelpie in disguise. 
• Ella, her sister, and several other people have the same dream about Josh. “His face was pale and stricken, pleading for help. He opened his mouth as if to speak, but instead water poured out in a deluge, down his clothes and onto the floor.” 
• The kelpie disguises himself as a black horse and appears to Ella. When Ella gets close, “her body flooded with light. She felt a force then, pulling her towards the horse’s shoulder. . . she knew that if she just touched it, if she just leaped, she would soon be sitting on top of the world.” 
• A kelpie bewitched Ella’s grandmother twice — “the first was when he said my name, which got me on his hook, and the second time when he asked me to wipe that tear from his cheek. It bound me to him.” The spell was broken when Ella’s grandma saw the kelpie in his horse form.  
• Ella’s grandma planted a rowan tree next to the house “to protect against things that want to harm us.” 

Spiritual Content  

• Josh’s mom shows up at Ella’s house. She tells Ella’s mom, “Nobody’s ever seen you at church on Sunday. . . If you don’t like the men in your life, you just get rid of them!” Josh’s mom thinks that Ella’s family had something to do with Josh’s disappearance.  
• Ella’s mom sees the kelpie walk on water while disguised as a horse. However, she thinks the horse “must have been on a sandbar of some kind underwater. It’s not Jesus, you know! It’s only a horse!” 
• When the kelpie takes Ella’s sister, Ella prays “she wasn’t too late” to save her. 
• After Ella’s grandmother dies, they have a funeral for her in a church on the hill. Ella’s grandmother wasn’t religious in the usual sense, but she had loved that old stone church.