Song of the Gargoyle (24 page)

Authors: Zilpha Keatley Snyder

BOOK: Song of the Gargoyle

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Around a tightness in his throat Tymmon said, “Jarn did not tell me that.” He searched his father’s face, seeing the deep and bitter pain, and the courage that had made him able to hide it beneath songs and jests. After a while a new thought came to him and he asked, “Do you believe that Troff—was sent to me?”

And then Komus, who had always said he believed in very little that he had not seen for himself, said simply, “Yes, I think that is true.”

“Sent to me by—by heaven?”

“Perhaps. Perhaps by one who now dwells there.”

“And do you think Troff really talks to me, Father?” Tymmon’s question was hesitant and uncertain, because sometimes he was not sure that he himself believed it.

Komus grinned and called to Troff, who quickly roused himself, trotted across the room, and laid his great ugly head upon Komus’s knee, peering up at him from under his wrinkled brow. And Komus scratched behind the bat-wing ears and said, “I would be a poor fool, indeed, if I did not have the greatest faith in the voice of this enchanted monster.”

Then he handed the flute to Tymmon and, taking up the rebec, strummed a chord and said, “Come. Let us hear that voice again.”

They played and sang together for a long time.

A Biography of Zilpha Keatley Snyder

Zilpha Keatley Snyder (b. 1927) is the three-time Newbery Honor–winning author of classic children’s novels such as
The Egypt Game
,
The Headless Cupid
, and
The Witches of Worm
. Her adventure and fantasy stories are beloved by many generations.

Snyder was born in Lemoore, California, in 1927. Her father, William Keatley, worked for Shell Oil, but as a would-be rancher he and his family always lived on a small farm. Snyder’s parents were both storytellers, and their tales often kept their children entertained during quiet evenings at home.

Snyder began reading and telling stories of her own at an early age. By the time she was four years old she was able to read novels and newspapers intended for adults. When she wasn’t reading, she was making up and embellishing stories. When she was eight, Snyder decided that she would be a writer—a profession in which embellishment and imagination were accepted and rewarded.

Snyder’s adolescent years were made more difficult by her studious country upbringing and by the fact that she had been advanced a grade when she started school. As other girls were going to dances and discovering boys, Snyder retreated into books. The stories transported her from her small room to a larger, remarkable universe.

At Whittier College, Zilpha Keatley Snyder met her future husband, Larry Snyder. After graduation, she began teaching upper-level elementary classes. Snyder taught for nine years, including three years as a master teacher for the University of California, Berkeley. The classroom experience gave Snyder a fresh appreciation of the interests and capabilities of preteens.

As she continued her teaching career, Snyder gained more free time. She began writing at night, after teaching during the day; her husband helped by typing out her manuscripts. After finishing her first novel, she sent it to a publisher. It was accepted on her first try. That book,
Season of Ponies
, was published in 1964.

In 1967, her fourth novel,
The Egypt Game
, won the Newbery Honor for excellence in children’s literature. Snyder went on to win that honor two more times, for her novels
The Headless Cupid
and
The Witches of Worm. The Headless Cupid
introduced the Stanley family, a clan she revisited three more times over her career.

Snyder’s
The Changeling
(1970), in which two young girls invent a fantasy world dominated by trees, became the inspiration for her 1974 fantasy series, the Green Sky Trilogy. Snyder completed that series by writing a computer game sequel called Below the Root. The game went on to earn cult classic status.

Over the almost fifty years of her career, Snyder has written about topics as diverse as time-traveling ghosts, serenading gargoyles, and adoption at the turn of the twentieth century. Today, she lives with her husband in Mill Valley, California. When not writing, Snyder enjoys reading and traveling.

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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

cover design by Mumtaz Mustafa

978-1-4532-7196-4

This edition published in 2012 by Open Road Integrated Media

180 Varick Street

New York, NY 10014

www.openroadmedia.com