Heroes of the Valley - Jonathan Stroud

If you read any of the Bartimaeus books, be prepared for a whole different kind of story in Heroes of the Valley. It isn't entirely clear from the outset whether this book contains any myth or fantasy, or if it is just a straight up tale of a boy growing up in a small, isolated community.  There are plenty of tall tales in the story - it's just that they deal with person and events in the past. So, as the reader, I'm disinclined to believe them - they sound like the kind of outlandish tales we heard as children - along the lines of John Henry or Paul Bunyan.  The main characters, Aud & Halli don't believe them either, or the stories of the Trows. Still, each chapter begins with one of these legendary tales. The trows, maneating, earth-dwelling monsters, are what keep people confined to the valley.  So, as I read this book, I started to think of M. Night Shyamalan's The Village. Readers familiar with Jonathan Stroud will wonder at the fantastical stories until the very end. And maybe even after that.