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A British children's fantasy from 1968, somewhat in the style of Susan Cooper. Three children, Arf (Arthur), Jonk (Jonquil), and the startlingly normal-nicknamed Bill, have a magical adventure when Jonk finds an ancient gold buckle in the hand of a giant Green Man buried under a hill.
It turns out that an ancient witchy woman is trying to keep an equally ancient warlord from using his army of "leather men" (no, not that kind, they're spidery shriveled guys) to use the buckle to unite a magical belt and wake up the Green Man to take over. She gives the kids the ability to fly with magical backpacks, and a whole lot of the book is them learning to use them and zooming around. That part is a bit reminiscent of Penelope Farmer's The Summer Birds, and it's lovely.
As is often the case with children's fantasies of that era, the villains are evil because we're told they're evil; it's not really clear what they'd actually do if they won. Arf deeply annoyed me because every time magic isn't literally happening in front of him that second, he reverts to believing that he imagined it, even if he spent the whole night flying. That aside, it's a fun book with some lovely, evocative writing, and unlike most children's books of that era with mixed boy/girl casts, it's the girl who gets the Big Boss Battle at the end.
It turns out that an ancient witchy woman is trying to keep an equally ancient warlord from using his army of "leather men" (no, not that kind, they're spidery shriveled guys) to use the buckle to unite a magical belt and wake up the Green Man to take over. She gives the kids the ability to fly with magical backpacks, and a whole lot of the book is them learning to use them and zooming around. That part is a bit reminiscent of Penelope Farmer's The Summer Birds, and it's lovely.
As is often the case with children's fantasies of that era, the villains are evil because we're told they're evil; it's not really clear what they'd actually do if they won. Arf deeply annoyed me because every time magic isn't literally happening in front of him that second, he reverts to believing that he imagined it, even if he spent the whole night flying. That aside, it's a fun book with some lovely, evocative writing, and unlike most children's books of that era with mixed boy/girl casts, it's the girl who gets the Big Boss Battle at the end.
