Shadows of Sherwood

Shadows of Sherwood by Kekla Magoon is the first book in the Robyn Hoodlum trilogy that reimagines the classic Robin Hood legend with a modern, dystopian twist. Published in 2015, the middle-grade novel follows Robyn Loxley, a 12-year-old girl who is forced to flee into dangerous Sherwood Forest after her parents disappear and the corrupt government targets her. Robyn and her rebellious friends fight for justice, but at the end of the novel, Robyn’s mother is still jailed in Governor Ignomus Crown’s dungeon. Robyn’s quest to free her mother, find her father, and end Crown’s tyranny continues in Rebellion of Thieves, the next book in the series.

Critically acclaimed for its contemporary reimagining of the Robin Hood legend, the novel combines adventure, action, and social commentary, exploring themes of The Importance of Teamwork and Solidarity and The Ethics of Resistance Against Oppression. Set in a near future, the novel is a genre-bending narrative, containing elements of dystopian fiction and adventure tales.

Kekla Magoon is the award-winning author of over a dozen novels and non-fiction works for both adult and young readers. Her books often explore themes of identity, race, and social change. Her works include How it Went Down (2014) and The Season of Styx Malone (2018). In 2021, Magoon received the Margaret A. Edwards Award for her lasting contribution to YA literature.

This study guide refers to the Bloomsbury Children’s Books, US 2016 Paperback edition of the novel.

Plot Summary

Twelve-year-old Robyn Loxley's safe, happy world in Nott City is turned upside down when she returns home from an adventure to find her parents missing and ominous blood puddles all over her mansion. The city's governor, Ignomus Crown, has dissolved the parliament and ordered a purge of all leaders critical of his increasingly tyrannical ways. Recalling her father's emergency drill, Robyn retrieves a survival kit from a safe and flees her house. Robyn's father's kit includes a hologram projector and a canvas map marked with symbols and directional arrows. From these clues, Robyn deduces that she must go to Sherwood Forest, the wilderness adjoining Nott City's poorest county, Sherwood. To survive, Robyn must rely on her instincts and the moon lore, the ancient belief system of Nott City that went underground a long time ago.

At Sherwood, Robyn is arrested by the police for loitering and taken to jail, where she meets Laurel, a younger girl who fends for herself in Sherwood. Laurel quickly updates Robyn on the new turn of events in their world: After the dissolution of parliament, the long-simmering Crescent Rebellion in the city is rising against Crown. Sheriff Marissa Mallet, Crown's enforcer, is hunting down all possible rebels, jailing and “disappearing” them from society. Fearing they, too, are meant to be disappeared, Robyn and Laurel escape from prison and follow the directions on the canvas map to reach a tree house in the forest. At the tree house, which is a sanctuary for rebels, they meet Key, a teenage boy hiding from the authorities. Laurel, Robyn, and Key form an alliance.

When Crown shuts down street markets in Sherwood, blocking people's access to food, Robyn and her friends stage a heist on a food depot and distribute their haul to a starving family. Unfortunately, the MPs find the family’s food and arrest them for theft. Not too long after, Robyn breaks the family and other prisoners out of jail.

Following her father's directive to explore the moon lore, Robyn meets an elderly woman, Eveline, who wears her hair in the same style of braid as Robyn. Eveline hints that Robyn may be a child of Light and Shadows, one of the heroes who is born every few generations to lead the rebellion against forces of oppression. By chance, Robyn discovers Nottingham Cathedral, the city's old church that has been boarded up by Crown.

At the cathedral, Roby meets Tucker Branch, a minister who is studying moon lore. Together, Tucker and Robyn unlock the door to a secret moon shrine hidden in the church. The Inscribed message at the shrine suggests that the daughter of Light and Shadows needs to gather the Elements to fight against tyranny. Robyn realizes that the Elements refers to people; specifically, her friends.

Forming new alliances with a hacker named Scarlet and Merryann Crown, the governor's good-hearted niece, Robyn starts committing more heists across the city, stealing food and medicine for people. To make sure others are not blamed for her crimes, Robyn leaves a note declaring her culpability at the scenes of the heist. When Crown gets wind of the fact that the people have started thinking of Robyn as a savior, he directs Mallet to find her immediately. To lure out Robyn, Mallet has T.C. set on fire. However, when Robyn is about to turn herself in, the people of T.C. help her escape, finding inspiration in her heroism. Robyn and her friends get away, but police manage to seize some of Robyn's belongings, including her father's hologram. Since the hologram opens to Robyn's touch, Mallet plans to use it to identify Robyn's DNA code and track her down. Meanwhile, Merryann Crown finds out that Robyn's mother is alive and being held at the dungeon in the governor's mansion. The novel ends here, with Robyn's quest to continue in Rebellion of Thieves and Reign of Outlaws, the next two books of the Robyn Hoodlum trilogy.