Genre: Fantasy

Ender’s Game

Earth has been attacked twice by the Buggers—aliens attempting to colonize Earth’s solar system. The whole world waits with bated breath for the Third Invasion and sends its best and brightest children to Battle School when they are six years old to be trained in strategy and warfare. Eventually, these children will become the pilots, commanders, and soldiers that will save the human race from extinction.

Ender is a governmentally approved Third child in a world with a strict two-child rule. He was allowed to be born in the hopes that he will be a genius like his two older siblings, but with the correct temperament for Battle School. The experiment succeeds, but Ender doesn’t want to go to Battle School. He doesn’t want to hurt anyone. He especially doesn’t want to leave behind his beloved sister Valentine, though he will not miss his psychopathic brother Peter. But Colonel Graff tells Ender that the world needs him, and Ender believes him.

What follows is Ender’s journey through Battle School, where his brilliance generates both respect and hatred from the other children. As the children study how to fight, Ender finds himself at the center of an immense web of manipulations, all designed to turn him into the Commander that Earth needs to defend itself. It doesn’t matter that Ender doesn’t want to kill anyone; it’s what he is good at and will become great at with the right push. And push him, they do.

Ender’s Game is a masterpiece, which is why it is required reading at many high schools. There is heavy content that is inappropriate for younger and sensitive readers: profanity and name-calling are used often, there are bouts of violence (including attempted murder), and there is a thematic question of whether cruel, immoral means are justified by an end that benefits humanity.

These masterfully woven questions will keep readers up at night, and readers will relate to Ender and his struggle to define himself. Is he a monster like his brother Peter? Is he a killer like the teachers want him to be? It is Ender’s emotional turmoil of self-loathing, loneliness, and despair that will haunt readers long after they read the last page—more than the aliens, the fights, and even the theological questions. Ender’s Game will leave readers desperately wishing that Ender’s life had not been so hard. Readers will forget that Ender is just an ink-and-paper boy from a story, and not the son, brother, or friend that they have fondly come to know him as.

Sexual Content

  • When Valentine says she has an oral exam at school, her brother says it could be worse. “It could be an anal exam.”
  • Dink says, “Hey, look! Salamander’s getting babies now! Look at this! He could walk between my legs without touching my balls!”
  • When Valentine is offered a weekly column in a newspaper, she says, “I can’t do a weekly column…I don’t even have a monthly period yet.” Later in the same argument, Peter asks her, “Are you sure you’re not having a period, little woman?”
  • When Peter is also asked to write a column, he says, “Not bad for two kids who’ve only got about eight pubic hairs between them.”
  • After a bully makes fun of another boy’s butt, “Look how he shimmies his butt when he walks,” the other boys start calling the bully, “Buttwatcher.”
  • One of the commanders “had programmed his desk to display and animate a bigger-than-lifesize picture of male genitals, which waggled back and forth as Rose held the desk on his naked lap.”
  • Ender jokingly calls his friend, “you circumcised dog.”
  • When the Buggers procreate, “each male in turn penetrated the larval queen, shuddered in ecstasy, and died, dropping to the tunnel floor and shriveling.”

Violence

  • Ender is attacked, and he beats the main bully thoroughly, to make sure no one is ever bold enough to attack him again. “Ender walked to Stilson’s supine body and kicked him again, viciously, in the ribs. Stilson groaned and rolled away from him. Ender walked around him and kicked him again, in the crotch.”
  • Ender’s older brother threatens to kill him. Peter “knelt on Ender, his knee pressing into Ender’s belly just below the breastbone. He put more and more of his weight on Ender. It became hard to breathe. ‘I could kill you like this,’ Peter whispered. ‘Just press and press until you’re dead. And I could say that I didn’t know it would hurt you, that we were just playing, and they’d believe me, and everything would be fine. And you’d be dead.’”
  • A boy hits Ender repeatedly when they are on a space shuttle. “Just as the next blow was coming, Ender reached up with both hands, snatched the boy by the wrist, and then pulled down on the arm, hard…The boy sailed through the air, bouncing against the ceiling, then down against another boy in his seat, then out into the aisle, his arms flailing until he screamed as his body slammed into the bulkhead at the front of the compartment, his left arm twisted under him.”
  • Two teachers mention a prior student’s suicide in passing. “Everybody looks like Pinual at one time or another. But he’s the only one who killed himself.”
  • Ender plays a computer game that sometimes has gruesome deaths. One time, “the Giant cut him open along the spine, deboned him like a fish, and began to eat while his arms and legs quivered.” Another time, “He jumped at the Giant’s face, clambered up his lip and nose, and began to dig in the Giant’s eye. The stuff came away like cottage cheese, and as the Giant screamed, Ender’s figure burrowed into the eye.”
  • A commander slaps one of his soldiers. “Madrid stepped closer to the girl and slapped her across the face with the back of his hand. It made little sound, for only his fingernails had hit her. But there were bright red marks, four of them, on her cheek, and little pricks of blood marked where the tips of his fingernails had struck.”
  • Ender’s commander hits him after Ender disobeys orders. “Suddenly Bonzo swung at him, caught his jaw with a vicious open-handed slap. It knocked Ender sideways, into his bunk, and he almost fell. Then Bonzo slugged him, hard, in the stomach. Ender dropped to his knees.”
  • Ender and his friends are attacked by an older group of guys in the Battle Room. “Someone caught Ender by the foot. The tight grip gave Ender some leverage; he was able to stamp firmly on the other boy’s ear and shoulder, making him cry out and let go. . . the boy had hung on too well; his ear was torn and scattering blood in the air, and Ender was drifting even more slowly. I’m doing it again, thought Ender. I’m hurting people again, just to save myself. Why don’t they leave me alone, so I don’t have to hurt them?”
  • Ender gets picked on several times during Battle School. “So Ender got knocked down in the shower that morning. One of Bernard’s boys pretended to trip over him and managed to plant a knee in his belly.”
  • Valentine, “had seen a squirrel half-skinned, spiked by its little hands and feet with twigs pushed into the dirt. She pictured Peter trapping it, staking it, then carefully parting and peeling back the skin without breaking into the abdomen, watching the muscles twist and ripple.”
  • Bonzo tries to kill Ender. “Bonzo’s tight, hard ribs came against Ender’s face, and his hands slapped against his back, trying to grip him…instead of kicking, he lunged upward off the floor, with a powerful lunge of the soldier bounding from the wall, and jammed his head into Bonzo’s face. Ender whirled in time to see Bonzo stagger backward, his nose bleeding.” The fight takes place over two pages.
  • “Late one night [Ender] woke up in pain…He saw that in his sleep he had been gnawing on his own fist. The blood was still flowing smoothly.”

Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • “Bastard” is used often. Peter tells his brother, “No, no, I don’t want your help. I can do it on my own, you little bastard.” Another time Colonel Graff says, “We promise gingerbread, but we eat the little bastards alive.”
  • “Hell,” “asshole,” and “ass” are used several times. Valentine says her older brother is “The biggest asshole.” Graff tells a teacher, “your ass is covered, go to hell.”
  • “Damn” is used a few times. Graff tells Ender, “I told them you were the best. Now you damn well better be.” Another time a student says, “I be the best soldier I can, and any commander worth a damn, he take me.”
  • Another student tells Ender to “kiss butts if you’ve got to.”
  • Variants of “piss” are used several times. One boy in the Game Room tells Ender, “Beating you…would be as easy as pissing in the shower.”
  • At Battle School, the boys’ slang includes frequent name calling. For example, Graff says, “Scumbrains, that’s what we’ve got in this launch. Pinheaded little morons.” Other variants include pisshead, fartface, etc.
  • “Son of a bitch” is used once. “I’m a pilot, you son of a bitch, and you got no right to lock me up on a rock!”
  • “There was a myth that Jewish generals didn’t lose wars.” The commander of Rat Army is Jewish, so it, “was often called the Kike Force, half in praise, half in parody of Mazer Rackham’s Strike Force.”

Supernatural

  • An alien race, called “Buggers,” invaded Earth’s solar system twice before. All of Earth is preparing for the Third Invasion.

Spiritual Content

  • When talking about how humans won the last war, Graff says, “Call it fate, call it God, call it damnfool luck, we had Mazer Rackham.”
  • Graff says if Ender is not the one, “then in my opinion God is a bugger. You can quote me on that.”
  • After a battle, Ender saw that some people “knelt or lay prostrate, and Ender knew they were caught up in prayer.”
  • An admiral says piloting is “a god. And a religion. Even those of us who command by ansible know the majesty of flight among the stars.”
  • Speaker for the Dead is a book that became “a religion among many religions” on Earth. “But for those who traveled the great cave of space and lived their lives in the hive queen’s tunnels and harvested the hive queen’s fields, it was the only religion.”

by Morgan Lynn

 

 

The Host

Earth has been invaded and successfully conquered by tiny, worm-like aliens called “souls,” who invade the bodies of humans and take over their minds. The invasion is over, the souls have won, and only a handful of wild humans are left in hiding.

When one of those humans is captured, Wanderer is inserted into its body to report to the other souls what life this wild human led, and to discover if there were other wild humans with her. But when Wanderer enters Melanie’s body, Wanderer is shocked to find Melanie still conscious and resisting. This is Wanderer’s body now; Melanie should have faded away.

Melanie’s presence frightens and shames Wanderer, who feels weak at not being able to control her host body. But then Melanie’s memories start to seep in, memories of a human brother and a lover who are still in hiding, memories of what it means to be human. Wanderer starts to love these people who she has never met and longs for them. When the opportunity arises, will Wanderer destroy Melanie and sell out her family to the other souls? Or will Wanderer turn her back on her fellow souls and attempt to find Melanie’s family to taste just what makes humanity so special?

Many readers will want to pick up The Host because Stephenie Myers is the author. Even though The Host is considered an adult novel and has more advanced vocabulary than the Twilight series, the content level is similar to Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight series. One area that may be controversial is that Melanie has a romantic relationship with a slightly older man; during The Host Melanie is 21 and her love interest is 29. However, there are many flashbacks to when Melanie is 17 and first met Jared, who was then 26. When she wants to be intimate, Jared initially says no because he does not want to take advantage of her. They do get together at some point after that, though their ages are not specified.

The Host is an emotional story that explores the bounds of love and examines what it means to be human. Wanderer is a kind, gentle soul who hates her host at first, but then grows to love her; Melanie is a spirited and sometimes violent girl who has learned to survive in the world the souls have created. Both Melanie and Wanderer have to set aside their preconceived ideas about the other species and find common ground. There is an array of characters who are all richly drawn and satisfyingly complex. The story contains enough danger to constantly keep readers on their toes. For readers looking for love, adventure, and an emotionally wrenching story, The Host is sure to delight.

Sexual Content

  • Jared kisses Melanie. “He kisses me again, and this time I feel it. His lips are softer than his hands, and hot, even in the hot desert night.”
  • When Melanie says she wants to share a room with Jared, he says that’s a bad idea because when he was stocking his place, “birth control was pretty much the last thing on my mind.”
  • Jared kisses Wanderer to test her reaction. “I think he just meant to touch his lips to mine, to be soft, but things changed when our skin met. His mouth was abruptly hard and rough, his hands trapped my face to his while his lips moved mine in urgent, unfamiliar patterns.”
  • The first time Ian kisses Wanderer, he “ducked in and touched his lips to my forehead.” The second time, “His lips were soft and warm. He pressed them lightly to mine, and then brushed them back and forth across my mouth. . . He caught my lower lip between his and pulled on it gently.”
  • After a soccer game, two friends are playing around. “She laughed, tugging away, but Wes reeled her in and planted a solid kiss on her laughing mouth.”
  • Wanderer and Ian kiss twice more, both described in similar fashion. When they kissed, Wanderer “shoved my mouth against his, gripping his neck tighter with my arms…Remembering how his mouth had moved with mine before, I tried to mimic that movement now. His lips opened with mine, and I felt an odd thrill of triumph at my success. I caught his lower lip between my teeth and heard a low, wild sound break free from his throat in surprise.”
  • When Wanderer and Jared kiss, “My hands knotted in his hair, pulling him to me as if there were any possible way for us to be closer. My legs wrapped around his waist, the wall giving me the leverage I needed. His tongue twisted with mine, and there was no part of my mind that was not invaded by the insane desire that possessed me. . . My hands fisted around the fabric of Jared’s T-shirt, yanking it up.”
  • When they agree to move into the same room, Wanderer thinks, “Ian and I would be together, partners in the truest sense.”

Violence

  • When Melanie is robbing a house, a man grabs her. “‘One sound and you die,’ he threatens gruffly. I am shocked to feel a thin, sharp edge pushing into the skin under my jaw.”
  • When Jared first kisses Melanie, “his lips come hard on mine…I jerk my knee up in a sharp thrust.”
  • Wanderer reads the headlines of an old human newspaper. There are stories including “Man Burns Three-Year-Old Daughter to Death” and “beneath this was the face of a man wanted for the murders of his wife and two children.”
  • When Jared first sees Wanderer, “his arm shot out and the back of his hand smashed into the side of my face. The blow was so hard that my feet left the ground before my head slammed into the rock floor. I heard the rest of my body hit the floor with dull thumps, but I didn’t feel it. My eyes rolled back in my head.”
  • A group of humans try to kill Wanderer. The struggle takes place over two pages. “His hands wrapped around my throat, choking off my air. I clawed at his hands with my useless, stubby nails. He gripped me tighter, dragging my feet off the floor.”
  • Jamie hits Jared. “There was a sharp crack, and someone gasped…Jared had one hand over his nose, and something dark was oozing down over his lips. His eyes were wide with surprise.”
  • Kyle tries to kill Wanderer; the fight is described over eight pages. “His hand locked on the back of my neck, forcing my face into the shallow stream…He fought to push me back into the stream, but I wriggled and wedged myself under him so that this own weight was working against his goal…He jumped over the smaller stream with a bound and carried me toward the closest sinkhole. The steam from the hot spring washed my face. He was going to throw me into the dark, hot hole and let the boiling water pull me into the ground as it burned me.”
  • Wanderer discovers that the humans tried to cut out one of the alien souls. “Brighter than these were other silver things. Shimmering segments of silver stretched in twisted, tortured pieces across the table…tiny silver strands plucked and naked and scattered…splatters of silver liquid smeared on the table, the blankets, the walls.”
  • Wanderer asks Jared to hit her face with a rock, to cover a scar. “It made a squishing sound and a thud—that was the first thing I noticed—and then the shock of the blow wore off, and I felt it, too.”
  • To fake an injury, Wanderer deliberately stabs herself with a knife. “I jammed the knife into my arm. The headrest muffled my scream, but it was still loud. The knife fell from my hand—jerking sickeningly out from the muscle—and then clunked against the floor.”
  • Ian punches Jared. “Ian’s fist struck Jared so fast that I missed the blow—I just felt the lurch in his body and saw Jared reel back into the dark hall.”
  • Melanie attacks Jared when she thinks he killed Wanderer. “He’s got my right hand, so instead of punching, I throw out a vicious backhand with my left, catching his face across the cheekbone. The force of the blow stings in the bones of my hand.”

Drugs and Alcohol

  • None.

Language

  • “Hell” is used a few times. When Wanderer remembers her host body’s death, she was, “sucked into the hell that was the last minute of her life.” Another time Jeb says, “How the hell would I know?”
  • “Damn” is used several times. One time Jared says, “Damn it, Jeb! We agreed not to—”?”

Supernatural

  • Earth has been overrun with aliens called souls, which take over the body of their human hosts. “The soul shone in the brilliant lights of the operating room, brighter than the reflective silver instrument in his hand. Like a living ribbon, she twisted and rippled…her thin, feathery attachments, nearly a thousand of them, billowed softly like pale silver hair.”

Spiritual Content

  • When Melanie asks Wanderer if souls believe in an afterlife, Wanderer says, “There’s a reason we call it the final death…We have so many lives. Anything more would be…too much to expect…When I die here, that will be the end.”
  • When a friend dies, Wanderer says at his funeral, “I hope your fairytales are true. I hope you find your Gladdie.”
  • A soul commits suicide. “Then his face went blank, and his body slumped, unresisting, to the cot. Two trails of blood flowed from his nostrils.”

The Shark Whisperer

Tristan Hunt is known for being clumsy, which is why his parents aren’t surprised when he falls into a pool of sharks. After his strange experience in the shark tank, Tristan is invited to an ocean-themed summer camp in the Florida Keys. But this camp has a secret. All of the campers have a special talent when it comes to the ocean.

While at camp, the ocean animals ask for help figuring out who is finning sharks in the Bahamas. When several of the campers go to investigate, they disappear. With the help of sharks, dolphins, a quick escape-artist octopus, and other sea creatures, can the campers stop the shark-finning, reef-blasting billionaire?

Tristan Hunt and the Sea Guardians takes the reader on an underwater adventure, where sea creatures of all types come to life. As the campers learn about sea life, they discover an array of sea creatures from a toothless shark in a rehabilitation center to chatty seagulls. Several scenes are from a shark’s point of view, which adds interest. Tristian meets several sharks with a Bahamian accent, and one humorous shark laughs at Tristan’s fear of sharks and tells him that humans taste awful. The interaction between humans and sea life, and the variety of sea creatures with their different personalities make the story a lot of fun.

As Tristan and the other campers learn about their skills, their different reactions are interesting. At first, Tristan is a clumsy, insecure boy. However, as the story progresses, Tristan becomes more confident, is able to speak his mind, lead others, and can also laugh at his clumsiness on land. The story connects sea creatures’ behavior to the campers’ behavior and shows the importance of leadership, cooperation, and helping each other.

As a marine scientist, Prager beautifully describes the ocean sea creatures and their habitat as well as highlights the importance of taking care of the ocean. Although the ocean descriptions accurately explain the ocean, some of the long descriptions and advanced vocabulary may make the story difficult for some readers. Tristan Hunt and the Sea Guardians mixes adventure, action, and ocean life to create an exciting, educational fantasy that readers will enjoy. Readers will want to jump into this series, which continues in The Shark Rider.

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • Someone is finning sharks. Tristan explained, “Finning, that’s totally disgusting. It’s when people slice off a shark’s fins and then throw the dying shark back into the water.”
  • The bad guy’s crew kidnapped some of the campers. The kidnapping was not described.
  • The sea life reported that “men from the ship killed and finned ten lemon, two bull, and five bull sharks. Took the fins and dumped the sharks. A few pilot whales were injured by the blasts; hurt their ears and they’re having trouble navigating.”
  • In order to free the kidnapped campers, the sea life attacks the bad guy’s yacht. A group of birds “dove like kamikazes toward the men on the upper deck at the back of the ship.” Then a group of birds poops on the men. When the kids try to escape, “the security man also tried to pull out his gun, but the birds had aimed well. The firearm kept slipping in his grasp due to a heavy coating of poop and slime.” The kids jump off the yacht, and the men tried to start the Jet Skis’ engines. “At that very moment, however, another team was preparing to go on the attack. The flying fish swam fast to build up speed. They leapt out of the water, stretched their fins out wide, and used their tails as rudders. The eight-inch, silvery fish glided low, swift, and silently over the water’s surface. . . They hit their target in quick successions, pummeling one of the men in the face and chest.” The attack happens over four pages.
  • After the campers are rescued, and with the help of humans, the sea creatures put explosives on the ship. Tristan “noticed that the ship was leaning. Its right side was lower in the water than the left. . . Men started yelling. Black smoke began billowing out from inside the ship.” The yacht sinks, but no one is injured.
  • When one of the bad guy’s men finds a group of campers, they trick him into driving his Jet Ski into an ooid sand wave. “The water over the top of the ooid sand wave was too shallow for the heavy Jet Ski. It hit the sand and stopped with a tremendous jolt. Somehow the man was able to stay aboard and upright on his machine. He reached for his gun. Just as he was about to swing his weapon around, a heavyweight rammed him from behind. The man flew off the Jet Ski as if he’d been hit by a dump truck.”

Drugs and Alcohol

  • As the kids were flying over an island, “Coach Fred came on the intercom and told them about a secret navy base there that specialized in capturing drug smugglers.” One of the teens asks if the Navy shoots the drug smugglers. Coach Fred replied, “No, they do not shoot the drugs smugglers. . . well only if necessary.”

Language

  • Darn is used twice.
  • Heck is used once. When a man sees a strange shadow in the ocean, he asks, “What the heck was that?”
  • Oh my God is used twice. Tristan’s father said, “Oh for God’s sake.”
  • Hugh’s family has a chef. He said, “Thank God we do. My mom can’t cook at all.”
  • Someone calls Tristan an idiot.
  • A shark calls Tristan a “lame brain.”
  • A man calls a group of people dorks.
  • frickin’ is used once.

Supernatural

  • All of the kids at camp have different abilities. Ms. Sanchez explains why. “Well, as you and the others know, life on Earth is believed to have started in the ocean. Over hundreds of millions of years, animals evolved and adapted to life in the sea—like dolphins. . . Humans have always lived on land. But since life began in the sea, our very earliest ancestors came from the ocean. In some people there are still traces of the genes that allowed those organisms to adapt to and live in the sea. At the right age and with the right help, these genes can sort of, well, be turned on, at least for a few years.”
  • When the kids at camp drink a pink-colored water, their hands and feet change. After drinking the pink-colored water, “there was a thin sheet of skin between their toes, like the webbing on a duck’s feet.” The effects of the water are temporary.
  • Some of the students can communicate with sea animals. Others have “excellent mucus deployment skills.”
  • When an octopus touches Hugh, “the creature turned brown with blue polka dots. Hugh smiled. Then an even more shocking thing happened. Hugh’s hand also turned brown with blue polka dots.” Hugh discovers he has the ability to camouflage and communicate with animals. Ms. Sanchez explains, “I bet in seawater you’ll be an excellent mimic. Your skin will have the ability to change color and maybe even texture when you’re in the ocean.”
  • Sam discovers that she can echolocate. Sam was swimming in a lagoon, and “after she made the clicking noises she had more than a feeling that the sharks were coming. It was like she had a full-screen 3D image of them in her head.”
  • When the students are in the water, their wounds heal quickly.

Spiritual Content

  • None

Deep Blue

Serafina has always known that she will eventually rule her nation, located deep in the Mediterranean Sea. She needs to prepare for her Dokimí, when she will be introduced to the Mer people as their future ruler and will announce her future husband. But rather than worrying about her Dokimí, Serafina is obsessed with the strange dreams of sea witches that have been haunting her.

Everything changes when, during her Dokimí, a poisoned assassin’s arrow strikes her mother, and her father is killed. Now, Serafina must embark on a quest to find the assassin’s master and prevent a war between the Mer nations. Along the way, Seraphina will meet five other mermaids; will the six mermaids be able to discover who is behind the conspiracy that threatens the Mer world?

Many readers will pick up Deep Blue because of the beautiful cover image of a mermaid; however, the story is not as intriguing as the cover photo. The mermaid world has a complicated history and a confusing number of characters (both gods, humans, and mermaids). Much of the mermaid world is mundanely similar to the human world and there are overly long descriptions of clothing. Another negative aspect of the story is the main character Serafina, as her character is inconsistent. In some scenes, she is fearful and runs from danger. Other times Serafina shows bravery, but that bravery makes her make stupid choices that endanger others. Serafina never takes the advice of more knowledgeable mermaids, even when she should.

Throughout the story, six mermaids must meet and make it to the sea witches’ lair. The six mermaids eventually find each other; however, readers will question how the mermaids come together at exactly the right landmarks that lead to the witches’ lair. The action slows down considerably as the characters talk about the history of the mermaids and much of the dialogue feels stilted.

In the end, Deep Blue is a typical story about a beautiful princess who loses everything including her parents. She takes a difficult journey, which teaches her some important lessons. Serafina must learn not to believe other people’s cruel remarks and that everyone makes mistakes. She also must overcome fear. Vrăja tells her, “You fear you will fail at the very thing you were born for. And your fear torments you, so you try to swim away from it. Instead of shunning your fear, you must let it speak and listen carefully to what it’s trying to tell you. It will give you good counsel.”

Even though the story has some positive messages, Deep Blue will leave readers slightly confused, disappointed, and wondering why anyone would want the whiny Serafina to rule their realm. Readers looking for a good mermaid book may want to try Atlantia by Ally Condie instead.

Sexual Content

  • Serafina overhears a conversation about her fiancé’s girlfriends.
  • When a mean girl tells Serafina that her fiancé has a girlfriend, Serafina says she isn’t upset because “I just hope she’s done a good job with him. Taught him a few dance strokes or how to send a proper love conch. Someone has to. Merboys are like hippokamps, don’t you think? No fun until they’re broken in.”
  • Serafina thinks back to when her fiancé kissed her. “It was lovely, that kiss. Slow and sweet.”
  • She finds her fiancé and one of his friends “lying on their backs. Mahdi had a purple scarf tied around his head and a smudged lipstick kisses on his cheek. . .” Someone had drawn a lipstick smiley face on Mahdi’s friend.
  • A merboy says that “Merl’s so hot, she melts my face off.”
  • Three human girls continue to fight over a boy, even though the girls are dead. Someone explains, “Must be something irresistible about rivers to sad girls. They just have to throw themselves into them. I’ve seen a lot of river ghosts.”

Violence

  • A man grabs an eel and “bit into it. The creature writhed in agony. Its blood dripped down his chin. He swallowed the eel. . .”
  • In the past “Kalumnus had tried to assassinate Merrow and rule in her stead. He’d been captured and beheaded, and his family banished.”
  • During a ceremony, men attack. An arrow “came hurling through the water and lodged in her mother’s chest. . . Her mother’s chest was heaving; the arrow was moving with every breath she took. It had shattered her breastplate and pierced her left side. Isabella touched her fingers to her wound. They came away crimson. . . The assassin, barely visible in the dark waters, fired. The arrow buried itself in Bastian’s chest. He was dead by the time his body hit the seafloor.” Both of Serafina’s parents are killed as well as many merfolk.
  • As the invaders try to capture Serafina, they blow up a wall. Serafina “looked up, still dazed, just in time to see a large chunk of the stateroom’s east wall come crashing down. Courtiers screamed as they rushed to get out of the way. Some didn’t make it and were crushed by falling stones. Others were engulfed by flames ignited by lava pouring from broken heating pipes buried inside the wall.” Serafina is able to run away.
  • The invaders use a dragon in their attack. “The dragon bashed her head against the palace wall and another large chunk of it fell in . . . the dragon knocked more of the wall down. The creature pulled her head out of the hole she’d made, and dozens of soldiers, all clad in black, swam inside. The leader pointed toward the throne . . . Arrows came through the water . . . Isabella spotted a dagger next to the corpse of a fallen Janiҫari. She conjured a vortex in the water, and sent the knife hurtling at the invaders’ leader. The dagger hit home, knocking him to the floor.” The Janiҫari “gurgled, drowning in his own blood.”
  • When Serafina and her friend were hiding in a cave, a merman appeared demanding “rent for staying in his cave. He signaled to the morays. They swam to the mermaids and began divesting them of their jewelry. . . One of the eels had dropped the necklace he’d taken from Serafina and had thrust his head down the front of her gown to retrieve it. Sera, lashing her tail furiously, caught another eel with her fins, and sent him spinning into a wall. He hit the stone hard and fell to the cave’s floor, motionless. The other eels were on her immediately, snarling. Tiberius sank his teeth into her tail fin. Sera screamed again, and tried to pull away.” The mermaids are sold to soldiers.
  • Soldiers capture Serafina and her friend. “They shackled Serafina’s wrists with iron cuffs and blindfolded her. They forced an iron gag into her mouth and wrapped a net around her. Then, one of the soldiers slung her over the back of his hippokamp and rode fast. . . The ride was agony. The net’s filament bit into Sera’s skin. The gag, with its bitter taste of metal, made her retch.” When they arrive at their destination, Serafina and her friend are put in prison with another mermaid. “Her face was bruised. She held her manacled hands close to her chest. Blood swirled above them, pulsing from the stump of bone where her left thumb used to be.”
  • While in prison, Serafina and her friends are immobilized with a metal collar that is padlocked to the wall. Serafina sees her friend, who was “chained to another pole only a few feet away. Her eye was swollen and bruised. Her skin was a sickly gray-blue.”
  • A merman frees Serafina and her friends from prison. During the break-out, “the guard’s throat had been cut. He was arching his back, flailing his tail. His eyes, pleading and desperate, found Sera’s. She gasped and backed away.”
  • While Serafina and her friend are hiding out, men appear and try to capture them. A man points a spear gun at Serafina. “Luckily, the duca lunged at the man and grabbed his arm. The gun went off. Trailing a thin nylon line, the spear hit a wall and fell into the water. . . the duca threw a punch at him, but he deflected it, grabbed the duca, and hurled him against a wall. The duca crashed to the floor, motionless.” Two mako sharks are mortally wounded. A merman who was helping Serafina was shot with a spear gun. The speargun hit “with a sickening thunk and exited his body under his collarbone. His attacker yanked on the line attached to the spear, pulling the cruel, barbed head into his flesh.” Later Serafina learns that several were killed during the fight. The scene takes place over five pages.
  • When Serafina enters the mirror realm, Rorrim tries to keep her there. When Serafina tries to leave, “He grabbed her hair and yanked her back. The pain was electric. She screamed and tried to pull away, but he only tightened his grip.” Serafina cuts off her hair and is able to escape.
  • Serafina’s friend, Ling, gets caught in a fishing net. When she is caught, Seraphina sees Ling’s “eyes wild with terror, mouth open in a scream.” Ling’s friends are able to free her.
  • As Serafina and her friends are traveling, they see “on the seabed below, maybe twenty feet off the ship’s port side, were bodies. At least a dozen of them. . . They were dead. Some were lying on their backs, others facedown. Some had the kind of open, gaping wounds that were made by a spear gun. Others had bruises on their faces.”
  • When Serafina sat against a tree, “she was jerked against the tree roots. She heard a snarl and smelled a gut-wrenching stench. She screamed and tried to pull away, but was pulled back.” Serafina’s friend took out her blade. “The blade came down to the right of Sera’s head. An instant later, she was free. . . and a human arm was lying on the ground. She whirled around to see what had attacked her. It was a terragogg. Or what was left of him. He was dead . . .” Someone had used forbidden magic to “reanimate the human dead and make them do their bidding.”
  • Three river witches are in a circle, casting a spell to keep a monster in his cage. “Blood streaked the lips of one, and dripped from the nose of another. Bruises mottled the face of a third. Sera could see that the magic cost them dearly. . .the monster grabbed the witch by her throat. She screamed in pain as its nails dug into her flesh. It jerked her forward, breaking her grip on the incanti at either side of her. The waterfire went out.” Serafina and her friends try to help the witches. “With a warrior’s roar, she (Astrid) swung her sword at the monster, the muscles in her strong arms rippling. The blade came down on one of its outstretched arms and cut off a hand. The monster shrieked in pain and fled into the depths of its prison.” The scene takes place over five pages.

Drugs and Alcohol

  • Serafina’s fiance, Mahdi, is rumored to be a party boy.

Language

  • “Good gods” and “Oh gods” are used as an exclamation several times throughout the book.
  • The villain and his soldiers are often referred to as sea scum.

Supernatural

  • Some mermaids have magic. “Magic depended on so many things—the depth of one’s gift, experience, dedication, the position of the moon, the rhythm of the tides, the proximity of whales. It didn’t settle until one was fully grown.”
  • Magic is used throughout the story. One spell is a vello spell. The mermaid said, “Waters blue, Hear me cast, Rise behind us, Make us fast!”
  • The story has several human ghost that live inside mirrors. “Ghosts lived inside it—vitrina—souls of beautiful, vain humans who’d spent too much time gazing into it. The mirror had captured them. Their bodies had withered and died, but their spirits lived on, trapped behind the glass forever.”
  • A witch uses a mirror to beckon Serafina. When Serafina looks at the mirror, she raised her hand slowly, as if in a trance.” Someone else enters the mirror, and the witch leaves.
  • Serafina and other mermaids can use songspells. “Canta mirus was a demanding type of magic that called for a powerful voice and a great deal of ability. . . Mirus casters could bind light, wind, water, and sound. The best could embellish existing songspells or create new ones.”
  • A mermaid can cast a bloodsong which shows someone else their memories. When a mermaid causes herself to bleed, “the crimson swirled through the water like smoke in the air, then coalesced into images. As it did, Serafina saw the bloodsong—the memories that lived in her teacher’s heart.”
  • Several times throughout the story mermaids use transparensea pearls. “The songspell of invisibility used shadow and light and was notoriously difficult to cast. Spellbinders—highly skilled artisans—knew how to insert the spell into pearls that a mermaid could carry with her and deploy in an instant.”
  • In order to help Serafina and her friend escape, a mermaid uses magic. “She pulled wind down into the water and spiraled giant vortexes one after another, until she’d raised a wall of spinning typhoons. She was no longer a mere mermaid. She was a storm system, a category five. And she was bearing down on the enemy.”
  • In order to escape, Serafina and her friend go through a mirror, where thousands of ghosts live. Many of the ghosts in the mirror realm are lifeless because they, “craved admiration. They become listless without it.” While in the mirror realm, Serafina meets Rorrim, who feeds off of dankling. Rorrim explains, “It’s a little piece of fear. They burrow into backbones. A few of them will infest a nice strong spine, and then as the bones weaken, more come. . . There’s nothing, absolutely nothing as tasty as fear. Doubt is delectable, of course. Insecurities, anxieties—all delicious, but fear? Oh, fear is exquisite!”
  • One mermaid was omnivoxa and could speak and understand any language.
  • A river witch uses a bloodsong to show Atlantis being destroyed. “People ran shrieking through the streets of Elysia, the capital, as the ground trembled and buildings fell around them. Bodies were everywhere. Smoke and ash filled the air. Lava flowed down a flight of stone steps. A child, too small to walk, sat at the bottom of them, screaming in terror, her mother dead beside her.” The story is retold over four pages.
  • The sea witches teach Serafina and her companions magic. One mermaid cast a spell trying to make waterfire. “Whirl around me/Like a gyre, /This I ask you, /Ancient fire. /Hot blue flames, /Throw your heat, /Cause my enemy/To retreat.”
  • One of the mermaids has the power of prophecy and sees visions of the future.
  • Serafina and her companions perform darksong. “Canta malus was said to have been a poisonous gift to the mer from Morsa, in mockery of Neria’s gifts. The invocation of the malus spells could get the caster imprisoned: the clepio spells, used for stealing; a habeo, which took control of another’s mind or body; the nocérus, used to cause harm; and the nex songspell which was used to kill.” A bloodbind is forever and if a mer breaks it, they die. The mermaids perform the bloodbind. The girls cut themselves and share their blood. “As the last notes of the songspell rose, the blood of all five mermaids spiraled together into a crimson helix and wrapped itself around their hands. Like the sea pulling the tide back to itself, their flesh summoned the blood’s return. It came, flowing back through the waters, back through the wounds. The slashed edges of their palms closed and healed.” The spell is described over four pages.
  • A witch tells the mermaids about silverfish who live in the mirror realm. “Tell it where you need to go, and it will take you.”

Spiritual Content

  • A witch, who is helping cast a spell says, “Gods help me!” As the witches are attempting to cast a spell, a witch says, “Come, devil, come. . . you’re near. . . I feel you.”
  • Serafina must face Alitheia. She is told, “The gods themselves made her. Bellogrim, the smith, forged her, and Neria breathed life into her. . . When Merrow was old and close to death, she wanted to make sure only her descendants ruled Miromara. So she asked the goddess of the sea, Neria, and Bellogrim, the god of fire, to forge a creature of bronze.” The creature must taste a meril’s blood to determine if she is a descendant of Merrow.
  • Serafina “prayed to the gods” that her magic would work.
  • The history of mermaids is told. When Atlantis was falling into the ocean, Merrow “saved the Atlanteans by calling them into the water and beseeching Neria to help them. As the dying island sank beneath the waves, the goddess transformed its terrified people and gave them sea magic. They fought her at first, struggling to keep their heads above water, to breathe air, screaming as their legs knit together and their flesh sprouted fins. As the sea pulled them under, they tried to breath water. It was agony. Some could do it. Others could not, and the waves carried their bodies away.”
  • After Serafina is questioned, the villain tells her, “Gods help you if you’ve lied to me.”
  • When Serafina and her friends are freed from prison, Serafina says, “Oh, thank gods!”
  • Serafina was told a story about the sea goddess, Neria, who “fell in love with Cassio, god of the skies. She made a plan to steal away from her palace and meet him on the horizon. Trykel found out and was jealous. He went to Fragor, the storm god, and asked him to fill the sky with clouds so he could hide in them, pretend to be Cassio, and steal a kiss. . .” The story is not completed.

The Secret Mountain

Jack and his friends are hanging out in Tale Town’s magical tree when they see a surprising sight. Mayor Fitch’s guards lock a troll child in the stocks. Everyone knows that trolls are trouble, but how could it be right to hold a child prisoner? Jack and his friends, the Little Legends, decide to rescue the young troll and help her get home. With Mayor Fitch’s guards looking for them, is there any way to get the troll home?

Children will enjoy the silly magic, the non-frightening suspense, and the fairy tale characters that appear in The Secret Mountain. Cute black-and-white illustrations appear on almost every page, and help bring the diverse cast of characters to life. As Jack and his friends try to help the troll return to her home, the reader will learn that outward appearance isn’t what makes a person good or evil. Ella explains, “You get good people and bad people. Why would it be any different with trolls?”

Readers can understand the story without reading the previous books; however, reading the stories in order is suggested because The Secret Mountain often refers to events that happened in previous books. Younger readers will need help tackling the story because some of the vocabulary is difficult and the pages are heavy in text. The Secret Mountain has a large cast of characters—a talking chicken, Jack, Red, Rapunzel, Hansel, and Gretel are just a few. As the plot unfolds the story jumps from place to place, which may confuse readers.

The Secret Mountain drops readers into a fairy tale world where magic is real. The story highlights the importance of working together to do what is right. The Secret Mountain will delight confident readers looking for a fun story with cute illustrations.

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • Mayor Finch’s guards put a troll child in the stocks.
  • When a girl was jumping on a pogo stick, a guard “swiped the pogo stick, bending it in two.”
  • Mayor Finch sets fire to a troll village. The event is not described.
  • A group was riding in a hot air balloon when people below began shooting arrows at them. “More and more arrows ripped into the balloon.” When the group crashes, they discover that a troll turned the mountain into marshmallows so no one would get hurt.
  • Hurrilan swings a magical crystal-topped staff. “. . . Then the crystal started glowing with a bright red light, leaving shimmering trails that twisted around each other, becoming almost solid. The light trails snaked through the air toward Rufaro and Adeola, twisting them around like a slow-motion lasso that bound them completely and dragged them back toward the glowing crystal.” The light shrinks the kids, and “the light dimmed and was sucked back into the crystal, taking Rufaro and Anansi’s mom with it.” The scene takes place over three pages.

Drugs and Alcohol

  • Lily the Sea Witch gives the group magic capsules that make them fall asleep.

Language

  • Someone told a small green monkey to move his “furry green butt.”
  • A chicken says, “that Mayor Finch is a stupid, sausage-faced—”

Supernatural

  • Tale Town has a magical tree. “If you ran your finger along the branch, the story would happen inside your head.” The tree has a spell of protection, which “means that the only way to trim off a story is using the Sacred Shiny Story-Snipping Shears.”
  • Cole uses fairy magic, but it “never really worked properly.” He accidentally turned his friends into hamsters.
  • Lily the Sea Witch uses her magic to put the town’s guards to sleep. Lily, “pulled the lid off a colored jar and flung the contents of it all over the guards, who immediately crumbled and fell fast asleep.
  • Lily the Sea Witch gives a group some, “magic capsules containing the concentrated essence of it wasn’t like this when I was young! This powerful spell was made up of the complaints of older people, who were always complaining that It wasn’t like this when I was young! It was one of the most boring things you could ever hear and would make everyone fall asleep immediately.
  • Someone meets a boy’s parents, who are trolls. Someone explains that “Anansi’s mom and uncle have been cursed by the troll warlock Hurrilan. The spell used to make them look like trolls all the time, but now it’s only in the daylight.”
  • Anansi can talk to spiders, and he asks them to make a hammock for him to sleep in.
  • “When soldiers appear, Hurrilan uses magic to turn them into goats.

Spiritual Content

  • None

Daughters of Steel

Halan was a powerless princess. Now, she’s the queen of the Magi Kingdom, a blazing desert land where magic rules. Without any power, Halan wonders if she can be the queen her people need.

Nalah was a poor girl, from a kingdom that feared magic. Now she’s the Queen’s Sword, standing beside Halan at the helm of the kingdom. The more Nalah’s uncontrolled powers grow, the more dangerous they become. Will Nalah’s fear of her magic’s power cause her to hurt the people she cares about?

Nalah goes on a quest to discover how to control her powers. While she is gone, a friend from her world travels through the Transcendent Mirror asking for help. Halan decides to go through the mirror and help the Thaumas of New Hadar. As a dark threat draws closer, can Nalah and Halan reunite to save both worlds?

The second installment of the Sisters of Glass series continues the saga of Nalah and Halan; both girls need to learn valuable truths that will help them become leaders. Halan wants to be a good queen—one that will “stand up for people, do the hard things when it needs to be done, even if it means putting her own life on the line.” When Halan travels to New Hadar, she highlights the importance of caring for others, no matter their station in life. At one point, she tells her friend Marcus (a market boy), that “Your life and your brother’s and the lives of every single soul being held by the Hokmet are just as valuable as mine. If I were to put my safety above that of others, then I would be a very poor leader indeed.”

Nalah takes her own journey, where she must face several challenges. Throughout her journey, she learns that everything must have balance and that she has to prove her own worth to herself. Even though Nalah learns important lessons during her travels, even younger readers may have a hard time believing some of the unrealistic events. For example, even though no one has ever returned from a journey into the desert, Nalan is able to cross the desert in two days, albeit she gets injured. Nalah is also able to perform advanced magic, with no new instruction; she even successfully performs a healing magic spell that her mother could not control.

Through the sisters’ experiences, readers will explore the qualities of a good leader, as well as think about the nature of good and evil. At one point, Halan thinks about those who care for their own safety and questions, “Or was witnessing evil and doing nothing about it just as bad as doing it yourself?”

 Daughters of Steel has a complicated plot, graphic violence, and a ritual that requires collecting people’s blood. The story jumps back and forth between Nalah’s point of view and Halan’s point of view, which makes the story confusing at times. Although Sisters of Steel gives readers thought-provoking questions to consider, readers who are only interested in reading about sisters in a magical world may want to read The Unicorn Quest, which has less violence.

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • When a beam falls on a man, Nalah uses magic to try to help him. Nalah felt “for the splinters in the wood’s core, she concentrated on them and willed them to open like a wound. The beam split apart under her hands. . . The man trapped underneath let out a pained gasp as the beam was dragged off his lower torso. Blood was flowing freely from the legs of his trousers, where a jagged spur of bone was poking through his skin.”
  • Nalah accidently sets the building on fire. Workers begin throwing water on the fire, but it doesn’t help. “The workers backed up as fast as they could as the whole structure started to topple. It crashed to the ground in a shower of sparks, and there was a scream as part of it flew off and caught a young woman square in the chest. She dropped and rolled, and people ran to help her.
  • When Marcus jumps through the Transcendent Mirror, a soldier follows him. The soldier “lunged, swinging his heavy stick, and Halan had to push Marcus aside as she dived out of the way. Marcus toppled to the ground, quickly scooting away until his back rammed up against a bookshelf. . .” Halan throws a bottle of sleepsand at the soldier, and “he recoiled, staggering, and then crashing to the floor. Halan felt some satisfaction seeing that he landed face down in his own spittle.”
  • When Soren and Nalah begin a journey, a group of people surround them. Someone grabs Soren, and he “was on his knees, his arms twisted behind his back by one of the men, a knife held to his throat by another.” Nalah wonders, “Could she take on twelve armed adults—some possibly wielding Thauma weapons?” Nalah doesn’t fight, but gives herself up. A man makes her put on gloves that will not allow Thauma magic to “transmute skin.”
  • A group of people captures Soren and Nalah, and as the two are being transported a man hits Soren. “The man punched him hard in the stomach and he doubled over, gasping for breath as he was pulled through another door, which slammed with a clang.” Nalah is taken to another room somewhere. “Nalah had not given up, but she was helpless to stop them from dragging her over to a wide wooden table in the center of the workshop. They thrust her against it hard enough that it pushed all the air from her lungs. . . one of the women had leaned over and seized her wrist, pulling it across a table to rest palm up across a shallow metal bowl. The woman snapped a shackle over her arm and another over her other wrist, so that she was pinned down, the edge of the table digging into her stomach.” The capture of Soren and Nalah takes place over ten pages.
  • In order to escape an enforcer, “Marcus lobbed an old kettle across the room, striking the Enforcer on the shoulder. The man tripped over a box and landed on his back on the floor, cursing with words she’d [Halan had] never heard before. . .” Halan and Marcus go through a trap door. Then “the Enforcer burst out from the trapdoor, and by the time he saw the pole coming toward him it was too late. Powered by panic, the blow hit home, and the man dropped like a stone and sprawled there, unconscious.”
  • Trying to get Marcus and Halan to come out of a house, Enforcers throw a smoke bomb into the house. “the smoke tasted foul and bitter, and it snaked into her lungs and began to choke her.” They are able to escape.
  • Nalah is captured and tied up, and her wrist is cut so that her blood will flow into a bowl. She feels pain, “and then there was numbness, and then there was pain again. Nalah’s arm throbbed and her vision swam. Her knees gave out, but the manacles held her in place, still stretched over the table. Her shoulders and her calves ached from the strain.” Nalah tried to focus on other things, but “the stinging agony of the cut on her wrist always brought her back.
  • After some of Nalah’s blood is drained, two men come into the room. One man “was dragging Soren behind him. His hands and legs were bound, and there was a bloom of purple across one side of his face where he’d been struck, but at least he had the right number of eyes.”
  • In order to escape, Soren “grabbed the metal ruler from the bench and held it out in front of him, twirling it in his fingers like a scimitar. . . The man lunged at Soren, clashing his sword so hard against Soren’s ruler that sparks flew from the impact. . . With a flourish of her arm, Nalah sent the glowing chain whipping across the attacker’s back. His clothing sizzled at its touch, and the man cried out in pain. Nalah pulled the chain back in and whipped it again, driving the man into the corner of the room like a lion tamer.” Nalah and Soren get out of the room, but encounter more people. “The nobles rushed at them. Soren parried one blow and got a hard swipe across the shoulders of one of the women, drawing blood. But then he had to duck and roll under the table to avoid the swords of the other three nobles. Nalah spotted a box full of threads and ran over to scoop them up in her hands. Twisting some of the threads around her fingers, she concentrated on imbuing them with magical energy and speed. When the woman vaulted over a table to swing her sword at Soren, Nalah flung out her hands toward her. The threads shot out like arrows, winding around the woman’s wrist and waist, binding her. . . One of the nobles had got under his guard and stuck a short knife right into his belly. Soren choked and doubled up, the ruler dropping from his hand with a clang.” The capture, blood gathering, and escape takes place over two chapters.
  • As part of a test, Nalah must face a wolf. “The flickering light picked out the hundreds of tiny blades that formed its coat, two serrated metal ears, and a jaw that disguised rows of metal teeth. . . Nalah yelped and dived aside as it punted, snapping at the air where her throat had been. . . The creature’s snarling head twisted in midair, and its teeth closed on Nalah’s leg. She screamed. The pain spiked up through her body as the wolf’s fangs sank into her flesh. Half blind with agony, Nalah threw back her head and channeled her breath into a burst of heat that struck the wolf right in the mouth. It yelped and let her go, recoiling, pawing at its face.”
  • Enforcers try to capture Nalah and Marcus. Marcus “struck, stabbing the tip of the knife into the soft exposed flesh where the Enforcer’s show met the bottom of his still trouser.” Marcus uses a magic knife, so the Enforcer cannot speak and call for help. Later, they find other Enforcers, and “Marcus lunged wildly at one of the Enforcers with his knife and then tried to bolt around them, but the other one was too quick and gave him a stunning blow across the back of the neck with his truncheon. He sprawled on the floor and the knife skittered out of his hand. . .” Marcus is captured.
  • A man grabs someone with a glove “made of deep green iridescent fabric, like a beetle’s shell. As soon as he touched the bare skin, the man’s hand spasmed and turned ashen gray, the flesh seeming to sag and shrink away. . . the hand, which continued to wither with each passing second.”
  • Tam grabs Halan and “seized her wrist, twisting it up behind her back. She gasped as he pressed his knife to her chest. . . The pain was worse than what Halan had been prepared for. She let out a sobbing yell as Tam dragged his knife across her arm, holding it out over the crystal bowl. Blood cascaded down the blade and dripped into the black pool in long, viscous strings.” Tam attempts to kill Halan, but before he does Tam is killed when “his back hit the altar with a sickening crunch, and he wheeled away and struck the wall that was peppered with the shards of his crystal bowl. Tam hung there for a second and then slid down the wall and lay still.”
  • A man throws sand into the air. “Most of the soldiers managed to duck and shield their faces, but a few were too slow as the sand melted and twisted into tiny shards of glass and flew at them. Two men fell to the ground, gasping and clutching at their faces, blood beginning to seep from a thousand tiny wounds.” The man “reached out to grasp the branch of a nearby tree. Suddenly, all the trees in the garden began to whip their branches around wildly. Two of the soldiers were knocked on their backs, and three more standing too close let out choking screams as the branches wrapped around them, hugging them tight to the trunks of the trees.”
  • A man grabs Halan’s ankle with a glove. “Something seized Halan’s ankle, feeling like a hundred biting insects were all stinging her skin at once. She screamed and tried to pull away, but the grip tightened. Halan’s vision swam and she reeled, losing her balance and hitting the ground hard. She held up a hand and watched as her skin turned gray and began to wither before her eyes.”

Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • In New Hader, several people refer to those who can do magic as “Thauma scum.”
  • “God” is used as an exclamation once. Someone says, “God, I was so worried. . .”
  • A man tells Nalah, “You’re too young, too stupid to have these powers, you see? They should never have come to you—they’re wasted on you. You’re not even from this world! You’re a street rat, a guttersnipe. . .”
  • Several times, someone calls a person an “idiot.”
  • When Marcus encounters a dark figure, he asks, “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

Supernatural

  • Thaumas have magical powers that allow them to make things with one element—glass, metal, tapestry, wood, etc.
  • In the story, each world has a tawam, which is another version of themselves. When Halan goes to the other world she recognizes Ester. “This girl was New Hadar’s version of Ester—her tawam! Not everybody from the two worlds had a tawam—Ester’s ancestors must have survived the quakes, met and had children, and their children met the same people and had children, and on down the generations, for hundreds of years.”
  • Halan and Nalah have the ability to “communicate through their thoughts, a benefit of their special bond. They’d quickly gotten used to using it, sending each other messages even when they were in the same room.”
  • When Halan finds an orb and looks into it, she sees a vision. Halan wonders, “Is this another vision of the future?”
  • When Nalah looks into an orb, she sees a vision. During the vision, “the eye focused on Nalah, and she felt as if in one glance it had seen her whole life, every moment she’d lived and every moment still to come. You are lost, Child of the Clan, said a deafening voice that seemed to come from the mountains themselves. Take the journey and be found.” Because of the vision, Nalah takes a journey to a shrine.
  • Nalah is given an Aqua Needle. “Nalah was fascinated when she first saw the hollow wooden stake, its end sharpened to a point. Apparently all you needed to do was follow its magnetic pull to a point in the desert and push it into the sand. Within moments, water hidden within the earth would begin flowing from its mouth.”
  • The Transcendent Mirror allows people to travel to the different worlds.
  • A man uses Nalah’s blood to make a blood cloak. An ancient text said, “that the blood of one of these Thaumas, when joined with certain other materials, can make a substance so powerful, it becomes like an extension of the Thauma themselves. It draws power from the Thauma and imbues that power into whoever is wearing it—Fifth Clan or not.”
  • When Nalah is in shackles, Soren puts a silver coin into her mouth. Nalah uses her magic to turn the coin into a key, which allows her to remove the shackles.
  • Halan finds a hold-all bag, which looks normal but holds as many items as one can put into the bag.
  • Nalah is told she must go to a shrine and “find you what the Seer has to tell you. Your destiny be the destiny of all of us, Starchild, and it must not be delayed. Read I this in the stars. . .”
  • Nalah must use her magic to pass a series of tests. When she gets to the shrine, the walls begin to burn, and Nalah must ignore them to focus on opening a box to get a key.
  • Halan is given a magic knife that “will render anyone it cuts unable to speak for at least an hour.” Halan’s traveling companion, Marcus, is given a staff that “strikes with twice the force you put into it and will bear almost any weight without bending.”
  • Tam performs a ceremony. Halan sees him “standing at an altar, his eyes closed and his mouth moving constantly as he muttered incantations. Placed on the altar was a large crystal bowl filled with a liquid so dark it was almost black, and giving off an eerie ghost light that hurt Halan’s eyes to look at. . .” Unconscious prisoners surround the altar, and their wrists had been cut. Tam “dipped the other hand into the bowl and began to write in the air, symbols that seemed to burn on the backs of Halan’s eyelids when she blinked, written with the blood of the innocent Thauma.” Tam is attempting to draw power through using the Thauma’s blood. The ritual is described over two pages.
  • When Tam performs a ritual, New Hadar begins to tear. The ritual is going to cause the end of New Hadar. Halan and Nalah are able to stop the ritual, which creates a permanent portal between the worlds.

Spiritual Content

  • Halan enters a secret meeting. “Thank you, Halan thought, sending out a message to the spirit of Nalah’s father. It looks like your luck even works for me.”
  • Halan meets a prophet, Cyrus, who has been dead for hundreds of years. Cyrus tells her, “I am not alive, Nalah. . . Not quite—not the way you would understand it. I exist here. I have existed here since before I was born, and I will exist here for a long time after you are dead. In my short time as a mortal being, I was a Fifth Clan Thauma named Cyrus, also called the Prophet, the Blind Seer. I was blind, then, although it might be more true to say my eyes were simply . . . elsewhere.” Cyrus tells Nalah, “Since you picked up my prophecy orb, I have not left your side.”
  • Halan prays for a miracle.

Lady Knight

The Chamber of the Ordeal has given Kel a task that could win the war and save countless lives. Kill the Nothing Man, who entraps the souls of children to fuel metal killing machines. But the Chamber is unable to give her any details, leaving her wondering how she can find the Nothing Man. Is there a way to fulfill her mission without breaking her oaths and abandoning her duty? Or will Kel have to sacrifice everything—including her life?

Unfortunately, Kel quickly finds herself trapped in Tortall when Lord Wyldon assigns her to run a refugee camp. Refugees are pouring in due to the war, and Kel worries they may be a target as the Nothing Man needs children to use for his machines. Kel cannot abandon the refugees, so she sets aside the Ordeal’s mission and works to make New Haven the best fort it can be. With constant attacks by Scanran forces, things are never quiet for long. And soon, an unimaginable tragedy will set Kel on a course that will end up with her going head to head against the Nothing Man, his magic, and his army.

Many readers will relate to Kel because she faces her troubles with determination, understanding that her actions have consequences. Kel’s journey was not easy. Throughout her journey, she shows physical and mental strength, but also the strength of conviction. Kel understands the importance of duty and is willing to go to any length to protect others.

Knight is a roller coaster from beginning to end. The story has a slightly darker tone than the previous books because it focuses on war and describes war’s causalities. Kel has become the knight she always wanted to be. She is kind, and brave, and noble—a great example for girls and boys everywhere. The plot will keep readers engaged, as will the wide cast of new characters. From Scanrans to refugees, Tamora Pierce once again has managed to create a wide cast of diverse characters that are as well-developed as they are lovable. The only disappointing thing about Knight is that it is the last book in Kel’s wonderful story.

Sexual Content

  • Kel thinks about how, “She and Cleon had kissed, had yearned for time and privacy in which to become lovers. He’d wanted to marry her, though she was not sure that she wanted marriage.”
  • A man is shocked that a woman is in charge. He calls Kel, “’a shameless girl, a chit who’s no better than she ought to be!’ The insult to Kel, the claim that she was nearly a prostitute, brought the soldiers growling to their feet.”

Violence

  • Kel’s fort is attacked several times. “Three raiders still galloped toward the eastern wall. One of them went down, an arrow in his throat. . . . Numair’s spell had done its work: flames rose from the ground at the enemy’s rear. There was no sign of either shaman in that large blaze. He’d burned them out of existence.”
  • Killing devices attack the fort. “A man went down, gutted by a dagger-hand. A soldier flew off the walkway to the ground twenty feet below . . . One refugee wasn’t quick enough; the device cut him lengthwise from behind as he turned to flee.”
  • When her men don’t want to bury the dead after a battle, she says, “Then, sir, you shall plow the section where the bodies are, two days hence . . . The feel of a plow as it hits rotting flesh and bone must be . . . interesting.”
  • Two men fight over a woman. “Two young men, both larger than Kel, punched, kicked, and rolled on the ground, trying to rip one another apart.”
  • Kel goes to Haven after reports of a battle. She finds, “a few dead sword- or axe-cut animals . . . All had bloody muzzles and, in the case of the cats, bloody claws . . . [there] was a maroon-and-brown pile. There Oluf’s cold, dead face, his eyes wide, seemed to stare right at her. He lay on a stack of dead men, all in army maroon.”
  • Kel finds several dead bodies as she tracks a group of kidnapped refugees. “Though animals had fed on the dead woman, the Stormwings hadn’t touched her. The earth had protected her face. Gently Kel brushed the mud away. Through the dirt, bloat, and darkening of dead flesh, Kel recognized Hildurra.” Later, “A woman lay crumpled at the roadside. Kel thought her skirts were dull maroon until she saw that they were stained with blood.”
  • At a castle, “corpses hung from the walls in iron cages. Some of the bodies were beginning to fall apart. At least two looked fairly recent.”
  • Kel and her troops storm a castle. The fight takes place over a chapter. “The door opened and a man stuck his head out. Kel cut him down. Another man stumbled across his body to die at Connac’s hand. Inside, Kel heard men hammering at the blocked doors and shutters. Here came another soldier, half armed over a nightshirt. Kel rammed her glaive into his unprotected side while Connac chopped at the man’s neck.”
  • When Stenmun attacks her, Kel “hooked her leg around one of his, and jerked, a leg sweep from her studies in hand-to-hand-combat . . . He went down on his back . . . Kel didn’t wait for an invitation. She brought the iron-shod butt of the glaive down with all her strength, striking him right between the eyes, breaking through his skull. That probably finished him, but to be sure, she cut his throat.”
  • Kel finds Blayce. “She caught Blayce at the knees, cutting the muscles behind them. He dropped, turning visible to her unaided eyes, his control over his invisibility spell gone. Kel seized her glaive two-handed and yanked the blade toward her, neatly beheading the Gallan.”

Drugs and Alcohol

  • Tobe thinks Kel was drunk when she bought him. “I don’t care if you was drunk or mad or takin’ poppy or rainbow dream or laugh powder, you bought my bond and signed your name and paid money for me and you can’t return me.”
  • When offered wine or cider, Kel chooses cider. She thinks about how, “recently she had found that wine or liquor gave her ferocious, nauseous headaches. She was happy to give up spirits; she hadn’t liked the loose, careless feeling they gave her.”
  • A woman had been “smuggling poppy” to the children that Blayce chose to kill.

Language

  • Phrases such as Goddess bless and By the gods are used frequently as a part of Tortallian culture.
  • An angry cook calls a dog, “you thankless rat turd.”
  • An innkeeper calls an orphan a “whore’s brat.”

Supernatural

  • Kel lives in Tortall, a world filled with monsters and magic. The monsters include griffins, centaurs, and more. Some are good, some are not. Kel even has a basilisk for a teacher.
  • Several people at court are mages. They have the Gift, which can be used for light, to heal, and more. For example, “Daine, known as the Wildmage, shared a magical bond with animals . . . For three years her eagles, hawks, owls, pigeons, and geese had carried tidings south while the land slept.”
  • Neal puts a spell on an abusive man. Neal says the spell won’t hurt the man, “as long as you don’t hit anyone. When you do, well, you’ll feel the blow as if you struck yourself.”
  • A little girl, “is a seer . . . She prophesied that you would come and save us from the Gallan.”

Spiritual Content

  • Tortall has many gods. They are named differently but are similar to the Greek gods. For example, Mithros is the god of the sun, and there is a god of death. The gods are mentioned often in the Tortallian culture but are not an integral part of the plot.
  • An evil mage captures the spirits of dead children and uses them to fuel killing machines, metal monsters with knife fingers.
  • At one point, Neal asks why the gods don’t stop the killing machines. “All the legends say they loathe necromancy. It interferes with the balance between the mortal realm and that of the dead.”
  • When stopping at an old battleground, Kel “added a soft Yamani prayer . . . It seemed to work with most ghosts. She’d never seen any in the Yamani Islands.”

The Wild Robot Escapes

After being repaired, Roz is sent to Hilltop Farm, which is unlike the remote island that Roz considers home. Roz still speaks the language of the animals and is able to make new friends on the farm. She talks to the cows and the farmer’s children and works to help keep the farm in check as wolves and natural disasters assault the small homestead.

Even though Mr. Shareef and his children consider Roz part of the family, Roz still misses home. Eventually, Roz begins to yearn for the friends and family she left behind. Flocks of geese begin migrating and stopping on the farm, reminding her of her son Brightbill. Roz can’t escape due to a tracker installed in her body, but she works with the farmer’s children to research the tracker and remove it.

After Roz escapes for the second time, recovery robots quickly capture her and bring her to her creator. She is destroyed to appease the public, but Roz’s creator gives her a new body with more features than she had before. They travel to the island Roz came from and reunite her with her old friends and Brightbill. Throughout Roz’s journey, she wonders why she isn’t like other robots. Roz questions, “Is being different the same as being defective?”

Like the previous book in the series, The Wild Robot Escapes is a story of a robot trying to fit in with a new crowd. Roz encounters a number of friendly characters while she tries to get back to the home she knows, which shows that we’re never completely on our own. With the help of friends, Roz is able to overcome many obstacles.

Roz’s destruction, reconstruction, and return to her island also show the darker sides of society. Even though she eventually returns to her family, she has to fake her own death to please the world that thinks she is a rogue robot. The Wild Robot Escapes teaches the importance of friends and family, while also considering the realities of death and society. It’s a heartwarming book with unnervingly realistic undertones about judgment and fear.

The story refers to characters and events from the first book in the series, so readers should read The Wild Robot first. Many readers will be able to relate to Roz, who is a hard-working and compassionate robot who questions her purpose in life. The Wild Robot Escapes is an intriguing, illustrated story that is both entertaining and educational.

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • Roz recounts the time from the first book when she, “tumbled off a cliff . . . killed two geese and smashed four of their eggs.”
  • Roz finds the carcass of, “a dear [that] had recently been killed and eaten.”
  • Mr. Shareef, “hand[s] Roz a rifle.” Roz uses it to intimidate wolves, but she doesn’t fire it.
  • Wolves “slash her [Roz’s] chest,” and Annabelle then “land[s] a hard kick” on the wolves.
  • Mr. Shareef says, “sometimes farmers have to kill animals.” Mr. Shareef tells Roz, “I order you to kill those wolves.”
  • During a storm, a tool “hit the back of her [Roz’s] head.”
  • A wolf named Shadow says, “You can eat all the animals you like. . . after we kill the robot.”
  • During a hailstorm, “a stone hit Brightbill’s shoulder, and he fell to the ground.”
  • While hunters are looking for prey, “a gunshot echoed throughout the mountains.”
  • A ram “smashed right into the robot.”
  • When Roz is melted down, “a blazing beam of light filled the picture, and the robot parts turned orange.”

Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • Roz, “slipped on cow dung.”
  • Similar to the first book, many animals mistake Roz for a “monster” or “creature” before they get to know her.
  • Annabelle calls a group of wolves “brutes.”

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • A character says a prayer before they eat. “Thank you, God, for this yummy food.”
  • Shadow and Barb say that Roz was, “towering above them, looking like a demon.”

by Dylan Chilcoat

 

Secret in the Stone

Claire and her older sister, Sophie, never imagined that climbing a ladder in a fireplace would take them to another world—Arden. Arden used to be a land of unicorns and magic. Now, the unicorns and the great guardians of magic have disappeared. The sisters, the only descendants of Arden’s royal family, can bring all the unicorns back.

Claire doesn’t think Sophie should be the heir—Sophie is the brave one, but Sophie lacks magic. The two sisters travel to Stonehaven, a Gemmer school on Starscrape Mountain, where Sophie hopes to learn how to be Arden’s heir and harness the magic of stone. The fate of Arden relies on Sophie learning how to wake the legendary moontears and bring back the unicorns. As Claire and Sophie make the treacherous trek to bring back the unicorns, they realize that some allies are traitors in disguise. With danger lurking around every corner, can the sisters unlock the secret of the unicorns before it’s too late?

Secret in the Stone focuses on the complicated sibling relationship between Claire and Sophie. Claire feels inferior to Sophie, who always acts brave, confident, and decisive. Like many siblings, Claire and Sophie do not have a calm relationship, instead they argue and fight. At one point Claire tells Sophie, “I hate you!” However, as soon as Sophie needs her, Claire jumps into danger to help her. The story highlights the girls’ love for each other and their willingness to help each other at all costs.

The story weaves in background information from The Unicorn Quest, which helps the reader keep track of the important events that happened in the previous book. Like the previous book, Secret in the Stone builds an intriguing world that revolves around warring guild villages. The story has a vast cast of characters, many of which only appear for a brief period; this may confuse some readers.

Several themes run throughout the book. Readers will learn the dangers of making assumptions about other people as well as the importance of forgiving each other. Another theme the book reinforces is the importance of thinking about how your actions affect others. Often, even when the characters have good intentions, their actions lead to negative consequences. The story also shows that when evil exists, people must face it. When Claire meets a neutral village, she tells the leader, “It’s not fair—you can’t just keep your eyes shut when the world around you is falling apart! You have to do something! What kind of a safe place is this if you’re ignoring the real problems Arden is facing?”

Secret in the Stone is an engaging story that will keep readers turning the pages. However, the book is a stepping stone to book three. The story doesn’t resolve any of the conflicts but rather sets the story up for the next book. Readers who expect a book about unicorns will be disappointed because unicorns never appear in the story. Secret in the Stone will delight readers who want to enter a world of magic; however, readers must read The Unicorn Quest first. Readers who enjoy Secret in Stone should add the Sisters of Glass series to their reading list because the book also takes readers to a captivating world where magic exists.

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • A stone knight comes to life. When it comes close, Sophie swings a “dagger at the stone leg, sparks flying as the blade scraped rock. The knight paused, as though confused about the tiny thing near its feet making such a big fuss. He gave the nuisance a kick, and the dagger spun through the air as Sophie fell on her side.” Before the girls could run, the knight paused, and “slowly the knight unfolded from his crouched position, and rose to a towering height.” The knight then bows to Claire and Sophie.
  • A scholar tells Claire a story about a father who sacrificed his daughter. The king “took his ailing daughter to a glade, and slipped a dagger into his only daughter’s heart. And as her royal red blood spilled onto the grass, a unicorn did finally appear. . . He placed his horn to the daughter’s heart.” The girl then transformed into a unicorn.
  • Claire and Sophie discover that Anvil and Aquila Malchain have been frozen into statues. “Anvil’s ax was raised above his head, looking as if he were about to chop something, his face snarled in an expression of rage. Aquila’s grandmother’s bun had unraveled, and her gray hair streamed out behind her as if she had been running, one hand gripping a knife while the other was clenched into a fist.” A Gemmer had turned their blood to rubies.
  • When a wraith attacks Claire, “a thick darkness flooded all of Claire’s senses—her ears, eyes, nose, mouth. The cold wasn’t just the cold of a winter’s night or the cold of a northern ocean. It was the cold that belonged to those alien, barren stretches of space. It was a cold that wrapped. That suffocated. That dragged her under.” Sophie helps Claire when she “just poked it [the wraith] and it ran, like shadows before light.”
  • Wraiths attack Claire and Sophie. Before they are hurt, riders appear. “Ropes of light crisscrossed across the night sky then snagged on the monsters, pushing them back, pulling them down. . . Each time a rope hit one, it’d scream and rear back.” The riders take Claire.
  • When Claire is taken to a secret village, a man traps her. The man “snapped his fingers and Claire was swept up into the air. The world swung back and forth as a thick net scooped her up into its valley. Its loose edges wove themselves together quickly, anchoring her to the ceiling above. She was trapped in a rope cage.” Sophie saves Claire.
  • When Claire and Sophie try to leave the hidden city, a tree root captures her. The root “reached for her ankle and wrapped around it. . .” Someone helps Claire escape the root.
  • A girl is found guilty of stealing and is sentenced to death.
  • A water plant “drifts around the lake like an animal. It’s called a Gelatinous Fish.” The Gelatinous Fish grabs Claire. Claire “felt what seemed to be rubbery tentacles, or lake weed, wrapping around her ankle, pulling her back into the deeper waters. . . The pain intensified. Black dots swarmed the edges of her vision. The passageway darkened. . .” Someone uses light to chase the fish away.

Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • None

Supernatural

  • Someone gives Claire and Sophie a Kompass that is “a rare magic known only to the Malchain family that always pointed toward the one person or thing it was forged to find. In this particular case, it was Aquila.”
  • Claire and Sophie find a ladder in a fireplace. When they climb the ladder, they end up in Arden—a world where magic is real.
  • In Arden, there are four guilds of magic. Forgers work with metal, Gemmers work with rocks and gems, Spinners weave magic from thread, and Tillers work with all that grows from the earth. “Our magic, guild magic, only extends to what’s around us. . . The magic doesn’t come from within us, but from the things around us—plants, rocks, thread, metal. All we do is encourage the magic that naturally exists in those things, to make plants grow bigger and faster and stronger, for instance.”
  • In Arden, people are able to use magic, but “the only magic we have isn’t really magic at all. It’s just the ability to see the potential in each block of stone, medallion of metal, loop of thread, or seed. If someone doesn’t have magic, I think it’s just because she hasn’t learned enough about herself yet.”
  • Wraiths are dangerous creatures that kill humans. Claire describes a wraith as “big and dark and cold. It kind of looked like a skeleton wrapped in shadows.”
  • When Claire uses her Gemmer magic, it feels like a “buzz in her bones—a slight tingle that felt like her fingers were going asleep.”
  • A group uses magic to hide an entire village.
  • Sophie uses magic to make a cloak fly. Sophie and several others use cloaks to escape.
  • While trying to help a friend, Claire and her group run into Thorn, a boy they know. As they are traveling, Nett falls because “wrapped around his ankle was the thin end of a whip, its handle clutched in Thorn’s fist. Thorn gave a slight tug to the whip, and the first foot or so of the cord broke off on its own, binding Nett’s ankles together. . . He cracked the whip in Claire’s direction. She yelped; she felt the cord rush by her, coiling into a mini-Thornado above her head before dropping down.” Sophie uses her magic to free her friends and bind Thorn. “The whip had wrapped carefully around Thorn, binding him mummy-like from his feet and ending right below his nose—allowing him to breathe, but not giving him a chance to yell for help.”
  • An old fortress has Mesmerizing Opals. If people look at the light of the opals, “they would become entranced by the stone and would be no better than puppets, their minds numb and unable to think for themselves.”

Spiritual Content

  • None

Squire

It was Kel’s proudest moment when she passed her page examinations and was named a squire. But as months pass without any knight taking her onto their service, Kel worries that no knight will want a girl squire. Will she be stuck as a glorified scribe in the palace forever?

That is not her only worry. Now that she is a squire, the Chamber of the Ordeal weighs heavily on her mind. Every squire must enter the Chamber at the end of their squireship. If they survive, they become a knight. But some have been driven mad by the Chamber. Determined to prove herself unafraid, Kel visits the Chamber several times and places her hand on the outside of the door. And each time, the Chamber sends her horrifying nightmares built from her deepest fears.

But Kel cannot dwell on the Chamber too often, because her wildest dreams come true when Raoul asks her to be his squire. As the Knight Commander of the King’s Own, Raoul is a noble warrior that will take Kel on many adventures—not all of them enjoyable. He is a character that readers will fall in love with, as he is good and noble, but also great fun with a solid sense of humor.

Kel is a strong female character who grows and changes throughout the story. Kel has been able to succeed in a male-dominated world because of her hard work and determination. Kel stands up for other women, admires other women rather than becoming jealous, and her behavior highlights the importance of women supporting each other. Kel has a strong moral code that will encourage readers to also stand up for others.

Although Kel is a strong woman, she also has a supportive family and friends. These relationships give the story more depth and show the importance of having positive relationships. As Kel becomes older and begins to think about romantic relationships, Kel discusses sex with her mother, which helps the reader understand Tortall’s sexual morals. Even though Raoul felt uncomfortable talking about sex with Kel, they have a conversation about how it might affect her career, and he gives her advice and information to help Kel make the decision that is right for her. Although Kel never has a sexual relationship, Kel does obtain birth control. Having a sexual relationship is discussed in a nonjudgmental way that allows Kel to make the best decision for herself.

 Squire does not disappoint, with an exciting plot full of monsters, magic, and fun. Raoul and the men of the King’s Own add well-developed new characters to the mix, while Kel’s page friends still make appearances. Readers will feel as though they are squires as they follow Kel on her jousts and into battle. As Kel explores being in a relationship for the first time, readers will relate to her doubts and awkwardness. With a tantalizing ending that sets up the next book, readers should be sure to have Knight handy, because they will not want to wait to read the final book in the Protector of the Small series.

Sexual Content

  • It’s mentioned in passing that Kel’s maid, “put out her clothes, including a fresh breastband and loincloth, and one of the cloth pads Kel wore during her monthly bleeding.”
  • A centaur offers to buy Kel with three slaves, which are horses he owns, and “two more if she breeds successfully within a year.”
  • When Peachblossom gets in a centaur’s way, the centaur “reared to show the geldings his stallion parts, and hissed.”
  • A woman sees bruises on Keladry’s body and thinks she is being abused. She offers Kel protection. “They’ll get the man who did it . . . Even if it’s a noble. After the rapes last winter, they have a new commander.”
  • “Cleon leaned down and pressed his lips gently to [Kel]’s . . . He turned crimson, and strode down the hall.”
  • Cleon kisses Kel a second time. “He lowered his head just a few inches to press his mouth to hers.”
  • Cleon and Kel start secretly dating, and kiss several times. Once, “Cleon pulled her into a corner invisible to passerby and kissed her again. Then he strode out of the tent. Kel pressed her fingers to lips that throbbed from this new and different use.”
  • Raoul warns that if women are in command, they’ll “take Rider men as lovers, and it’s found out, they encounter trouble. Men who dislike their orders offer to work it out in bed. Jealousies spring up.”
  • Twice, when Kel is challenged to a joust, Cleon says a variation of, “Gods protected me, you’re going to die a virgin.”
  • A man confesses to the court. “Two girls of the Lower City were attacked, beaten. A third was—must I say it?—a third was beaten and raped. I did it.”
  • Cleon and Kel almost get carried away twice, but they are interrupted. “That got her another round of very warm kisses. They had each other’s tunics off and were fumbling with shirt lacings when Raoul called outside.”
  • Just in case, Kel “found a midwife-healer traveling with the progress and purchased the charm against pregnancy.” She never uses it, however.

Violence

  • After entering the Chamber of the Ordeal, “a squire went mad there. Five months later he escaped his family and drowned himself.”
  • Kel visits a town shortly after it was attacked. “Bodies were set along the streets, pieces of cloth over their faces. Kel could only glance at those who’d burned; the sight of their swollen black flesh was too much . . . Raoul crouched beside a dead man who clutched a long-handled war-axe. He hadn’t died in a fire: five arrows peppered his corpse.”
  • Keladry knows the bandits she captured are going to be hung. “Kel shuddered: she hated hangings. No matter what the crime was, she saw no malice in those hooded and bound silhouettes dangling against the sky. Worse, to her mind, was the thought that the condemned knew they were to die, that a day and time had been set, that strangers planned each step of their killing.”
  • Centaurs say they have to cull traitorous centaurs and the dumb horses they mated with because, “You don’t want bad blood in the herd, particularly not in the slaves . . . That’s probably what Graystreak’s doing now, culling the slaves that bred with that crowd.” Kel thinks that is “obscene.”
  • Kel fights a centaur. The battle takes place over three pages. “He hurled the axe. Kel dodged left, still between him and escape, and stepped in with a long slash across his middle . . . Kel lunged, sinking the eighteen-inch blade deep below the centaur’s waist and yanking up. His belt dropped, cut in two; his forelegs buckled. Kel pulled her glaive free as her foe went down, clutching his belly. Blood spilled around his hands.”
  • Kel has several nightmares when visiting the Chamber of the Ordeal. “Another centaur clubbed her with a spiked mace. . . They were clubbed down as Kel fought to do something, anything.” Another time, the Chamber gives her a nightmare where, “Men, armed and mounted on horses, galloped down the street . . . she toppled as the man’s sword bit deep into her good shoulder. She lay on her side in the mud, blood pooling under her.”
  • A man “tried to run her through” during a joust. Kel unhorses him, then “flipped up his visor with her sword point and pressed the sharp tip to his nose. ‘Yield,’ she advised, her voice even. ‘Or I carve my initials right there.’”
  • Kel is in a brief fight with bandits. “The man who followed him carried a sword: Kel parried his cut at Peachblossom and ran him through.”
  • Kel fights in a battle. “Kel shot her officer squarely in the throat. He too dropped. . . Her arrow punched into the frothing man’s eye. He dropped like a stone.”

Drugs and Alcohol

  • Kel’s knight master, “doesn’t drink spirits, and he doesn’t serve them. He says he had a problem as a young man, so he doesn’t care to have liquor about. Captain Flyndan likes a glass or two. He serves it in his tent, but only when my lord isn’t there.”
  • The squires serve refreshments at a party, including “liquid refreshments: wine, punch, brandy, and, for the Yamanis, rice wine and tea.”

Language

  • Phrases such as Goddess bless and By the gods are used frequently as a part of Tortallian culture. Once Raoul says, “Gods . . . [she was] green the whole trip, I swear.”
  • Bitch is used three times. An angry knight tells Kel, “One of us will spear you through your bitch’s heart.” Later Joren tells her, “Once I’m a knight, you’d best keep an eye behind you, bitch.”

Supernatural

  • Kel lives in Tortall, a world filled with monsters and magic. The monsters include griffins, centaurs, and more. Some are good, some are not. Kel even has a basilisk for a teacher.
  • Several people at court have the Gift, which can be used for light, to heal, and more. Once, “The king reached a hand toward Vinson and twisted his fingers. The blue fire of his magic settled over the weeping squire. It blazed fiercely white, then vanished. ‘He tells the truth,’ King Jonathan said grimly.”
  • Squires have to spend a night in the Chamber of the Ordeal before they can become knights. “Generations of squires had entered it to experience something. None told what they saw; they were forbidden to speak of it. Whatever it was, it usually let squires return to the chapel to be knighted.”
  • Kel visits the Chamber several times. When she touches the door, she receives nightmarish visions of death and violence.
  • Daine has animal magic; she can speak to animals and shapeshift. “An eagle hurtled from the sky . . . It immediately began to change shape until a small form of Daine’s head perched on the eagle’s body.”

Spiritual Content

  • Tortall has many gods. They are named differently but are similar to the Greek gods. For example, Mithros is the god of the sun, and there is a god of death. The gods are mentioned often in the Tortallian culture but are not an integral part of the plot. After she passes a test, Kel thinks “Thank you, Mithros, for this gift.”
  • Characters often pray before meals or battles. “We ask the guidance of Mithros in these uncertain times, when change threatens all that is time-honored and true. May the god’s light show us a path back to the virtues of our fathers and an end to uncertain times. We ask this of Mithros, god of the sun.”
  • Raoul points out, “Haven’t you ever noticed that people who win say it’s because the gods know they are in the right, but if they lose, it wasn’t the gods who declared them wrong? Their opponent cheated, or their equipment was bad.”
  • Scanrans, from the country up north, sometimes froth “at the mouth as Scanrans did when they claimed war demons had possessed them.”

The Magic Looking Glass

Trolls steal a branch for the magical Story Tree, and Hansel and Gretel must find the branch and bring it back. As they begin their search, Hansel and Gretel meet a new friend, Wolfie. The three venture into the forest and find a fortress with a Magic Looking Glass inside. The Looking Glass promises to help them, but can the reflection be trusted? Can Wolfie and the twins save the day or will the Magic Looking Glass have the last laugh?

Wolfie, the grandson of Throat-Rip the Destroyer, doesn’t want to be like his father, who eats grandmothers whole. When Wolfie meets Hansel and Gretel, he welcomes the opportunity to do something good. Wolfie is a fun new character in the Little Legends series. Through his adventures, he realizes that no one can force him to do evil deeds.

Unlike the other books in the series, The Magic Looking Glass has an easy-to-follow plot. Most readers will be able to relate to Hansel and Gretel, who have a great sibling relationship until the Magic Looking Glass curses them. The siblings’ fighting makes them funny and relatable. Throughout the story, Wolfie has to come up with unique ways to keep the siblings apart. Unlike the big bad wolf, Wolfie proves that he has the ability to bring people together instead of eating them.

Black and white pictures help bring the characters and action to life. Some readers may find The Magic Looking Glass scary because the mirror wants to steal Hansel and Gretel’s bodies. Readers will enjoy the action-packed story, the humor, and the black-and-white pictures that help bring the characters and their actions to life. The Magic Looking Glass is a good choice for confident readers who want to see fairy tale characters in a new light.

Sexual Content

  • Hansel and Gretel talk about their father’s string of wives.

Violence

  • When the Sacred Shiny Story-Snipping Shears were dropped, Jack tries to pick them up, but “he was barged out of the way by a large, blue creature with webbed fingers and brightly glowing eyes. . . It waved its hand, and a torrent of water flooded over Jack and Betsy, sending them skidding backwards over the ground.”
  • When Wolfie tries to help Hansel and Gretel, the reflection in the Magic Looking Glass casts a spell, and a big hole opens up, “beneath Wolfie’s feet. He tried to step around it, but the hole opened faster and faster. There was no way he could avoid it. . . He tumbled into blackness.”
  • As Wolfie and Gretel are trying to escape from trolls, “a swarm of imps poured out of the door at the top of the staircase and came running toward them, roaring and waving a ragtag collection of weapons.” When Hansel begins shooting arrows at Gretel, the imps stop.
  • Wolfie breaks the Magic Looking Glass. “For a moment, the reflection stood in the middle of the hall, looking shocked, angry, and scared, then it too broke into a million of pieces, which blew away on a howling wind.”

Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • Several characters call the mayor names or talk badly about him. Someone says he’s a “horribly slimy man.” Someone else calls him “Sausage-Face Fitch.”

Supernatural

  • Tale Town has a magical tree. “If you ran your finger along the branch, the story would happen inside your head.” The tree has a spell of protection, which “means that the only way to trim off a story is using the Sacred Shiny Story-Snipping Shears.”
  • Spells are cast throughout the story. When the reflection in the Magic Looking Glass “clicked its finders,” Hansel and Gretel’s minds switched, “so that they were in the wrong body.”
  • Hansel and Gretel meet a Magic Looking Glass that is able to talk. The looking glass is able to lock Hansel and Gretel in a room. When they try to leave, “their legs stiffened and slowed down, until they couldn’t move at all.”
  • The reflection in the Magic Looking Glass wants to steal someone’s body. The reflections explain, “I can’t actually touch anything! I’m not really real! But with one of your bodies, and my troll friend’s help? Well, then I can be real—and it will be you rotting away in this mirror instead!”
  • The reflection casts a spell on Hansel and Gretel. “The reflection pointed at the twins again, a glowing light snaking from its hands toward them. The light grew brighter until, with a brief, blinding flash, it fell away.” The curse made it so the two couldn’t do anything together.

Spiritual Content

  • None

The First

Byx’s family was killed by soldiers. Now, he fears that he is the last of his kind, the endling. But legends tell of a carnivorous moving island where a hidden dairne colony lives in peace. Byx and his friends embark on a journey to find the island. They travel into the country of Dreyland, where they pass over snow-covered mountains, fight soldiers who wish to enslave them, and face other dangers.

Byx is surrounded by his traveling companions. The loyal Tobble. The brave and resourceful Khara. Gambler, who is wise but deadly. And Renzo, a thief who can perform magic.

But as Byx and his friends travel through Dreyland, they realize that the threat of war grows and their own country will soon be attacked. To make matters worse, there is a treacherous plot that could bring both Byx’s dreams and the creatures of their world to the brink of extinction. Will the unlikely leaders be able to find the last of the dairne? Can they stay safe from the soldiers who wish to kill them?

Tobble plays a larger role in this second book; his well-developed character is not only interesting but also explores the idea of bravery. Tobble and Byx do not feel brave or worthy of being leaders. However, they both use their own talents to protect their friends. At one point, Byx’s friend points out, “We all have our own particular fears, Byx. One can be brave nine times and be a coward the tenth time.”

A major theme that runs throughout the novel is the need to treat all species with respect. Several of the characters must face their fears. For Tobble, he must face worms. Through his experiences, he learns “never to judge a species on the basis of its appearance. . . Every plant, every animal, every insect serves a purpose. . . No matter how annoying, how ugly, how frightening, or how unappetizing it might be.” Through the character’s words and actions, the reader will learn that everything in the natural world is connected.

As the story progresses, the characters are less concerned with finding if there are more dairne and more concerned with a war that is brewing between countries. Khara hopes to unite the exiled families and lead them against the tyrannical leader. But Renzo doubts “that war can ever be waged with honor, mercy, and fairness.” As Byx and his companions travel, they often have to make decisions about morality. For example, when is it acceptable to steal? To kill? To fight? Even though the characters must make difficult life and death choices, they know that “in truth lies strength.”

Beautiful, descriptive language brings Byx’s world to life and takes the reader on an epic journey where friends valiantly risk their lives to help Byx find others of his species. Not only are the characters interesting, but they also grapple with real-life issues such as friendship, fear, and ethics. Although the publisher recommends the book for readers as young as eight, the story hits on some heavy topics and includes bloody violence, death, and war. The First is an amazing, entertaining story that will leave readers contemplating the nature of humans, their desire for power, and the importance of fighting for others.

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • Birds attack Byx and his friends. The birds “hit us like a hailstorm, slamming into chests and heads, striking with the cruel beaks that had given them their name. In seconds, I (Byx) was cut on both arms, narrowly avoiding a slashing attack that would have opened my neck. I heard a dog yelp in pain as a razorgull sliced through his fur.” Trying to protect his friends, Gambler “plowed straight into the bird cloud, slashing and batting with nearly supernatural speed and accuracy. He caught one unfortunate bird which promptly disappeared down Gambler’s gullet. Lunch. Razorgull blood streaked the side of his jaw and the birds swirled away as they considered this new threat.” The attack lasts for four pages.
  • When Renzo was ten years old, he was given twenty lashes for stealing.
  • Renzo tells about his childhood when his master, Draskull, would beat him. “Draskull was not good, and he could be brutal. . . You see the heavier scars on my back? Those were left by Draskull. He liked to use a bamboo stick.”
  • Byx and his friends go into a forest. They discover that the trees are alive, and “the branches were turning into giant worms.” The worms carry the group into a huge hole. “Luca screamed. Tentacles whipped around him with inhuman speed. He cried out again. I heard the horrifying sound of bones crushing. And then I, too, screamed in horror, as Luca’s bloodied body dropped into the pit.” When Tobble sees Luca’s dead body, he “bent over and vomited onto a knot of worms beneath him.”
  • Several of Byx’s friends are captured by bug-like creatures who bury them. Khara’s head “was mounted on the side of the tunnel. Just her head. Sticking out from the dirt wall as if it had grown there naturally.” Later Khara reveals that, “I lay there, buried, helpless, believing I would have to remain there for days, hearing Renzo and Gambler weaken, knowing their hunger, knowing their fear. Knowing that it would take us a long time to die.”
  • When soldiers spot Byx and his friends, Gambler “ran, leapt, let loose a terrifying roar, and hit the nearest man-at-arms while snagging a second with one extended paw. Khara swung her sword at a third soldier. He parried well, but his weapon was no match for the Light of Nedarra. Khara’s sword broke his in half, and with a backhand swipe, she sent him running. . . Renzo smashed the edge of his shield down on the man, who crumpled to the ground. . .I had my knife out, but I’d learned only one move. I shouted a mix of terror and determination and ran straight at the bit man as he aimed his staff toward me. . . I threw myself at the ground between his legs and slashed at a knee. . . Blood soaked his pant leg.” A man is killed when a soldier hits him with an arrow. The scene takes place over four pages.
  • When Byx, his friends, and a group of slaves try to escape on a boat, archers begin firing at them. “One of the rowers was hit in the leg. Grimacing in pain, he kept rowing, despite the shaft sticking out of him.” The group rows into a reef, and the soldiers follow, but the reef breaks up the galley. “Maybe a few would find wreckage to keep them afloat. Maybe a few could swim well enough that they had a chance to reach shore. But most, we feared, would drown.” The escape scene takes place over three pages.
  • As a diversion, Khara and her friends roll burning barrels down a path. As the group tries to pass the soldiers, a soldier stops them. In order to escape, “Khara had drawn her sword. She struck hard and fast, and the man who had questioned her spoke no more. . . We tore after Khara as she pursued the fleeing man. They disappeared from view for a moment, and when we reached them, Khara was panting and I saw a smear of blood on her face. . . A single guard was on duty . . . Khara came up behind him and smashed the hilt of her sword against the base of his skull. He would have a terrible headache when he woke up, but at least he would wake up.”
  • When Khara’s father dies, she must fight in order to be the leader. Tobble is at her side and fights Mountain Morgoono. “Mountain cursed and swatted, slapping himself in an effort to grab the swift wobbyk. But Tobble was already atop Mountain’s head, legs wrapped around his neck, riding him like a child on his father’s back. And then Tobble went berserk. . . Tobble yanked out Mountain’s hair in tufts, tore one of his nostrils, and bit a sizeable hunk out of his right ear. . . Like a toppled tree, Mountain dropped. . . Tobble drew his knife and held it near the man’s throat.” Mountain Morgoono yields and the match ends.
  • After Tobble defeats Mountain Morgoono, Khara faces Albrit. “Albrit dodged right, but as Khara passed, she managed to slice a red line in Albrit’s shoulder. She dropped from the rope at the end of its arc, spun, and faced Albrit, who charged, his own sword swinging horizontally with such force that it could have cut Khara in two. Khara ducked under the swing. . .” Khara defeats Albrit, who becomes her general.
  • When soldiers see Byx and his friends, they chase them, shooting arrows at them. An arrow hits Maxyn’s horse, and Maxyn is captured. Byx and his friends leave Maxyn behind. Later when Byx finds Maxyn, he learns that “he’s been treated badly. . . His hands were wrapped in bloody bandages. His face was swollen. And his eyes, when they opened, seemed empty and lost.” Maxyn also had a swollen jaw, and “a deep cut, from ear to muzzle, oozed pearly blood.”
  • Soldiers in boats surround a village, intending to starve the villagers out so they can capture and enslave them. In order to help the village, Tobble sets a boat on fire and runs it into the soldiers’ ship, which then catches fire. Tobble is able to reach the shore, but “he had singe marks on his fur. His face was smeared with soot. But he was grinning.”
  • When Byx and his friends see soldiers coming their way, Byx decides to attack first. “I stabbed my knife at him, and he knocked it aside easily with his sword. My blade twirled like I was being pursued by a raptidon.” No one is injured.

Drugs and Alcohol

  • Byx and his friends are close to a town. When they enter, “a loud and boisterous party was underway, including many drunk-sounding voices, and music was being played. . .”

Language

  • None

Supernatural

  • Byx is a dairne who can tell if someone is lying because she can “feel the falseness.” Byx explains that when he hears a lie, “there’s something missing, and you hear the wrongness of it. You feel it in your belly. . .”
  • Byx and his friends go into a cave, where natites give them water that speeds the healing process.
  • Some of the characters know “theurgy” which is the “study of spells and incantations.” Renzo sometimes uses magic while cooking. The magic “didn’t amount to much, though: a cold stew turned hot, a bland vegetable seasoned. One night he’d tried to impress us by popping tallin kernels. They’d turned into little fireflies and floated away on the breeze.”
  • A natite has a fishtail and is “vaguely human in shape. . . Green flesh covered its powerful shoulders and chest, and two huge, writhing tentacles rose from the creature’s shoulder blades.”
  • Khara has a magical sword that conceals its true nature until it is drawn in anger.
  • There is a large moving island that is rumored to be carnivorous. Byx discovers that the island rides on Tarok, “a huge ancient water beast. Over thousands of years, the rare creatures accumulated layers of dirt and vegetation until they because, in essence, living islands.”
  • The natite captures Byx and his friends. Their galley “sank with sudden, plunging speed. But even as we all cried out in panic, it became clear that the entire galley was sinking within a massive bubble of air.” The natites question Byx and then let him go.
  • While underwater, a natite casts a spell, “Tamak on maaginen colloitsu, joka trojuu vett’ank antar simulle heng itsken.” When the spell is cast on Byx, he “felt something spreading across my body, as if someone were covering my fur with jelly. It was at once invisible and disturbingly slimy. When the goo made its way to my face, I felt a moment of panic.” The spell allows Byx and his friends to breathe underwater.
  • Khara finds out that a sword has a spell of destiny on it. “A spell of destiny underlies all other magic, a curse and a prophecy. The sword will be drenched in blood in a great war.”
  • Renzo tells Byx that he can “cast spells that confuse the eye, but not invisibility spells.” However, in the story he does not use the spells.
    Spiritual Content
  • A natite tells a story about how “a traitorous band of the Queen’s soldiers tried to abscond with the objects soon after our arrival here. As they escaped, there was a violent volcanic eruption. The gods, no doubt, were angered at their betrayal.”
  • Tobble believes in Hanadru, “the great artist who lives in the clouds and paints the fate of all on her great easel. . .You may not believe in Hanadru, but she is one of the Pure Spirits of people.” To this, his friend replies, “I don’t believe in fate, whether it’s some god named Hanadru or someone else.”
  • When Tobble is able to defeat his enemy, he says, “Hanadru was kind.”

Game of Stars

Twelve-year-old Kiranmala just wants to be normal, despite having been born an Indian princess in the Kingdom Beyond, an alternate dimension. So, when the Demon Queen shows up in her dreams, Kiranmala doesn’t want to listen to the demoness.

After a visit with some all-seeing birds, Kiranmala finally, reluctantly goes to the Kingdom Beyond and finds that the Kingdom Beyond is in danger. A game show reigns supreme, society is fraying, and everyone is running scared or imprisoned. Kiranmala knows her father is behind the game show, but is there any way she can beat him at his own game?

The second installment of the Kiranmala and the Kingdom Beyond Series, Game of Stars takes readers on an action-packed ride through the Kingdom Beyond. The story brings back some beloved characters from the first book and adds new characters as well. This story will be confusing if readers have not read The Serpent’s Secret first!

The story revolves around the Indian culture and mythology, with many of the creatures straight out of Bengali folktales. For those not familiar with the culture, some of the references to Indian food, clothing, and monsters may be confusing as they lack adequate description. The cute black and white illustrations scattered throughout the story help the readers visualize some characters and events, but there needed to be more of them. Although it is exciting to have an Indian heroine, the story may be frustrating to follow for those unfamiliar with the customs.

A drawback to this book is that none of the characters talk like normal people, and much of the dialogue is childish. Some creatures talk in rhymes and riddles, which is fun. However, the characters continually use name calling throughout the story, which adds to the childish tone. For example, someone calls the Serpent King a “scummy snake” and a “pooper-scooper.” Even the Demon Queen’s and the Serpent King’s dialogue makes them seem more like whiny children rather than strong adults.

As Kiranmala travels through the Kingdom Beyond, she considers the nature of good and evil. Through her experiences, she learns that being human or a rakkosh doesn’t define you; instead, it is how people act that makes them good or evil. Throughout the story, Kiranmala worries that she will become evil like her father. A professor tells her, “No one turns good or evil by magic. That’s not how it works. You become evil when you choose to act against your conscience again and again. Being good or evil is about the decisions you make each and every day. It’s not something that just happens to you.

For those who haven’t picked up the Kiranmala and the Kingdom Beyond Series, you may want to try Aru Shah and The End of Time first because it is less confusing but still revolves around India’s mythology. Middle school readers will enjoy the riddles, the funny characters, and the exciting chases.  Overall, Game of Stars is an action-packed story that shows that a strong, smart girl is capable of heroic deeds and saving the prince.

Sexual Content

  • A store vendor tells Kiranmala a story. “Well, when the Raja wasn’t having any heirs, he called upon a rishi, one of those sadhu-sanyasi guys who meditates on the mountaintop and knows all sorts of magic shajik. . . So, anyhoo, this guy gave the ranis a super-magical fertility root to share so they would all have babies.”
  • As part of the contest, there is a promotional poster that shows Kiranmala about to kiss a boy.

Violence

  • Kiranmala sees her imprisoned friend and thinks, “Neel did look terrible. . . he also looked skinny and, weirdly for a half rakkhosh who hardly needed sleep, tired. He had big dark circles under his eyes, a fading bruise on his cheek, and one side of his lip looked puffy, like he’d been on the wrong side of somebody’s fist. . . Both of his wrists were bound in cruel metal shackles. The chain from his wrists led to shackles that bound his ankles too.”
  • When Kiranmala tries to free Neel from prison, Bogli tries to stop her. Kiranmala “let my arrows fly. Unfortunately, about 50 percent bounced right off Bogli’s scales. The other 50 percent that found their mark didn’t’ seem to do much damage, but hung there, kind of boinging” Neel uses a fork to stab “Bogli’s slimy skin.” During the fight, Bogli “smacked Neel hard across the face. Because of his shackles, Neel didn’t have super balance, so he fell hard, unable to use his hands too much to break his fall. . . He got in a blow to the monster’s thigh with both his shackled hands before Bogli flicked him off like a mosquito, then pinned poor Neel under a giant, warty foot.” The fighting continues for nine pages; no one is seriously injured.
  • When Kiranmala takes the Serpent king’s tooth, he tries to get it back by “flinging uneven green bolts of energy at us in between giggles. . . I nocked arrow after arrow in my bow, but they didn’t seem to bother Sesha. And as if the flying bolts of pain weren’t bad enough, at the Serpent King’s cry, the scraggly lawn outside the dentist’s office filled with snakes of all kinds. . . they slithered viciously in our direction, surrounding Ai-Ma in a trice. They hissed and snapped at us.” The scene takes place over two pages.
  • When Kiranmala goes to talk to a professor, he starts throwing fish at her. Kiranmala “found myself being pelted by something wet and slimy. A story of wet of slimy things actually. . . I put my hands up to protect my face, but the onslaught of rapid-fire fish kept flying at me, flapping on my skin with their scaly cold.” The professor stops throwing the fish when he realizes Kiranmala is not a ghost.
  • Soldiers parade Kiranmala past a prison cell, where she sees Neel’s grandmother Ai-Ma, “her shoulders hunched and face grim. There were some disposable teacups hanging from her few strands of hair and little burn marks like someone had thrown hot tea at her. Off her skin hung strange patches of vegetable peels and plastic bags too, like people had been using her as a target for throwing garbage.
  • Kiranmala must pass a test and if she does not, a witch and her sister will “eat you and the prisoner’s livers for a snack! While they’re still in your bodies.”
  • In order to save Neel, Kiranmala must rip off a bee’s wing, but because the bee is the Rakkhosi Queen’s soul, the queen will also die. The Rakkhosi Queen tells Kiranmala, “Do it!” When Kiranmala refuses to rip off the bee’s wing, the Rakkhosi Queen, lunged at me. I screamed. I really thought she’d just had it and was going to kill me, but it wasn’t me she was after. Her sharp talons grabbed the bee out of my hand, and in one swift motion, she tore off its wing. Her scream. . . Deep and horrible, like someone was being cut in two. The demoness dropped the sword and then fell down heavily next to it . . . She writhed now on the floor, her arm at a horrible, unnatural angle.”
  • The Serpent King tells Kiranmala, “I want to kill you and the Rakkhoshi Queen both.” The Serpent King then “shot a bolt at me, encasing me in one of his green orbs of pain and torture. Immediately, I dropped to my knees inside the floating bubble. The sharp, hot pain on my skin and in my bones was so intense, I couldn’t stop from crying out.” Neel charged “at Sesha with his sword raised. They clashed, sword to green bolt, making an enormous explosion of light every time their weapons made contact.” During the fight, Kiranmala must fight a ghost who took Neel’s brothers’ form. The Serpent King uses two stones, and when their power combines, “Neel’s mother was floating up off the ground now, her glowing body losing its form, becoming water and then fire, earth and then air, over and over again.” The battle scene takes place over three chapters. With the help of her friends, Kiranmala is able to free Neel and save his mother.

Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • Crapola and crud are used once.
  • Dang and heck are used twice.
  • Darn in used four times. For example, when Kiranmala sees Neel in prison, she yells, “I’ll rescue you if I want to and you’ll be grateful, darn it!”
  • Throughout the story, there is name calling. For example, a demoness calls Kiranmala Loonie-Moonie, pea-brained tree goat, and a pathetic puppy from Parsipppan.” Someone calls the Serpent King a “scummy snake” and a “pooper-scooper.”
  • Several times the skateboarding resistance is referred to as scum.
  • Neel’s mother calls him an idiot.

Supernatural

  • Barngoma and Bangomee, are birds with human heads. When Kiranmala sees them, “they didn’t speak out loud but somehow, their words slipped into my brain. . . their voices floated into my head in a weird, nasal unison.”
  • Barngoma and Bangomee use their power to hypnotize Kiranmala. “They opened their eyes wide, and again, I felt like I was falling into their swirling rainbow irises. Those swirly, whirly birdie eyes somehow pulled me out of myself so much that I actually felt separated from my body and spirit. . . Falling into the giant birds’ eyes was the wackiest, weirdest thing. I felt like I was flying through a movie on super-duper fast forward.” When she is in a trance, she sees her friend imprisoned and can interact with him.
  • Barngoma and Bangomee create a wormhole that takes Kiranmala to the Kingdom Beyond. Kiranmala advises, “If you have never driven an auto rickshaw through a rip in the fabric of space-time created by two giant, hippopotamus-sized birds, I strongly recommend wearing a bike helmet when you do.”
  • Kiranmala learned that “rakkhosh were actually, in some weird, interdimensional way, the same thing as back holes.”
  • Bolga was “born from a well of dark energy.” She has “webs between her toes, gills along her neck, and webbing fanning out beneath her giant arms.”
  • Kiranmala sees the birth of the Chintamoni and Poroshmoni stones. When she enters the wormhole, “the last thing we saw floating by us in space-time were some gods and demons churning an ocean of milk. They pulled on a familiar-looking snake wrapped around a mountain that operated as a churn. Out of the ocean rose medicine and poison, light and dark, good and evil, and then a sparkling white stone and a glowing yellow one.”
  • Kiranmala explains “the power of Chhaya Devi’s vials. They held the shadows of trees inside. Once freed, the shadows reconstituted themselves like expanding sponges. Super-powerful, tree-shaped magic sponges, that is.”
  • Kiranmala is able to understand parkkhiraj horses.
  • Kiranmala and Neel are able to communicate through the moon’s reflection. Neel says, “When I look up at the moon through the cell window, I can see you reflected there.”
  • Kiranmala has to face ghosts, which is dangerous because “looking at a ghost face-to-face while it was calling me would make my soul forfeit for the taking.”
  • Before Kiranmala dives into the ocean, someone “spun some sort of land rakkhosh dryness spell over me so that my clothes, pack, and weapons would stay dry and I dived into the water.”
  • Kiranmala goes to a hotel and sees a ghost, who was carrying its head. Later, she discovers that the hotel is alive.

Spiritual Content

  • The story focuses on Indian mythology, including mythological monsters and demons.

 

The Genie’s Curse

Rapunzel loves being a princess because it’s so much fun. Disaster strikes when she accidentally breaks a magical urn and blames it on Ella. The urn belonged to a genie, who is now very angry. The genie cast a spell on Rapunzel. Now everyone in Tale Town blames everything on Rapunzel. In order to avoid the angry town people, Rapunzel leaves town. Can a little green monkey called Alphege help Rapunzel? Will Rapunzel lose her new friend, Ella, if she tells the truth behind the curse?

Each book in the series focuses on a different character but continues from plot points in previous books. The Genie’s Curse has non-stop action and funny humor. The plot jumps from disaster to disaster, which makes the story interesting, but confusing. The large number of characters and difficult vocabulary make The Genie’s Curse a good choice for confident readers. There are several characters that have been cursed and only appear as humans for part of the time; this may cause confusion for some readers.

Rapunzel’s parents are absent for most of the book and are more concerned with vacationing than being good rulers. Although the story has a good theme—honesty is the best policy—the ending falls flat. When the queen discovers that Rapunzel lied, she says, “I’m very proud of you, Rapunzel. Your brave words have shown me that there is more to life than being pretty and having lovely things. And to reward you, I shall buy you two new ponies and a party dress!”

Black-and-white pictures help bring the characters and actions to life. The evil villains are not scary, but add suspense to the story. The Genie’s Curse is an entertaining story that allows readers to jump into the fairy tale world.

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • Rapunzel accidentally destroys a hermit genie’s home. When she lies to her parents about who broke the urn, the genie curses her. He tells Rapunzel, “From now on every single thing that goes wrong in Tale Town will be blamed on. . . YOU!”
  • A troll tries to cook Alphege in a pot of oil. “The troll held Alphege just above the pot and grinned as he lowered the small green monkey toward the bubbling oil.” Alphege turns into a boy and “kicked his legs out and knocked the pot over, splashing oil all over the floor.”
  • Town people chase Rapunzel. The group chases her, “throwing silverware, dishes, bread, cushions, and anything else they could find.”

Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • None

Supernatural

  • Tale Town has a magical tree. “If you ran your finger along the branch, the story would happen inside your head.” The tree has a spell of protection, which “means that the only way to trim off a story is using the Sacred Shiny Story-Snipping Shears.”
  • Spells are cast throughout the story. For example, the wicked witch cast, “a spell on Ella that makes her want to fix everything. Someone gives Ella a necklace that makes it so ‘no spells or curses will have any effect on her at all!’”
  • Alphege was cursed so that he looks like a green monkey most of the time. He can “look human for one day every week. . . I can change back and forth as often as I like. . . so long as I’m not a boy for more than twenty-four hours every seven days.”

Spiritual Content

  • None

 

Aquaman: Undertow

Thirteen-year-old Arthur Curry wonders why his mother left when he was only three years old. He wonders why he doesn’t fit in with the other students at school. Arthur doesn’t like when other students call him freak or fish boy. When Claudia befriends him, Arthur wonders if she’ll decide he’s too weird to be her friend.

Arthur wants to learn about his mother. He also wants to figure out why he seems more comfortable talking to an octopus than kids his own age. When a huge storm strikes Amnesty Bay, Arthur discovers that he has the ability to help others. But should he help the boys who have bullied him for years?

Younger readers will enjoy Aquaman: Undertow because it shows that even superheroes can often be misunderstood. The short chapters and easy vocabulary make the book feasible for reluctant readers. The story does not follow the movie, which might disappoint some readers. The bullying conflict comes to a satisfying end that highlights the importance of helping others, no matter who they are or what they’ve done.

Aquaman: Undertow gives a unique insight into Arthur’s early teenage life. Although the plot is not well developed, readers will be able to relate to Arthur as he struggles with being bullied. The story has rough transitions, and some of the scenes end abruptly. The story jumps from Arthur’s current life to his nightmares, and then to Arthur’s father telling stories about the past. Despite the choppy transitions between scenes, readers will enjoy getting to know the boy who becomes Aquaman.

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • At a school field trip, Arthur is looking at fish. “The next thing Arthur knew, a hand was palming the back of his head, and his face was shoved against the glass tank. Arthur winced.” A friend helps Arthur.
  • At the aquarium, two boys bully Arthur. One of the boys, “grabbed his shirt and banged him up against the glass. Arthur noticed that the crowd of classmates and other aquarium visitors were not staring at him. . . His back was pressed against the glass as Arthur watched Matta and Mike continue their taunting, their name calling, their bullying.”

Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • Matt and Mike call Arthur names, including “freak” and “fish boy.”
  • Claudia calls a boy a “jerk” several times.
  • Arthur says “dang” once.
  • A boy says “frickin’” once.
  • A fisherman exclaims, “What the hell?!” Later another person asks the same question.

Supernatural

  • Arthur can understand how fish feel, can swim under water, and has superhuman strength.

Spiritual Content

  • None

The Unicorn Quest

Claire’s great-aunt Diana mysteriously disappeared. As her only family, Claire, Sophie, and her parents plan to spend the summer cleaning out Diana’s house, which is cluttered with her aunt’s collection of strange artifacts. When Claire and Sophie discover a ladder in the fireplace, Sophie leads the way up. . . and up. . . and up. They discover a fantastical land called Arden, filled with castles, magic, and dangerous creatures. Claire makes Sophie promise never to climb the stairs again.

When Sophie disappears, Claire knows she must be brave enough to search for her sister by going up the ladder. When Claire gets to Arden, she discovers a world full of danger. Four guilds of magic no longer trust each other. All of the unicorns have disappeared. Horrible wraiths roam at night. And Sophie is missing. Claire must find the courage to search for her sister, but first she must discover the secret of the unicorns.

Claire is fearful that her sister is in danger, which propels her to team up with two others—Netta and Sena—in order to find Sophie and a stolen unicorn relict. Because Arden’s war happened in the past, the action included in the book is not scary. Instead, readers will be enthralled with Arden’s strange creatures and magic.

The land of Arden is well developed, and the author uses beautiful descriptions to bring the setting to life. Even though the story contains some exciting scenes, the long descriptions slow down the pacing of the plot. The story follows a typical epic format—a girl is forced to go on a quest, teams up with others, and travels from place to place searching for answers. Readers expecting a story about sisters and unicorns will be disappointed, because there is little interaction between Claire and her sister, and the unicorn only appears for a brief flash at the end.

The Unicorn Quest will entertain strong readers who like reading about magical lands and characters going on a quest. Although the story is not unique, Claire is a believable character that overcomes her fear as she searches for her sister. The sweet ending has several surprises and will leave the reader wanting to pick up the next book in the series—Secret in the Stone. The Unicorn Quest will appeal to those who like stories such as The Last, by Katherine Applegate, and Podkin One-Ear, by Kieran Larwood.

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • A wraith tries to attack Claire, but before it does Sophie, “had thrown herself onto the thing’s back and was desperately pounding at its shoulder blades, her fist sinking into the shifting, smoky blackness that hung around it. . . Claire scooted away from the creature, but then there was another shriek—from Sophie this time—and Claire watched in horror as the beast’s clawed hand reached behind and finally peeled Sophie off its back, throwing her to the ground.” With help, the girls are able to escape.
  • When Claire climbs up the ladder to get to Arden, she is attacked. “The air whooshed out of Claire as something—someone—tackled her from behind. She felt a knee land firmly on her lower back, pinning her to the ground. Pain ripped through her shoulders as her arms were yanked behind her. . .Claire coughed, spitting out the dirt that coated her mouth from the fall. Something cold and hard suddenly pressed at her throat: the edge of a knife.” Claire is then taken into the city, where she is put in jail.
  • While stuck in a cave a wyvern appears. Claire uses magic to put the wyvern in a cage. “The wyvern strained, its shoulders pounding against the rock-cage. To Claire’s dismay, the wyvern’s scales seemed to be chipping away at the bars, widening the space little by little.” Claire calms the wyvern, and the group gets out of the cave safely.
  • A man tries to club Claire, so she holds her sword as if it is a baseball bat and, “swung at the club, trying to keep it away from her. Sword and club met with a clang that reverberated through her.” Someone stops the man from hurting Claire.
  • When Sophie is shot with an arrow, “a scream burst out of Claire as her sister’s blood poured over her knees. . . Sophie’s pitiful whisper made Claire grab on to her tighter. . .” A man picks up Sophie and lays her, “at the foot of Queen Rock,” in order to perform a ceremony.
  • A wraith grabs Claire. “As its skeletal hand, smelling of rotten flesh, tightened around her neck, Claire knew, in that horrible way one always knows, that she had made an irrevocable mistake. She gasped for breath as the wraith dragged her slowly back. . . Dark thoughts wrapped around Claire’s mind as she felt herself drowning in the wraith’s cold.” Claire uses magic to save herself.

Drugs and Alcohol

  • Claire is given Sinceri Tea, which is, “distilled from forget-me-not petals for recollection, sunflower seeds for openness, and a blade of hedgehog grass from the beaches of the Sunrise Isles. It will ensure you cannot lie when you answer.”

Language

  • None

Supernatural

  • Claire and Sophie find a ladder in a fireplace. When they climb the ladder, they end up in Arden—a world where magic is real.
  • In Arden, there are four guilds of magic. Forgers work with metal, Gemmers work with rocks and gems, Spinners weave magic from thread, and Tillers work with all that grows from the earth. “Our magic, guild magic, only extends to what’s around us. . . The magic doesn’t come from within us, but from the things around us—plants, rocks, thread, metal. All we do is encourage the magic that naturally exists in those things, to make plants grow bigger and faster and stronger, for instance.”
  • Wraiths are dangerous creatures that kill humans. Claire describes a wraith as “big and dark and cold. It kind of looked like a skeleton wrapped in shadows.”
  • Nett uses Mile High Potion to turn a blade of grass into rope. Nett, “let a drop of something green tumble onto a blade of grass. With his thumb and forefinger, he pinched the blade and gave it a twist . . . The blade of grass was growing longer and larger, going from the length of some floss to shoelace size in a matter of seconds.”
  • While in a shop, Nett finds a revealer, which, “reflects a person’s greatest flaw. . . It’s a horrible thing to have the nastiest, most secret thoughts within you revealed to all.” He also finds an herb that will, “take away the eater’s ability to make decisions for an hour, or four years, depending on the amount consumed.”
  • Claire discovers that she is a Gemmer and can talk to wyverns.
  • A woman uses a magic threat to choke a man. “Francis dropped to his knees as though someone had set a bag of bricks on his shoulders. His arm flailed as he tried to push his Royalist cloak off, but as hard as he tried, he could not lift the garment from his shoulders. There were a few snaps as his ribs cracked.”

Spiritual Content

  • None

Sasquatch and the Muckleshoot

Elliot wants life to be normal. Uchenna wants adventure. But when Professor Fauna takes the kids to the Pacific Northwest on another mission in the Muckleshoot territory in Washington, they discover that film crews have arrived in masses. The news crews want to find Bigfoot. But the news crews aren’t the only danger. The Schmoke brothers plan to clear the forest. Is there any way the Unicorn Rescue Society can help keep the Sasquatch hidden? Will the Sasquatch’s territory be destroyed by chainsaws?

The third installment of The Unicorn Rescue Society has the same lovable characters and the same evil villains. As the group heads to the Pacific Coast, the narration shows a strong love of nature and teaches the importance of taking care of the natural world, which includes logging responsibly. When the group arrives at their destination, they meet Mack, who shares the Muckleshoot’s culture.

Mack shares some of the Native Americans’ history, including how the “white folks. . . believed the white way of life was superior.” Because of this belief, the whites forced the Native Americans to give up their languages and customs. The white called this, “Kill the Indian and save the man.” Now the Native Americans are using some of their casino money to buy back the land that the whites stole from them. Even though the story shows the Muckleshoot people care for the forest and the animals, much of the dialogue seems to promote a political agenda instead of teaching about the Native American culture.

Sasquatch and the Muckleshoot is not as enjoyable as the first two books because the plot focuses less on the adventure of helping the mythical creature. The professor and kids do very little to help Mack find a solution to help the Sasquatch. In addition, the absent-minded professor is taken to the extreme. Even younger readers will have a hard time believing that the professor is so clueless that his plane runs out of gas. And how many times can the professor crash land his plane without anyone getting injured?

Readers will enjoy the black-and-white illustrations, funny puns, and the way Mack calls Elliot by a variety of names such as “Screams A Lot.” Other positive aspects of the story are the diverse characters and the use of Spanish and Lushootseed words and phrases. Sasquatch and the Muckleshoot has some humorous scenes, and readers will enjoy watching Elliot overcome his fear. Unlike the first two books in the series, Sasquatch and the Muckleshoot is missing much of the action and adventure that made the first two books fun to read.

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • Four men capture the professor. The professor is, “smacked on the face with his shoe, but the others quickly grabbed his arms and legs. He struggled, but their hands were strong as tree roots.” The men tie up the professor.
  • When Uchenna, Elliot, and a friend dress up like Sasquatch, men try to grab them. The men, “grabbed the three juvenile Sasquatch and tried to wrestle them to the ground. The small furry ones fought valiantly, striking out with their fists and kicking the shins of the hard-hatted attackers. But they were overpowered and pinned to the mossy forest floor.”

Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • “Darn” is used once.
  • A news reporter calls someone an “idiot.”
  • One of the characters knew someone in middle school who was a “real jerk.”
  • A man calls someone a “fool.”

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • None

Misfit

Devin can speak to animals, which helps her be a caring creature caretaker. She would rather be out in the woods healing animals than inside learning to be a princess. But she’s twelfth in line for the throne of Enchantasia, so there is no way she can avoid going to the Royal Academy.

Devin didn’t read the required material because she was too busy helping animals, but as soon as she arrives, she realizes that she is horribly out of place. While Devin is excited to meet Olivina, the beloved fairy godmother to Cinderella, Snow White, and Rapunzel, she is also enrolled in classes that don’t suit her interests, such as “How to write a love note,” and “From cha-chas to charming princess.”

When danger appears, Devin discovers that Olivina is obsessed with teaching the princesses to wait for the princes to save them. The students aren’t learning to rule a kingdom, but learning to be helpless. Devin knows that something is amiss. When the fairy godmother threatens to banish Devin, Devin must decide if she will act like a proper princess or if she will search for the secrets that Olivina is hiding.

Besides being an entertaining story, Misfits shows that not everyone can fit into a mold. Devin isn’t the only character that is unique. There’s a prince that is more interested in chopping vegetables than chopping off dragon’s heads. Another royal is more interested in telling the truth in her tabloids than talking about the latest fashion. These unique characters’ bravery shines as they fight to keep their classmates safe from fairy-tale monsters.

Throughout the story, Devin is frustrated by the princess rules. Snow White tells Devin, “What Olivina wants for all of us, more than anything, is to feel safe and secure in our roles.” The fairy godmother, Olivina, is upset when Devin saves herself and others from danger. Olivina says, “But that wasn’t your role to play, was it? You were supposed to let the princes do that. If they can’t rescue you, what are they good for?” Throughout the story, readers will learn that sometimes people need to break out of the roles society has given them.

Another theme is the importance of being honest. Professor Pierce teaches that it is important to, “be honest. Honesty is important in a royal—in all humans. . .” He also tells Devin, “Being royal means acting responsibly with the power that you’re given. It’s about making tough decisions for the good of your subjects.”

Full of fantastic fairy tale fun, Misfits follows Devin who is a lovable, unpredictable character. Devin isn’t interested in ball gowns or shoes, and she definitely isn’t interested in reading the required academy reading, which leads her into trouble right from the start. Devin’s caring, questioning behavior makes the reader root for the spunky girl. The cliff-hanger ending will leave readers eager to read the second book of the series, Outlaws.

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • During a school ball, harpies attack. “A harpy snatches Hazel with its talons and flies off with her as princesses shriek in panic. Guests start stampeding in all directions. . .” The scene takes place over eight pages. While the teachers hide, the students come up with a plan to defeat the harpies.
  • When a student steals a dragon egg, the dragon attacks. A prince, “grabs another boy’s dagger and stabs it into the dragon’s tail. The dragon roars so loudly that the ground shakes violently.” Fire “rains down on the room.” Fairies put out the fire, and three students are able to return the egg.
  • When Devin goes to gym class, she is kidnapped. “A sack is pulled over my head as hands grab my ankles. Rope is wound around my hands and feet before I even have time to scream.” She is put in a room with other bound princesses. “Three more beams hit the floor in quick succession, one cracking the floorboards. The entire room starts to rumble and shake, while black smoke pours through the window.” The scene takes place over 11 pages. The girls escape unharmed.
  • During a school ball, the witch from Hansel and Gretel appears. “A huge plume of smoke billows from the middle of the dance floor. There are screams and shouts and running.” The witch steals the fairy godmother’s wand, and “Olivina passes out, hitting the floor hard, like a pancake. . . Boom! Boom! Boom! The students around us barely move before they collapse like Olivina, their swords and tiaras rolling onto the ground.” Someone is able to grab the magic wand from the witch, and “Poof! The witch dissolves into thin air.” The scene takes place over five pages. No one is injured.

Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • Devin uses the phrase, “Holy harpies,” when she is surprised.
  • “Darn” is used twice.

Supernatural

  • The story takes place in a fairy tale world. Magic is occasionally used. For example, the academy has a protection charm.
  • The fairy godmother travels by Poof Dust. She uses this to magically transport herself and others.
  • Devin can talk to animals and she knows several animal languages, including squirrel.
  • The official dressmaker uses magic to help create her dresses. The dressmaker, “snaps her fingers, and magic wands shoot off tables to finish the tasks she was doing for each girl.”
  • Milo is a talking mirror who can watch the girls and give them encouraging words.

Spiritual Content

  • None

Atlantia

The underwater world of Atlantia has been Rio’s home forever, but she dreams of living in the Above. When Rio has the chance to choose where to live, she wanted to choose the Above. But when her mother dies everything changes. Rio knows she must stay in the Below with her sister Bay. But when the day to choose comes, Bay makes the unexpected decision to go Above. Rio is stranded in the Below with no family. Now Rio only has questions. Was her mother murdered? If so, who wanted her dead? Why did Bay choose to go to the Above?

While Rio searches for her answers, she must hide her own secret. She has always hidden her powerful siren voice. When Rio’s estranged aunt Marie suddenly takes an interest in her, Rio wonders if Marie has discovered her secret. Can Marie be trusted to help Rio go Above, or will Marie lead her into danger? Rio hopes that Marie can answer her questions, but soon she learns that Atlantia’s history is more complex than the people have been told. Rio must listen to the voices of the past. And in the process, she hopes to save herself and her city.

The world of Atlantia is described in beautiful detail; however, the descriptions of a complex religion and history of the city make the beginning of the story slow. Although Rio is an interesting character, many may have a difficult time relating to her. When her sister Bay leaves to go to the Above, Rio is devastated and only thinks about how to join her sister in the Above. Because Rio had always planned to leave her sister, her motivation for going Above doesn’t ring true.

Atlantia is full of mystery, intrigue, and a dash of romance. Told from Rio’s point of view, readers get a look into what the world could look like if people destroy the land above the sea. Through Rio’s experiences, the reader will learn several positive messages including the importance of speaking up for yourself and others. Rio learns that many of the problems between the Above and the Below come from misunderstandings and fear. “People fear those who are different when really we are so much the same.” Rio realizes that “in order to save our city, we have to love each other more than ourselves.”

The ending of the story leaves a lot of unanswered questions, but it also has several surprises. Readers who want to read about mermaids should leave Atlantia on the shelf. Even though the story has sirens, the sirens are humans with a voice that can control people. If you enjoyed Ally Condie’s Matched series, and want to read more from the same author, just be aware that Atlantia is lacking the same action and suspense that makes the Matched series so enjoyable. Readers will either love or hate Atlantia. Some will find the slow pace and the lack of character development frustrating. However, others won’t be able to put the book down because of the mystery and the interesting premise.

Sexual Content

  • Someone saw Rio’s sister kissing a boy. The person said, “I don’t want to speak for them. But yes, it did seem like there was something between them. Something real.”
  • True kissed Rio. “Right here under the trees, right here on my lips, and then on my neck, his fingers strong on my back, pulling me hard and close to him. . . He is good at this. I am good at this. We are good at this.”
  • Rio and True are on a gondola when “true’s lips brush against mine and I kiss him back. We hold each other tight. Earlier, under the trees, we were hungry and relieved to touch each other. We are still hungry.”
  • Rio and True kiss. “True’s lips skim my cheekbone and then he finds my mouth and I kiss him back, reaching to touch the beautiful planes on his face.”

Violence

  • Marie tells a story about two siren sisters who fought in the temple. Their voices killed some of the worshippers who, “fell with blood streaming from their ears and terror in their eyes.” Because of the sisters, the Counsel put the sirens under their governance. One of the sisters didn’t agree with the new rules and committed suicide by drowning, “herself in the wishing pool.”
  • Rio’s mother was killed by the Counsel. The members, “called her in for a meeting. When she arrived, they gave her something to drink, as was the custom, and they had each put some of the poison in her cup. They all did it.”
  • When a transport takes a group of sirens to the Above, they are killed. “Another siren starts to run. Before she’s taken more than a few steps, the people in the boats shoot her down too. . . She doesn’t even breathe, only bleeds.” The scene takes place over several days.
  • One of the leaders of the Above is killed. The murder is not described but Rio sees the body and the “wild hair and his poor, dead face. I put my hand on his chest, but I feel no rise and fall, no heartbeat.”

Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • None

Supernatural

  • The gods gave Atlantia a miracle by sending sirens, people who can use their voice to control others. “There have never been two sirens from the same family line. We’ve always believed that the siren voice was a gift from the gods, not simple genetics. In order to be a minister, a person must show that they “cannot be swayed by sirens. They are chosen, in part, for their ability to resist.”
  • Marie, a siren, has the ability to communicate through a shell. She gives Rio a shell and tells her, “all you have to do is ask a question into that shell and then listen for the answer to come back to you.” Marie can also record voices into the shell, but the voice can only be used once.
  • Marie can, “hear voices from people who are gone. Who died hundreds of years ago. I hear voices in the walls of Atlantia, especially siren voices. They’ve been saved up, embedded in the walls.”
  • One of the characters can tell if a siren is telling a lie. “If I listen closely, I can hear something in their voices when they’re not telling the truth. It sounds like the wrong note in a song.”

Spiritual Content

  • Atlantia’s gods are the same gods as the ones above, but they take different shapes. When the people came to Atlantia, the leaders, “assigned land-animal faces and bodies to the gods for those of us who worship Below, and sea forms for those Above.”
  • The Atlantia religion was, “agreed upon by the sirens and the people together. They studied old histories. They learned about the gods. And then they shaped it all to fit the way their lives were. The Counsel took our religion to the Above, and the Above began to believe as well.”
  • The people of Atlantia are taught that those who live below have a “short life, illness, weakness, and misery. . . It is fair. It is as the gods decreed at the time of the Divide. Some have to stay Above so that humanity might survive Below. . . Thanks to the gods for the sea where we live, for the air we breathe, for our lives in the Below.”
  • Rio’s mother told her that, “some people say that the sirens are miracles, not people. . . Can you imagine believing such a thing? People can be miracles.”
  • Rio’s mother told her, “The gods know everything. . . They know how difficult this is. And they are pleased with you.”
  • Rio’s friend said, “I believe in them (the gods) so much that I don’t think they need statues everywhere to be powerful.”
  • When a portion of Atlantia has to be sealed off, many people die. Rio prayed, “and it’s not to Efram or any of the tiger gods, or any of the gods at all. It’s their faces I picture; it’s hers. My mother’s.” Later, Rio again prays to her mother and the gods.
  • Some people worship Rio’s mother and light candles for her.
  • Rio learns that “the temple, the gods, all of it, was a façade, a conceit. It was a way to make things more beautiful. . . No one thought of the gods as gods. They thought they were gargoyles. Decorations.” But later, the “people came to believe.” Later Rio wonders what it would be like to fashion your own gods.

A Dangerous Path

Times are rough in the forest, and all the Clans are wary of each other. With ShadowClan’s new and dangerous leader, Tigerstar, everyone in ThunderClan is on edge. None of the other Clans see anything wrong with Tigerstar’s leadership, but Fireheart knows better. Fireheart is convinced that the new leader will bring danger, and he has a feeling that something terrible is brewing. Dreams of danger haunt Fireheart, who worries that there is a connection between his foreboding dreams and Tigerstar’s rise to power.

There is also a strange evil loose in the forest, lurking in the shadows. When the leader of ThunderClan turns her back on StarClan, Fireheart is not sure what to believe. Should he trust in StarClan and his dreams to lead the Clan to safety? Has StarClan abandoned them?

The fifth installment of the Warrior Series has a slow pace that continues for the first half of the book.  Like the previous books, the cats hunt, go to meetings, and train apprentices. Although many aspects of the books are repetitious, the number of characters and the complexity of the plot may confuse some readers. The story continues to hint about a terrible danger, but the mystery behind the danger takes too long to solve. Still, once revealed, it creates a tense climax for the novel.

The story focuses on Bluestar, who has suffered a devastating loss and has become irrational as a result. Bluestar’s negativity gives the book a darker tone. Although the story is still a good adventure that allows readers to see into the cats’ world, A Dangerous Path has a more mature tone and adds themes of danger, death, and violence. The story covers some difficult topics such as Cloudkit’s skepticism regarding StarClan, and a cat willing to scheme to kill others. For those who have fallen in love with the Warrior series, A Dangerous Path sets up an epic battle that will take place in The Darkest Hour.

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • Leopardstar and Bluestar fight over territory. Other cats join the fight. Leopardstar yowled and launched herself at Bluestar. “The two cats crashed to the ground, spitting and clawing. Fireheart sprang forward to help his leader, but before he reached her a warrior crashed into his side, bowling him over and sinking his teeth into Fireheart’s shoulder. Fireheart scrabbled against the RiverClan cat’s belly with his hindpaws, desperate to break his grip, and slashing at his enemy’s throat. The tabby warrior let go and backed off yowling.” Many cats are injured, but no one is killed. The fight takes place over six pages.
  • A group of cats was looking for two apprentices. When they find them, “Foul-tasting bile rose into his throat as he took in the scene in front of him. . . In the middle of the clearing Swiftpaw’s black-and-white body lay motionless, and just beyond him, Brightpaw. . . The apprentice lay on his side, his legs splayed out. His black-and-white fur was torn, and his body was covered with dreadful wounds, ripped by teeth far bigger that any cat’s. His jaws still snarled and his eyes glared. He was dead, and Fireheart could see that he had died fighting.”
  • Fireheart finds a dead cat, but it is not described.
  • Graypool’s “paws slid from under her. She rolled down the steep slope in a scramble of legs and tail, and landed hard against one of the rocks the pulled out of the turf. There she lay, and did not move again.”
  • While Snowkit was playing, there was a hawk. “The hawk plunged down toward the clearing. Snowkit screamed as the cruel talons fastened onto his back. The great wings flapped. . . As the hawk lifted off, she sprang upward and snagged her claws in the white kit’s fur. . . The hawk released the kit with one foot and scored its talons across Speckletail’s face. The she-cat lost her grip and fell back, landing heavily on the ground.”
  • Tigerstar attacks Fireheart, in the hopes that the dogs will catch up and kill him. “Fireheart struggled desperately to get free, lashing out with his hind paws to claw a tuft of fur from his enemy’s belly. . . The reek of his scent was in Fireheart’s mouth and nostrils, and his amber eyes glared into Fireheart’s own.” After Tigerstar let go of Fireheart, the dogs came. “Pain stabbed him as sharp teeth met his scruff. His limbs flailed helplessly as the dog lifted him from the ground and shook him from side to side. He twisted in the air, struggling to claw eyes, jowls, tongue, but his thrashing paws met nothing.” Bluestar knocks the dog off balance, saving Fireheart and sending the dogs and her into the gorge. Fireheart jumps in and tries to save her, but it is too late. He gets her to shore with the help of two RiverClan warriors, but Bluestar dies on shore.

Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • When angry, the cats occasionally call each other terms such as mouse dung, crowfood, furball, and mouse brain. For example, Bluestar got angry and said, “What a mouse-brained fool.”
  • Someone asked Fireheart, “Are you just going to stand there and let that piece of fox dung take over?”
  • Tigerstar asked a cat about some kits, and when she did not respond right away he snapped and said, “Tell me whose kits they were, old crowfood.”
  • When they started talking about StarClan, a cat said, “You don’t really believe that load of thistledown, do you?”
  • When he was falsely accused, Tigerstar said, “All this is a pile of mouse dung.”
  • When preparing to go into battle, a cat says, “They’ll make crowfood out of us!” This phrase is used twice.
  • Someone made a bad choice and a cat said, “What a mouse-brained idea!” This phrase is used three times.
  • Several time a cat is called a furball. For example, when the Clan was mad at someone, another cat said, “Then half of the Clan are stupid furballs.”

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • StarClan is the heavenly tribe of dead warrior cats that watches over all the cat clans. Cats that die go to StarClan and can come back in dreams to share visions or prophecy. StarClan can help shape fate because they can see the future.
  • One of the cats “is afraid she’ll go to StarClan soon.”
  • A cat died so it is said that, “she hunts with StarClan now.”
  • Cinderpelt received a dream from StarClan and tells Fireheart about it. She said she heard a huge animal walking saying, “Pack, Pack and Kill, Kill.”
  • Spottedleaf and Yellowfang are medicine cats that walk with StarClan. They visited Fireheart’s dreams to give him advice.
  • If a leader or medicine cat needs to speak with StarClan, they go to highstones. When they are there, they touch the moonstone at night and can share dreams with StarClan.
  • When the cats were fighting, a cat yelled, “Defend yourself or I swear by StarClan I’ll kill you.”
  • When a cat is made into a warrior, the leader says, “By the powers of StarClan, I give you your warrior name.”
  • A cat believed she had made StarClan angry so she said, “I have brought down the wrath of StarClan on you.”

by Paige Michelle

The Collectors #1

Van notices things. He keeps his eyes open and finds all sorts of things that other people don’t notice. A marble in the grass. A tiny astronaut with one arm raised. But Van is small and most people don’t notice him.

One day, Van notices a girl and a silver squirrel stealing a coin from a fountain. But what’s even stranger is that the girl notices Van. When Van sees the silver squirrel stealing a birthday wish, Van decides to follow the squirrel and find the mysterious girl. What he finds instead is a dangerous place where wishes are real. He discovers that the Collectors steal wishes and put them away before they can come true. But soon, Van realizes that not all wishes are good, and some good wishes can have dangerous consequences.

Beautiful descriptions create an enchanting mythology around wishes. Van’s curiosity, powers of observation, and desire to do what is right lead him into a world of trouble. Van isn’t sure who to trust—Mr. Falborg who is friendly and seems kind or the Collectors who are shrouded in secrets. This conflict lasts until the end of the story and leads to an unexpected conclusion.

Van’s character is not only well developed, but he is also unique. He must use a hearing aid and often has difficulty communicating. Van struggles to understand people who don’t face him as they speak or when they speak too quickly. Throughout the story, Van has to work out what he thought someone said and translate it into what they most likely said. Having a main character with a hearing impairment allows readers to understand Van’s disability. At one point in the story, Van gets angry, asking, “Why does everybody think I want to hear the way THEY do!?” Van shows that he doesn’t need to be “fixed” and be like everyone else.

The Collectors explores the idea of power and unintended consequences. When it comes to Wish Eaters, “It’s not a matter of good or bad. It’s not about kindness or evil. It’s not even a matter of intentions. You can mean to do good and still do terrible things. . . If you give someone, anyone, too much power, enough power that they can control everyone around them—then you run a terrible risk.” The Collectors is a fantastic book that has magic, suspense, humor, and a talking squirrel that is obsessed with the smell of food.

This kid-friendly mystery is suspenseful, but not scary. At one point in the story, Van wonders if Wish Eaters are, “more dangerous than a bunch of guys who steal me out of my bed in the middle of the night and angle me over a bottomless pit?” Strong readers will want to pick up The Collectors to find out the answer.

Sexual Content

  • A boy thinks that Van’s mother and his father are “probably kissing.” When the boys go to spy on their parents, they discover that “Their hands were very close together, but their lips were several inches apart.”

Violence

  • When Van discovers where the Collectors conduct their business, a man threatens him. The man says, “Do not come back here. Do not mention anything about us, or about this place, to anyone. We will be watching you. . . And if we find out that you have spoken of us, you and anyone you’ve told will have to be . . . removed.”
  • Two dark-coated men kidnap Van. “Someone tugged a black cotton bag over Van’s head. Van felt the jostle of being lifted over the window. . . He tried to scream, but the bag seemed to trap the sound inside his own head. . .” Van is not injured.
  • Van’s mother is hit by a car. Van sees her “leg was bent at an impossible angle.”
  • Collectors try to capture a Wish Eater that “was larger than a city bus.” The monster charges at Van. “Van could hear its huffing, hungry breath. . . Cell doors rattled as it charged by.” The Collectors chase after the Wish Eater. “The beast spun. Its whipping tail knocked several people off their feet. Its teeth snapped at two others, catching and tossing them backwards.” The scene takes place over 4 pages. No one is injured.
  • Someone makes a wish that puts Van in an underground train tunnel. Van was, “standing on the tracks. He was deep, deep below the earth. There was not a platform in sight . . . There was no safe space to escape to, and no time to run.” Van is uninjured.

Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • God is used as an exclamation once.
  • Someone calls Van a moron.
  • Someone calls Van a “little idiot.”

Supernatural

  • The Collectors are a group of people who “see things normal people don’t see and hear things they don’t hear. We live longer than normal people can live. We don’t get born. We’re wished.”
  • The Collectors take people’s wishes and put them in bottles so that the wish can never come true. Pebble explains that people’s wishes shouldn’t come true because “Do you want to get trampled by dinosaurs? Do you want an eight-year-old boy to be king of the whole world? Do you want every food in the world to taste like chocolate ice cream?”
  • A wish is an unpredictable thing because “wishes are extraordinarily hard to control. And once a wish becomes a dead wish, once no limitations remain, once that wish is nothing but magical energy—it becomes an exceedingly powerful thing. It is pure chaos.”
  • Wish Eaters can be of various shapes and sizes. One Wish Eater was “a giant, roaring, rippling beast. It was shaped like a stretched-out crocodile, with a thrashing tail, a triangular head, and a long . . . long . . . impossibly long snout full of jagged, needle-sharp teeth.”
  • If a Wish Eater eats a wish, the wish comes true, if it is a “variable wish. A living wish. An authentic wish. A wish with its roots in the magic of millennia.”
  • When Van wishes to go somewhere unnoticed, a toy sleigh and reindeer come to life and grow. The sleigh “hung in the night air just outside his bedroom window, twinkling with a haze of pearly mist. It swelled and stretched until it was the size of an actual sleigh, and the plastic reindeer were as big as real reindeer, and the plastic Santa that turned its cheery smile towards Van was just the right size for a jolly old elf.” The sleigh takes Van to his destination.
  • Someone makes a wish that makes Van let Wish Eaters out of their cage. “Panic spread through Van’s chest. What was he doing? Why was he doing it? And how was he doing it without even trying? . . . Something was controlling him. Van realized it with a dizzying jolt. Something else was moving him . . .”

Spiritual Content

  • None

First Test

Keladry of Mindelan dreams of becoming a lady knight. A generation ago, that would not have been possible. But ten years ago, the King announced that ladies could try for their knighthood. In the decade since, no girl has dared to try. Until now.

Kel knows becoming a knight will not be easy. Years of hard training and study lie between Kel and her dream. But that’s not all. Kel did not know she would be placed on probation—something no boy has ever endured. And she did not realize how much resistance she would meet. Knights don’t think she is strong enough, her trainer does not think women should be knights, and the other trainees are determined to drive her away.

A delightful start to the Protector of the Small Quartet, First Test is a thoroughly enjoyable read. Kel is a brave and kind soul that readers will fall in love with. The other characters in this book are also refreshingly well-developed, from her training master and friends, to her enemies and even her horse. Protector of the Small is an enjoyable story filled to the brim with equal parts fun and excitement. It teaches readers how to be a true knight—how to be honorable, selfless, brave, and to always protect those who are weaker than yourself.

Kel wants to fight, but she’s not interested in glory. She wants to use her shield to protect those who can’t protect themselves. Unlike many female heroines, Kel doesn’t disguise herself as a boy or throw temper tantrums. Instead, she uses quiet determination and her intelligence to overcome obstacles. Kel’s story touches on themes of friendship, bravery, and shows the importance of not bullying others.

Several characters from the Song of the Lioness series appear throughout The Protector of the Small series, which will be a treat for fans of Alanna. However, readers do not have to read the Song of the Lioness series first in order to understand this series. Jump into a medieval world where fantasy and action combine to create a girl-centered adventure that will keep readers turning the pages until the very end.

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • Kel survived a pirate attack when she was a girl. “The lady tumbled to the ground. Kel slid out the door on her belly. Turning, too startled to cry, she saw the lady at her mother’s feet. There was an arrow in the Yamani woman’s back.”
  • Kel fights with a group of boys when they try to drown a bag of kittens. No one is seriously injured. “Another lad grabbed a branch and swung at her; she blocked it with hers, then rammed the length of wood into his stomach. He doubled over, gasping.”
  • Kel tries to rescue a bag of kittens from a spidren that wants to eat them. The spidren bites a kitten in half, then comes after Kel. Kel freezes in terror, and she does not see when soldiers kill the spidren.
  • Kel fights a group of bullies several times. “Gripping Zahir’s index finger, Kel jammed her thumbnail into the base of Zahir’s own nail . . . He yelped and let go. Joren lunged for her. She stepped back, ducking under Zahir’s frantic punch . . . She grabbed Joren’s tunic and turned, kneeling as she did. He went flying over her shoulder.”
  • The pages say that “a page failed the examinations about six years ago and jumped off the Needle.”
  • The pages go on a spidren hunt with a group of knights. The spidren took a woman, and the knights say they have to find the spidrens because, “Often they bite off a victim’s limb, then slap a web on it, to keep them from dying of blood loss. The woman they took may yet live.”
  • The pages fight when the knights find the spidrens. “The weapon’s slim razor point sliced through the spidren’s chest and arm, releasing a spray of dark blood. Kel reversed the spear and cut back, dragging the blade down. It bit into the spidren at the neck and stuck there as crossbow bolts riddled the immortal.”
  • After the battle, soldiers rolled, “a barrel of blazebalm into the [spidren’s] nest. A mage whispered, and the blazebalm roared into flames. Hearing the young shriek as they burned, Kel found it was her turn to vomit.”

Drugs and Alcohol

  • Adults sometimes drink wine with their meals.

Language

  • Phrases such as Goddess bless are used frequently as a part of Tortallian culture. One time, Alanna thinks, “Goddess bless . . . How will I ever get on with him if I’m to help this girl Keladry?” Another time, Neal asks Kel, “Why in the name of all the gods in all the Eastern and Southern Lands would you start a fight with them?”

Supernatural

  • Kel lives in Tortall, a world filled with monsters and magic. The monsters include griffins, centaurs, and more. Some are good, some are not. Kel even has a basilisk for a teacher. “The creature was fully seven feet tall, not counting the long tail it used to balance itself, and it was viewing her with fascination. Its large gray slit-pupiled eyes regarded her over a short, lipless muzzle.”
  • Several people, called mages, have the ability to use magic and some can heal with magic. Kel’s friend Neal is one of them. “Neal rested her foot on his hands and bowed his head. A soft light of such a deep green as to be nearly black shimmered between his palms and Kel’s flesh . . . The pounding in her foot began to soften until it had ceased. Her toes shrank back to their normal size as she watched.”
  • “A mage was briefly granted the power to raise the dead last year.” One of the things he brought back to life was, “a kind of living skeleton, a creature of bone and air. It had flown to perch on her, yet its wings were empty, slender fans made of very long finger bones.”

Spiritual Content

  • Tortall has many gods. They are named similarly to the Greek gods. For example, Mithros is the god of the sun, and there is a god of death. The gods are mentioned often in the Tortallian culture but are not an integral part of the plot.
  • Characters often pray before meals or battles. “We ask the guidance of Mithros in these uncertain times, when change threatens all that is time-honored and true. May the god’s light show us a path back to the virtues of our fathers and an end to uncertain times. We ask this of Mithros, god of the sun.”
  • While visiting a foreign land, Kel hears about their sacred relics. “They are the swords given to the children of the fire goddess, Yama . . . The short sword is the sword of law. Without it, we are only animals. The long sword is the sword of duty. It is the terrible sword, the killing sword.”

by Morgan Lynn

 

 

 

Rising Storm

Fireheart’s enemy, Tigerclaw, has been exiled from ThunderClan. Even with him gone, the clan is still shaken. Because Fireheart is now the deputy, he has to hold the entire Clan together. No matter how he tries to forget Tigerclaw, he cannot shake the feeling that he is still out there, waiting for the perfect moment to strike. With his apprentice acting up and breaking the code, a major sickness in ShadowClan, and Bluestar on the edge, Fireheart struggles to keep the Clan together.

Along with attacks from different Clans and rouges, ThunderClan is at risk. Bluestar is getting weaker, and with the recent betrayal of Tigerclaw, everyone is worried about her. She is a shell of her former self and is haunted by sinister omens. Everyone knows that a storm is coming. Will Fireheart be able to unite his clan?

Rising Storm picks up immediately after the last book, which is a time of great fear for ThunderClan. The tone of this book is darker, full of suspense and dread of the unknown. Readers will enjoy seeing Fireheart grow into a capable leader and will be anxious to see if Bluestar can regain her confidence, or if she will continue to spiral. One of the best aspects of this book is the constant action, as it’s full of battles, cliffhangers, and plot twists. The ending will leave readers shocked, so make sure you have the next book ready! The drama will continue in The Dangerous Path.

 Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • The WindClan cats fight Fireheart and his friends. “Deadfoot leapt from the badger set onto his back, he rolled with him, falling to the ground and throwing the WindClan deputy off . . . He pushed back down with his hindlegs and flung himself at Deadfoot. The WindClan tom gasped as Fireheart knocked the breath from him.”
  • Fireheart is attacked by dogs. “With a vicious snarl, the dog lunged at him. Fireheart whipped around and lashed out with his forepaws, his claws sharp as blackthorns. He felt the flesh rip on the dog’s swaying jowls and heard it yelp in pain.”
  • Fireheart attacks Whitethroat because he thinks that Whitethroat killed his friend. “He let out a furious screech and flung himself at Whitethroat, who shrank away, hissing. Fireheart knocked the ShadowClan warrior back, and Whitethroat landed limply on the ground.”
  • Fireheart and Tigerclaw got into a fight. “Tigerclaw’s eyes widened with surprise as Fireheart crashed into him, claws unsheathed and hissing with rage . . . Fireheart felt himself being flung from Tigerclaw’s back, felt the impact of the parched ground as he landed on his side. He gasped for the air that had been knocked from his lungs and struggled to his paws. He wasn’t fast enough. Tigerclaw pounced on him, pinning him to the ground with claws that seemed to pierce Fireheart to the bone . . . In desperation Fireheart pushed us with his hind legs, his claws raking for a hold on Tigerclaw’s belly . . . The gray warrior lunged at Tigerclaw’s exposed belly, knocking him backward. Fireheart whipped around and bit the shoulder of the cat that clung to his hindleg until he felt his teeth scrape against bone. He released the rogue when he squealed, and spat out the blood that had dripped into his mouth.” The fight goes on for three pages.
  • After the fire, Fireheart and Graystripe look for the cats that were left behind. They find a dead cat and see, “where Halftail’s scorched body lay at what used to be the entrance to Yellowfang’s fern tunnel.”
  • When Fireheart found Yellowfang, “She lay with her legs crumpled beneath her, soot-covered and wheezing, too weak to move. She could barely hold his gaze, and when she spoke her voice was breathless and feeble.”

Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • When angry, the cats occasionally call each other terms such as mouse dung, crowfood, furball, and mouse brain. For example, Bluestar got angry and said, “What a mouse-brained fool.”

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • StarClan is the heavenly tribe of dead warrior cats that watches over all the cat clans. Cats that die go to StarClan and can come back in dreams to share visions or prophecy.
  • When a cat dies, they go to StarClan. StarClan guides and helps the cats through dreams and prophecies. StarClan can help shape fate because they can see the future.
  • Bluestar said that StarClan had summoned her and that she had to go to answer the call. Bluestar went to the Moonstone in order to speak with StarClan, their warrior ancestors.
  • When the cats were discussing something, someone said, “Only StarClan knows.”
  • When they were joking around, Cinderpelt said, “May StarClan banish all the fleas from your nest.”
  • When something big happened, a cat said, “Perhaps it was what StarClan intended.”
  • When Fireheart dreamed, Spottedleaf, the dead medicine cat, came and said, “Beware an enemy that seems to sleep.”
  • When they were arguing Cinderpelt said, “What in StarClan is worrying you?”
  • A cat said, “Perhaps StarClan has a different destiny for him.”
  • Spottedleaf came to Fireheart’s dream and warned him about the fire.
  • Smallear got mad and said, “I told you StarClan would show its anger!”
  • When raining started falling after a fire, Fireheart interpreted it as, “StarClan was weeping for all that had been lost.”
  • As Yellowfang was dying, she said, “StarClan may judge me how they will.”
  • Because Patchpelt and Halftail died, Fireheart said they, “are with StarClan now.”
  • When Fireheart told Runningnose that Yellowfang died, he said, “She died trying to save a Clanmate from the fire. StarClan will honor her bravery.”

by Paige Michelle

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

The ministry has fallen to He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, who is the new Minister of Magic in all but name. Wizards and witches across the nation whisper, too frightened to fight, unsure of who to trust. And elsewhere, the Hogwarts Express is on its way to school without three of its students – Harry, Ron, and Hermione.

Rather than return to school, the three friends set off on a quest to find He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named’s horcruxes—and destroy them. Only then can He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named be stripped of his immortality and defeated. But seemingly insurmountable obstacles pile up, leaving the trio of friends scared, confused, and frustrated with the world and with each other. Near-death experiences abound in the most harrowing, adventured-packed book of the series. While the first half of the story may drag for some readers, the payoff is spectacular and the novel ends in a whirlwind of revelations.

This epic conclusion to the Harry Potter series satiates readers with a deluge of their favorite characters from all seven books, woven together in a realistic and nostalgic masterpiece. With plenty of twists and turns, readers will be reeling by the time they finish and sad that this marvelous adventure has finally come to an ending that is heartbreaking and joyful at the same time.

Sexual Content

  • Ginny kisses Harry on his birthday. “Then she was kissing him as she had never kissed him before, and Harry was kissing her back, and it was blissful oblivion, better than firewhisky; she was the only real thing in the world, Ginny, the feel of her, one hand at her back and one in her long, sweet-smelling hair.”
  • Auntie Muriel comments that “Ginevra’s dress is far too low cut.”
  • In a hallucination, Harry and Hermione kiss. “Riddle-Hermione . . . stretched like a snake and entwined herself around Riddle-Harry, wrapping him in a close embrace: Their lips met.”
  • Ron and Hermione kiss. “Running at Ron, she flung them around his neck and kissed him full on the mouth. Ron threw away the fangs and broomstick he was holding and responded with such enthusiasm that he lifted Hermione off her feet.”

Violence

  • He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named kills a witch. “The flash of green light illuminated every corner of the room. Charity fell, with a resounding crash, onto the table below.”
  • Harry and Hagrid are chased by Death Eaters. The fight takes place over eight pages. “As he looked back again two jets of green light flew past his left ear: Four Death Eaters had broken away from the circle and were pursuing them, aiming for Hagrid’s broad back.”
  • George loses an ear. Harry isn’t there during the fight, but afterwards he sees, “George, who was unconscious and whose face was covered in blood . . . Harry’s stomach lurched: One of George’s ears was missing. The side of his head and neck were drenched in wet, shockingly scarlet blood.”
  • The Order of the Phoenix raises a toast to a dead comrade. “The firewhisky seared Harry’s throat. It seemed to burn feeling back into him, dispelling the numbness and sense of unreality, firing him with something that was like courage.”
  • During a heated argument, “Scrimgeour limped toward Harry and jabbed him hard in the chest with the point of his wand: It singed a hole in Harry’s T-shirt like a lit cigarette.”
  • Kreacher has to punish himself when he misbehaves. “The elf was already punishing himself: He fell to the ground and banged his forehead on the floor.”
  • Kreacher hits Mundungus “over the head with a saucepan.”
  • When escaping from the Ministry of Magic, Harry “raised an enormous fist and punched him, sending him flying through the air.”
  • Ron accidently splinches himself. “Hermione laid bare Ron’s upper arm, where a great chunk of flesh was missing, scooped cleanly away as though by a knife.”
  • A snake disguises itself as a woman. “She moved weirdly: He saw it out of the corner of his eye; panic made him turn and horror paralyzed him as he saw the old body collapsing and the great snake pouring from the place where her neck had been.” There is a fight that takes place over three pages. “There was a loud bang and a flash of red light, and the snake flew into the air, smacking Harry hard in the face as it went.”
  • After Ron runs away, “Hermione launched herself forward and started punching every inch of him that she could reach.”
  • Hermione is tortured. It is not shown, but Harry heard. “Hermione’s screams echoed off the walls upstairs.”
  • Wormtail tries to kill Harry. “Wormtail’s wand emitted sparks; his silver hand closed around Harry’s throat . . . Wandless, helpless, Pettigrew’s pupils dilated in terror. His eyes had slid from Harry’s face to something else. His own silver fingers were moving inexorably toward his own throat . . . Harry tried to pull the crusting metal fingers from around Wormtails’s throat, but it was no use. Pettigrew was turning blue . . . he gave a last twitch, and was still.”
  • He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named kills several people in a fit of rage. “Green light erupted through the room; the kneeling goblin rolled over, dead; the watching wizards scattered . . . again and again his wand fell, and those who were left were slain, all of them.”
  • Dobby is stabbed. “Harry looked down at the silver hilt of the knife protruding from the elf’s heaving chest.”
  • Harry uses an Unforgivable Curse. “The Death Eater was lifted off his feet. He writhed through the air like a drowning man, thrashing and howling in pain, and then, with a crunch and a shattering of glass, he smashed into the front of a bookcase and crumpled, insensible, to the floor.”
  • Professor McGonagall duels Snape. “She brandished her wand at a torch on the wall and it flew out of its bracket . . . the descending flames . . . became a ring of fire that filled the corridor and flew like a lasso at Snape – Then it was no longer fire, but a great black serpent that McGonagall blasted to smoke, which re-formed and solidified in seconds to become a swarm of pursuing daggers.”
  • The final battle at the end of the book spans five chapters, with a few calmer scenes in between. Several people die. At one point, “The world was rent apart. Harry felt himself flying through the air . . . He heard the screams and yells of his companions without a hope of knowing what had happened to them – And then the world resolved itself into pain and semidarkness: He was half buried in the wreckage of a corridor that had been subjected to a terrible attack . . . and Fred’s eyes stared without seeing, the ghost of his last laugh still etched upon his face.” Later on, “The house-elves of Hogwarts swarmed into the entrance hall, screaming and waving carving knives and cleavers . . . Harry saw Yaxley slammed to the floor by George and Lee Jordan, saw Dolohov fall with a scream at Flitwick’s hands, saw Walden Macnair thrown across the room by Hagrid, hit the stone wall opposite, and slide unconscious to the ground.”
  • He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named kills Snape. “The snake’s fangs pierced his neck . . . his knees gave way and he fell to the floor . . . [Snape] fell sideways onto the floor, blood gushing from the wounds in his neck.”

Drugs and Alcohol

  • The adults often drink a glass of wine or brandy, either with dinner or during meetings.
  • After a fight, Hagrid asks if Mrs. Weasley has brandy “Fer medicinal purposes.”
  • Fred reminisces about an uncle. “Before he went loopy he was the life and soul of the party . . . He used to down an entire bottle of firewhisky, then run onto the dance floor, hoist up his robes, and start pulling bunches of flowers out of his –”
  • Champagne is served at a wedding.
  • Hermione gets catcalled by “a group of men . . . singing and weaving across the pavement.” They tell her to “ditch ginger and come and have a pint!”

Language

  • God is used as an exclamation once. Ron says “God, that’s revolting.”
  • Ron uses the word git several times.
  • Damn and hell are used a few times. Harry says, “Let’s get rid of the damn thing.”
  • Ron tells Malfoy, “That’s the second time we’ve saved your life tonight, you two-faced bastard!”
  • Neville tells He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, “I’ll join you when hell freezes over.”
  • When Bellatrix almost kills Ginny, Mrs. Weasley shouts, “NOT MY DAUGHTER, YOU BITCH!”

Supernatural

  • Harry Potter is a wizard and lives in a world full of magic. He went to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, where he studied charms, potions, and defense against the dark arts. He is fighting a dark wizard who split his soul into seven pieces in order to become immortal. He works together with dragons and goblins in order to save the wizarding world from dementors and violent giants. In short, Harry is surrounded by magic and supernatural occurrences every day of his life. As such, not all instances are listed here.
  • Although the series revolves around magic, the story does not encourage children to try magic on their own. To cast a spell, wizards simply say a word and wave their wand. For example, saying luminos casts light.
  • Professor Trelawney made a prophecy about the Dark Lord before Harry was born. She does not remember making the prophecy afterward, but it is stored in a secret Hall of Prophecies hidden in the Ministry of Magic.
  • Harry can see flashes of what He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named is thinking and seeing, which causes his scar to burn.

Spiritual Content

  • There are ghosts in the castle that behave like regular (although transparent) people. One of Harry’s teachers is even a ghost.
  • He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named splits his soul and hides pieces of his soul in precious, hidden objects. His goal is to become immortal and unkillable. If he is killed, the pieces of his soul remain, and therefore he cannot truly die.
  • When visiting his parents’ gravestone, Harry asks about the inscription, “The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.” Hermione says, “It means . . . you know . . . living beyond death. Living after death.”
  • When He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named tries to kill him, Harry has an out-of-body experience, a vision of being in a train station. He speaks to Dumbledore who tells Harry that he can go back and continue to fight, or he can board a train. Harry asks, “‘Where would it take me?’ ‘On,’ said Dumbledore simply.”

by Morgan Lynn

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