Genre: Fantasy

Dreamland

Odea can walk people’s dreams. But walking in other’s dreams can be dangerous. Her mother has taught her the rules—never interfere, never be seen, and never walk the same person’s dream more than once.

Odea doesn’t understand her mother’s rules, or why her mother covers every mirror. Odea doesn’t understand her mother’s need to surround herself with clocks. And she definitely doesn’t understand why her mother keeps them on the move. Even though she doesn’t understand her mother, Odea has never questioned her mother’s reasons.

Until Connor moves next door. In the effort to get to know Connor, Odea begins walking his dreams.  But then, a series of events occur that makes Odea question everything. Her mother disappears, a mysterious boy begins to follow Odea in the dream world, and monsters begin chasing her. Odea isn’t sure who she can trust in the dream world or her own.

Dreamland pulls the reader into Odea’s story right from the start. Odea and her friend Gollum are both loveable outcasts, whose interactions are entertaining and endearing. However, it’s not just the characterization in Dreamland that pulls the reader into the story. Anderson creates a story that is believable, interesting, and full of suspense. There are multiple plots that run throughout the book; however, they are weaved together perfectly to make the story both easy to read and entertaining. In the end, the mystery of Odea’s mother is solved in a satisfying manner. Dreamland will captivate teenagers without the use of descriptive violence or sex scenes.

Sexual Content

  • The narrator thinks about a rumor in which a girl’s, “sole form of exercise came from. . . showing off various parts of her anatomy to different horny senior boys beneath the bleachers . . .”
  • Odea comes upon a boy who is swimming naked in a pond. “Then it hit her: he was swimming naked. He was naked right then. Which meant she was having a conversation with a naked boy.”
  • Odea dreams about a boy and thinks about the fact that she has never kissed anyone, but would like to. Then Odea’s enemy appears in the dream, “Her hair shimmered in the sun and her boobs floated like overturned cups on the water. Then they were kissing . . . She could hear the suction sound of their lips and the lapping of their tongues and the whisper of his fingers on her back and shoulders.”
  • Odea wonders if her, “real father was horrible, a criminal or a drug addict or someone who trafficked kiddie port.”
  • Conner and Odea kiss. “They moved together, finding each other through the soft pressure of their tongues. She brought her hands to his head; she leaned into him; she wanted to taste him and become him and be carried in these seconds forever.”

Violence

  • Odea throws some picture frames at her mother. “Her mom screamed. The glass shattered. The frame thudded to the ground. ‘God, Dea.’ Now her mom was shouting. ‘Jesus. You nearly gave me a heart attack.’” After a brief argument, Odea’s mom slaps her.
  • Part of the story revolves around the death of Connor’s mother and brother. The kids at school think that “He killed his mom. His brother, too. Beat his mom’s brains out, then shot his brother in the head the day before Christmas. He was, like, seven.”
  • Odea goes into Connor’s dream, where he sees men kill his mother and one-year-old brother.  Connor also tells Odea about the night they died. “The first shot didn’t kill her. It wasn’t meant to kill her . . . I heard my mom say please and no. I was so scared I couldn’t move. Couldn’t even hide . . . Then I heard . . . a crack. We found out later that it was her skull. He took the lamp from the bedside table and just hammered her head in . . . They shot Jake in the middle of the forehead. Execution-style.”
  • In a dream, two men “with a face like a hole and long, black fingers,” chase Odea. “As the men reached out their liquid fingers to her and unhinged their jaws, roaring, as if to swallow her whole—as she felt their wet breath on her throat and neck, their eager, tasting tongues, black as rot—a narrow opening was revealed . . .” Odea is able to escape.
  • After Odea’s mom disappears, the police begin following her. Odea is driving, trying to lose the police, when the faceless men from the dream world appear. “She screamed and wrenched the wheel to the right. The car jumped the gutter and plunged into the field. . . She bit down on her tongue and tasted blood. Then the black arms of the tree reached out to embrace her and she moved into the dark.”
  • A reporter tells Connor and Odea a story. “When I was three, my mom was killed by an intruder. Shot three times, point-blank range. Nearly took her head off . . . She worked as a stripper to keep the lights on and everybody knew it. . . Some junkie busted in, shot my mom, snatched the money, and ran.”
  • While in the psychiatric hospital, Odea sees, “a quick glimpse of naked skin—a man and woman together.” Then as she is walking with Connor, she thinks, “of the vision she’d seen in the gap between the curtains and wondered what it would be like. With Connor.”
  • While in a motel room, Odea “heard a headboard knocking against the wall and the sound of a woman moaning. She could feel her whole body blush.”

Drugs and Alcohol

  • After two mean girls confront Odea, they leave, “asses bumping right to left, the smell of booze trailing them.”
  • Odea is put in a psychiatric hospital because the police think Odea tried to commit suicide. While there, the nurses give her medication.
  • Odea remembers a time when her mom let her drink eggnog that had too much rum it.

Language

  • Profanity is used infrequently throughout the book. “Fuck” is used several times. Other profanity includes: ass, shit, and damn it.
  • Bitch is used once.
  • Gollum calls someone “an evil hell spawn.”
  • The narrator calls her cat an “asshole.”
  • Odea calls her car a “piece of shit.”
  • Odea remembers a time when a boy called her mom “a whore. She gives it out in the parking lot of the Quick-E-Lube.”
  • When Odea asks about the death of his mother and brother, Connor said, “fuck you.”
  • In the hospital, Odea’s nurse’s name was Donna Sue. Odea thinks it, “seemed like a name she might have made up to keep her patients at ease while she was busy sticking needles in their arms and probing their asses.”

Supernatural

  • Odea can travel to other people’s dreams. “Then there was a parting, as of a curtain, and Dea felt a soft sucking pressure on her skin and suddenly she had skin again, and ribs and lungs expanding inside of them. She came out of the dark like surfacing after being underwater and she was in. She’d made it. She was in Connor’s dream.”
  • In an effort to help Connor remember the night of his mother’s death, Odea goes into Connor’s mind while he is awake.
  • Odea uses a mirror to travel to the dream world where her mother is being held captive.

Spiritual Content

  • Connor tells Odea that he doesn’t believe in God or heaven. She then thinks, “She didn’t know whether she believed in God.”

Goddess

Ares was just the beginning of Helen’s problems. The rest of the gods are free, and they have gone right back to wreaking havoc on mortals. Helen might be the only one who can stop them, but in order to do so, she must do the unthinkable. She must become a goddess.

Becoming blood brothers with Orion and Lucas has changed everything. The four Scion houses are united, yet Atlantis is nowhere to be found. Helen scrambles to keep the people she loves safe, while also searching for a way to defeat literal gods. She begins to realize that she can’t keep everyone alive. The only question is, who will die in this war against the gods?

Helen comes into her own in Goddess. She is a powerful character who drives the story forward. Lucas also narrates a bit of the story, allowing the reader to see Helen’s strength from an outside perspective. There is a decent amount of sex and violence in this story. Goddess twists and turns in a way that will keep readers on the edge of their seats until the very end.

Sexual Content

  • Aphrodite curses a city. She says, “I abandon this place. No man shall feel desire, and no woman shall bear fruit. You will all die unloved and childless.”
  • The Greek gods return to Earth. They rape and kill several mortal women. “A terrified woman was struggling against a massive claw that was wrapped around her waist. Enormous wings . . . beat the air as the giant bird hauled her into the night sky.”
  • Andy is part siren, which means all men and even some women are incredibly attracted to her. Andy “had run away from every man who’d pursued her, but that didn’t stop them from chasing. She’d run away from the girls who had pursued her, too, and there had been plenty of those.”
  • When Helen and Orion are talking, Hector yells, “Hey, Orion? Put some pants on, toss her over your shoulder, and carry her off like a man, for the love of Pete!” He’s mostly
  • Helen and Orion kiss a few times. “He lowered his head and kissed her . . . she slid her hands across his shoulders and the back of his neck. The only thing that she could think was how amazing Orion felt. Amazing.”
  • Matt “turned his head and stared at the wall as [Ariadne] tossed something silky and lace-trimmed in her closet.” Ariadne tells him, “My lingerie isn’t going to strike you blind, you know.”
  • Helen sees a vision of Guinevere and Lancelot. “His hands dug into her hair, sending her hairpins flying and her tresses tumbling down around his calloused fingers in messy locks. His lips nudged hers apart. Guinevere fell back against the flagstones and pulled Lancelot down on top of her. He slid his knee between her thighs, pushing her many-layered skirts up until his hand could reach the bare skin underneath.”
  • Orion warns Cassandra that Phaon, “only goes for little girls.”
  • Ariadne and Matt have sex. “As Matt picked her up and carried her over to his bed, he marveled at how simple a gesture it was.”
  • In one of Helen’s visions, she “woke with Paris’ naked body tangled up with hers . . . Helen joined the memory as Paris was slipping into a deep sleep shortly after they had made love for the last time.”
  • When Phaon is about to die, he says to Orion, “Why so frustrated? I already told you, you can have the little one, Orion. You know she wants it from you.”
  • Cassandra, who hasn’t hit puberty yet, “turned her mouth up to his like a shy flower opening for the first time. In a daze, Orion lowered his lips and kissed her. Lucas’s foot connected with the side of Orion’s head . . . ‘She’s just a child!’ Lucas growled . . . ‘I know!’ Orion hollered. ‘I shouldn’t have–I’m sorry!’ “

Violence

  • It was feared that Helen of Troy was pregnant with the prophesized Tyrant, so Menelaus said, “I will beat the child out of you and love you still.” Then a mob tries to stone her. “When the first stone struck her, she did not cower or try to cover herself. More stones followed, battering her from all sides, until the mob ran out of stones to throw.” Helen still does not die, so the crowd says, “Behead her. It’s the only way.” To which Helen responds, “Yes, get a sword . . . I beg you.”
  • When Helen of Troy first discovered she was pregnant, she tried to kill herself and her baby. She says, “I tried, but I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t kill us myself.”
  • When Phaon tries to kill Orion, Helen springs to his defense. Lucas “held on to her, even though in that moment she was hotter than the surface of the sun . . . She switched off the current immediately, and he fell down with a scream . . . His hands, chest, and cheek were black and bloody, burned down to the bone by the ball of lightning she had created. He writhed on the ground in agony.”
  • When Daedalus duels Phaon, they realize, “He’s going to bleed Phaon to death . . . A cut here, a bone-breaking blow there, and on and on it went.”
  • Matt and Hector duel. “Matt’s sword was buried up to the hilt in his chest . . . Hector held onto his side, still clutching the thick blade that had run him clean through the heart. He hit the ground and his head turned upward, his eyes staring directly at the clouded sun.”
  • When Lucas challenges Achilles to a duel, his brother wonders, “Are you trying to kill yourself?”

Drugs and Alcohol

  • Helen finds out that Daphne has been drugging her father to keep him asleep.

Language

  • When Helen finds out her mother has been drugging her father, she plans, “to kick that no-hearted bitch’s ass.”
  • The words crap, moron, dickhead, and jackass are used once or twice.
  • The words hell and damn are used often.

Supernatural

  • Helen and her friends have many powers. These include controlling hearts, flying, breathing underwater, super strength, super hearing, and the ability to sense lies.
  • When Helen starts being able to see emotions, she says, “It’s as if everything that everyone is feeling is splashed across their insides, and I can see it!”
  • The Greek gods are real.
  • The people from the Trojan War, such as Achilles, Hector, Paris, and Helen, are real and have been reincarnated.

Spiritual Content

  • None

Dreamless

Helen’s world is turned upside down when she discovers that Lucas, her beloved, is her cousin. Tormented by the guilt of being in love with someone she is related to, and unable to banish her feelings for him, her despair begins to affect her time in the Underworld. Her experiences in the Underworld are so grueling that her friends and family begin to worry Helen is going insane, or even dying.

Despite her failing health, Helen can’t avoid the Underworld. She is the Descender. She must wander through Hades’ world, and search for a way to stop the Furies from tormenting her family. But her strength is fading. Even a demi-god can only survive so much before the trip to the Underworld stops being a visit, and becomes permanent.

Dreamless keeps the stakes high. Helen is plagued with incestuous thoughts and tries to avoid those by falling in love with her friend Orion. However, that only brings about a love triangle. Lucas burns with jealousy, and Helen is still unable to let go of her feelings for her cousin. This book has adult themes and conversations, as well as a smattering of language and a decent amount of violence. Most violence isn’t extremely graphic, aside from the final battle, which will leave readers dying to get their hands on the third and final book in this beautifully written trilogy.

Sexual Content

  • Castor tells Lucas, “Scions have been plagued with incest since Oedipus. And there have been others in this House who have fallen in love with their first cousins, like you and Helen . . . the children born to related Scions always suffer our greatest curse. Insanity.”
  • Orion and Helen kiss. “His head fell listlessly toward Helen, inch by inch, until his lips grazed lightly against her own. His mouth was very warm and soft. Like a new flavor she couldn’t quite place but that she wanted to swallow whole, Helen pulled his lower lip into her mouth to take a bigger sip of him. Catching his face in one of her hands so she could tilt his wilting mouth towards her . . . “
  • Morpheus, the god of dreams, tries to seduce Helen. “Helen ran her hands across his chest and allowed him to kiss her lightly as he spoke . . . [he] slid her hands up over her head, pinning her under him.”
  • Orion and Helen make out. “He lowered his mouth to hers and kissed her. Her knees melted. This guy was that good a kisser . . . He guided her down to the ground, careful not to crush her underneath him.”

Violence 

  • When Castor tries to stop his son from yelling at Helen, Lucas, “spun around and hit his father. The blow was so hard it sent Castor flying halfway across the kitchen and into a cabinet of glasses and mugs over the sink. Noel screamed, covering her face as shards of broken dishes went flying in every direction.”
  • The Furies make Orion and Helen try to kill each other. “There was blood on her hands. Stunned out of her trance, Helen looked down and saw a dark, wet circle expanding across Orion’s shirt . . . She had stabbed him. And then she kept pushing the tip of the blade into him a tiny bit at a time.”
  • Zach’s master abuses him. “Zach crumpled onto his knees, all the air rushing out of his lungs. Automedon had punched him in the gut so fast he’d never seen it coming.”
  • When a child is born with the ability to cause earthquakes, the child is “left on a mountainside to die of exposure to the elements.”
  • Ares tortured Helen. “Ares hit her face again and then stood up so he could kick her in the stomach. The wind came out between the seized-up muscles . . . He kicked her again and again. If she tried to avoid the blows by curling up and turning her back to him, he stomped rather than kicked. She felt her forearm snap and tried to bring her leg up to protect her side, but that only made him attack her more viciously.”
  • Automedon stabs Zach in the chest, killing him.

Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • The words hell, ass and damn are used frequently.
  • Other profanity is used rarely. The profanity includes crap, bitch, dick, asshole, bastard, son of a bitch, bullshit, and dickhead.

Supernatural 

  • There are Greek gods, demi-gods, and myrmidons in Dreamless. These beings have an assortment of powers, from super-strength to the control of hearts.

Spiritual Content   

  • None

Starcrossed

Helen has always been odd. Her biggest fear growing up was that someone would find out how much of a freak she really was. It’s not until a strange new family moves to her hometown on the island of Nantucket that she begins to realize just how different she is from the average teenager.

When the Delos family arrives, they open Helen’s eyes to another world. One where the ancient Greek stories of Troy, Tartarus, and Mount Olympus are true. Helen is more closely tied to this world than she could ever have dreamed. She is a Scion, a demigod, and with that knowledge comes the awakening of a myriad of powers she must learn to control.

But along with the Delos family arrives a curse. Scions have been tormented by the Furies for millenniums; three sisters who demand a blood debt be paid. This tortuous debt has cost countless lives, divided families, and driven Scions insane. Yet if that debt were to ever be paid in full, it would bring the end of the world.

Starcrossed is a page-turner that creates a world so wonderful one can’t help but wish it was real. Ancient Greek myths mesh with modern times in a delicious way, creating vivid characters and a whirlwind of action.

The Starcrossed series is best suited for more mature readers because the fight scenes add suspense, but also violence and blood.  There are few kisses but a plethora of sexual tension because Helen cannot be with the man she is falling in love with.

Sexual Content

  • While injured, Helen sleeps in the same bed as Lucas. “She gasped involuntarily as one of Lucas’s hands ran up the length of her thigh and latched on to the sloping dip from her hip to her waist. Then she felt him tense, as if he’d just realized that pillows weren’t shaped like hourglasses. His head jerked up and he looked around.”
  • When discussing Lucas with Helen, Kate says, “He’s like . . . wow! I could go to jail for even thinking what I’m thinking . . . But we’re not talking about me. We’re talking about you and Lucas and the importance of condoms.”
  • Creon lusts after Helen. “She was powerful, and yet so unaware of her potential she was nearly helpless. His hands shook at the thought of conquering her.”
  • Helen thinks she accidentally killed a child molester with her lighting. “That creepy guy . . . remember how he kept ‘accidentally’ bumping up against you and stroking your hair?”
  • When Helen is learning jujitsu Hector cracks a joke about Helen’s, “prone body and open legs.” Then Claire teases, “I would have thought it would be harder to get between your legs, but Hector doesn’t seem to be having any trouble at all.”
  • Helen and Lucas experience a lot of sexual longing while trying to stay away from each other. Helen asks Lucas, “Why are you sleeping on my roof and not in my bed?” Later she realizes that “There was a part of Helen that knew exactly how to seduce Lucas whether he wanted to be seduced or not, and that freaked her out.”
  • Helen wears the cestus, a mythical object that protects her. It looks different to everyone, because it turns into what most attracts them. When testing it, Helen “looked at Hector, focusing on him alone, and she felt her necklace change shape in her hand . . . Helen looked down and saw that she was holding a tiny scrap of lace that more closely resembled diamond-encrusted dental floss than underpants.”
  • Helen and Lucas kiss. “Lucas caught her and supported her as they tumbled on the wind, holding and kissing each other as he guided them safely back down to the catwalk.”
  • Lucas and Helen try to find a way to be together without being considered married. Helen suggests, “What if I wasn’t a virgin?” Lucas responds, “We’d be considered a married couple in the eyes of the gods, regardless of who took your virginity.”
  • When Lucas sees Helen in her pajamas he says, “since you apparently sleep in the most ridiculously transparent tank top I’ve ever seen, I’m going to have to ask you to get under the covers before I do something stupid.”

Violence

  • Helen attacks Lucas when she first sees him. “Lucas was holding her by the wrists to keep her hands away from his neck . . . if she could get her fingers half an inch closer, she could reach his throat. And then what? a little voice in her head asked. Choke the life out of him! answered another.”
  • Helen is attacked by a mysterious woman. “A wiry arm wrapped around her neck, simultaneously pulling back and pressing down until Helen fell to her knees . . . white and blue blobs bloomed across her field of vision . . . Helen crooked her arm and rammed her elbow into her attacker’s solar plexus with every bit of juice she had in her tank. She heard the person suck wind and then felt herself get dropped.”
  • Helen gets beat up when trying to learn how to fight. “Helen swallowed a mouthful of spit and blood and instantly regretted it when she choked on one of her own teeth.”
  • A reporter is murdered by a Scion. “She was lovely in terror–a perfect, pleading mast of alabaster white skin . . . Creon wanted to hold her like that for days, but a split second of enjoyment later he heard a snap. Like a switched-off TV, the light in her eyes contracted to pinpricks, and then went completely dark.”
  • It turns out that Helen is impervious to all weapons. “He started hacking away at her. Four strokes in, and the blade was ruined . . . The rain of blows ended abruptly when the sword fell apart.”
  • Creon tries to kill Helen. “He brought it down directly over her heart. Creon’s knife made a dozen pinging noises as it shattered and scattered off her skin . . . Lucas jumped on Creon with a vicious snarl, and the two of them began to fight so fast Helen could barely see their hands move. They punched and grabbed and gouged at each other, both of them changing from claw-handed boxing to some kind of strange wrestling in which they tried to bend each other’s joins in the wrong direction.”
  • Helen’s mother wakes up after being abducted. “There were deep vertical slashes on both her forearms that were still leaking fast-pumping blood even as they healed.”
  • A Scion, “drew a small bronze blade from his belt and slit Pandora’s neck so deeply he nearly cut off her head. She was dead before her blood had a chance to soak into the sand.”

Drugs and Alcohol

  • Helen’s mom, “Jabbed a needle into [Helen’s] neck . . . Helen felt her muscles go limp and refuse to follow her commands. The world faded into a pale gray haze.”
  • Helen’s mother is drugged with her own syringe.

Language

  • The words hell and ass are used frequently. Such as, “What the hell are you wearing?”
  • Crap and damn are said several times. For instance, when Claire sees Helen fly she says “Oh, damn it. You are a vampire.”
  • Jackass and shit are said once or twice.
  • Helen thinks, “I’m not usually a bitch–I’m just super-grouchy because I’m being stalked by three blood-crying ghosts who won’t let me sleep.”
  • When Helen is learning to fight with Hector, Jason yells, “She’s never fought before, you dickhead!”

Supernatural

  • Many of the characters in the books are demi-gods and have powers such as super-strength, super-speed, lightning bolts, flight, power over water, etc. In the book, “most of the ancient myths and great dramas are based on real people. The gods are real, and they had children with mortals. Half human, half god. We are their descendants. Their Scions.”
  • Scions are plagued by the Furies who force Scions from other houses to attack and try to kill each other. “For the first time in Helen’s life she knew what pure, heart-poisoning hatred was. She was not aware of the fact that she was running toward him, but she could hear the voices of the three sobbing sisters rise into a keening wail . . . The sisters were tearing at their hair until it came out of their scalps in bloody hanks.”
  • When Claire finds out what Helen is, she admits that she, “was a little worried [Helen] might try to drag me off to hell and drain my essence at some point.”
  • Cassandra is the Oracle. “The voices coming out of her were old and young and everything in between, all speaking in harmony . . . Cassandra’s mouth was glowing, and her hair was writhing around her head like snakes.”

Spiritual Content  

  • Helen and Orion spend much of their time in the Underworld, where all spirits go. They meet Hades and Persephone, and the god of death is mentioned.

Terrier

Beka lives in the Lower City, the roughest part of Corus. She is a Puppy, training to be one of the Dogs, those who police the streets and try to keep the Rats from causing too much hurt. The job is a deadly one and undesirable to most. But being a Dog is in Beka’s blood, and she will do everything in her power to protect the people of the Lower City–her people.

Terrier is the beginning of a trilogy, but each book is self-sufficient. This series is not like Pierce’s other books. It is an excellent and entertaining story, with heaps of action and convoluted plots that will reveal an unexpected ending. However, this series is meant for a more mature audience than the majority of Pierce’s novels. There is a decent amount of profanity as well as more sexual content. As Beka is a guardswoman, the majority of her job involves her capturing and fighting with criminals. While the fights and sexual content are not graphically described, they are plentiful.

Sexual Content

  • Beka sees a woman and notes that “there was a twitch to her hips. I’d wager she’d give her husband an extra-warm night, thinking of the tall Dog who had flirted with her.”
  • Beka calls her breasts peaches. When describing herself, she says, “My peaches are well enough. Doubtless they would be larger if I put on more pounds, but as I have no sweetheart and am not wishful of one for now, my peaches are fine as they are.”
  • There is a mage who works at the Kennel, who has “roaming hands, with their pinching and stroking fingers . . . Quick as a snake, Fulk grabbed my wrist. He smiled into my eyes, his fingers rubbing my arm.”
  • Beka accidentally lets her neighbor see her half-dressed. “I blinked at Rosto. Trouble has just moved in, I thought. Then I remembered I stood there in no more than breastband and breeches. I shrieked and slammed my door.”
  • Beka sees a male prostitute. “He beckoned to me, flexing hard chest muscles. I looked away. It was a very tight loincloth.”
  • Rostro has two girls he is intimate with at one point, which Beka and Ersken discuss briefly. “‘And he’s got Aniki or Kora.’ ‘I’d say both.’ ‘That’s his business, Ersken.'”
  • While Beka says she will never get involved with Rosto, she admits, “He makes my skin, my peaches, and my other parts tingle in an agreeable way. Naught will come of it.”
  • Beka goes to a tavern while pursuing a case. “That same knight beckoned to a serving maid as the two noblemen seated themselves. She thrust the neck of her dress lower, when it already did little enough to cover her peaches.” Later some men “made a game of looking under tables, benches, and the mots’ skirts. More than a few earned cuffs and boxed ears from the mots who objected.”
  • A knight notices a prostitute at a tavern. “The wench who’d gotten his attention was one of the higher-priced doxies there, wearing a dress and earrings that did not come from Cheappretty Row.” His friend says he “is all kinds of fat in the purse, and he loves to pay double when he’s happy.”
  • Beka finds her neighbor in “only her shift, though the day was cool and rainy. Moreover, I saw Ersken pulling on his breeches behind her . . . ‘I’m my own mot and can say who shares my bed,’ Kora told me. ‘Rosto knows.’ She smiled. ‘We’re still friends, just not bed friends.'”
  • Goodwin finds a coil of wire hidden in a codpiece. “She reached around the rusher and grabbed his metal codpiece. “‘Oh, sweet one,’ the cove said with a moan, ‘my lovey, my–’ ‘Shut up.’ Goodwin yanked the codpiece hard.”
  • A criminal tells Tunstall, “Pox on yer privates if ye think I’ve a word for ye.”
  • Kora kisses her boyfriend. “Then she kissed him again for a goodlytime. I grabbed the ham, as it seemed they would be occupied for a while.”
  • Rosto kisses Beka. He “grabbed me by the back of the neck, and kissed me on the mouth. I should have punched him, but his mouth was sweet and soft. I will punch him next time.”

 

Violence

  • Goodwin is attacked while trying to make an arrest. “Orva struck backhand, her fist turned sideways. She caught Goodwin with the butt of the hilt square on the hinge of the jaw. Goodwin dropped, her eyes rolled up in her head.”
  • Goodwin tells Beka they can’t catch every Rat. “Do you know how many robberies there are in a day in the Lower City, how many burglaries, how many purse cuttings, rapes, brawls . . . Do you know how many mothers drown newborns and tots in privies or rain barrels? How many fathers and uncles toss them into the rear yard with broken skulls?”
  • Beka has to break up a tavern brawl while on duty. “Someone pushed me against a table. I smashed him across the head hard, then shoved him behind me. I heard him smack into furniture . . . I finally remembered Ahuda’s teaching and fought my way to a wall.”
  • Beka and her partners break up a fight. “He roared and charged Tunstall, head down. Tunstall turned to the side and swung up his bent knee. He caught the charging Parks brother on the chin . . . He never saw me smack his wrist with my baton. When he dropped the weapon, he bent to grab it. I hit him on the spine, praying I hadn’t done it too hard.”
  • The Rogue mentions he will give his guards “a choice between death and life as a maimed beggar” after they failed him.
  • Beka sees a woman being abused by her brother. “He knocked her sideways, sending her sprawling on the floor. Now I knew where her bruises came from.” Beka stops him from hitting her, too. “I blocked his swing with my forearm, though it jarred my teeth. While he gaped, I grabbed that wrist with my free left hand and yanked him toward me over the counter . . . When he grabbed at me with his free hand, I seized it and twisted so he’d stop thrashing.”
  • A woman confesses that “I tried to get my man to move in . . . but he wouldn’t allow for it. Said he wasn’t meant to live with little ones. So one night I took the blanket and I put it over my boy’s face until he stopped breathin’.”
  • Beka and her team stop a robbery. “I scooped my own kick forward and up, between his legs, and slammed a metal codpiece with my foot. Had it been solid metal, not pieces, I might’ve hurt myself. Instead it gave way under my kick. The rusher groaned, his eyes rolling up in his head. I hadn’t seen him draw a dagger with his free hand. It slid just past my right side, slicing my loose tunic and shirt.”
  • When Beka deals with a criminal, “He slapped me. I didn’t try to stop him this time. I wasn’t sure I would break his arm. I had to be better than him.” The criminal tells her, “I’ll see you raped and your body left in a midden, your throat cut in two.”
  • Beka and a team of Dogs storm a house. “The cove didn’t even see Goodwin lunge in under his strike. She struck him full in the belly with her baton. He doubled over, retching. She knocked him out.”
  • Beka and her Dogs find multiple mass graves. “Half of the cellar was under a huge mound of dirt. I gagged. The smell was dreadful, like a Cesspool butcher’s dump in the summer heat . . . We worked gently, fearing what we might hit. I’d just felt the tip of my shovel touch sommat when we heard wings in that hot space . . . We found eight dead there.”
  • When Beka and her Dogs corner a criminal, “He thrust the dagger into his throat under his jaw. He did it before we could move, and no amount of healing could have saved him. He bled to death fast, making a frightful mess.”

Drugs and Alcohol

  • Tunstall goes out to dinner with some other adults. “So the wine was flowing well, and there was brandy after supper.”
  • While Beka does not usually partake, her partners and friends often drink ale with their suppers.
  • Beka writes once, “I fere I broke my rule and Dranke more wine thann I shud.”
  • A Puppy dies, and it is said that one of her trainers was drunk on duty when it happened.

Language

  • The words “piss,” “piddle,” and “scummer” are used often.
  • Insults such as “pig scummer,” “cracknob” and other impolite, but not profane, words are used. Beka calls a group of lazy Dogs, “scummernobs.” When particularly angry, she once says “pox-rotted pus-leaking mumper bags.”
  • Beka tells her friend that she is “making an ass of yourself.”
  • A violent woman that Beka arrested shouts at her. “You bitch! . . . You puttock, you trollop, you trull . . . I’ll cut your liver out, you poxied leech! Why wouldn’t you let me go! You ruined my life!”
  • The words “bitch” and “bastard” are used a few times. A criminal calls Goodwin a “mangy bitch,” and Beka thinks “I needed to catch up with the old bastard” when she’s following a criminal.
  • A criminal calls her daughter a “slut.”

Supernatural

  • Beka has a magical cat. ” ‘We’re not even sure he’s a cat,’ Tunstall muttered to Goodwin. ‘I say he’s a god shape-changed.’ Pounce meowed, Do I look as stupid as a god to you?
  • Beka has the magical Gift. Many people have this magic, which can be used for fighting, controlling the weather, or healing. Beka’s brand of magic lets her hear voices picked up by wind spinners, and allows her to hear unhappy spirits that are carried on the backs of pigeons before they go to the Black God’s realm.
  • Beka helps a mother speak to her son and aid him in crossing over. “‘Sweetheart, of course the Black God has birds,’ Tansy whispered, straightening. ‘Beautiful ones. But you won’t see them if you stay where it’s dark. You have to go to the Peaceful Realms.'”

Spiritual Content

  • There are many gods in Tortall, such as the Crooked God, Mithros and the Black God. Different people honor different gods. Their names are often invoked in daily conversation as exclamations of surprise or relief. One woman, when exhausted, exclaims “Thank the Goddess . . . I’m weary to death!” When Beka brings in a Rat, Ahuda exclaims, “Great Mithros bless us, you actually caught “
  • Goodwin tells Beka to toughen up “before you jump into the Olorun or slice your wrists. We lose five Dogs a year to the Black God’s Option. Don’t you be one.”
  • Farewells sometimes have the name of the gods in them. ” ‘Mithros and the Crone watch over you.’ I curtsied as he went inside. ‘Gods all bless and keep you, my lord.’ I whispered.”
  • A friend of Beka’s deceased mother asks if she “burn(s) the incense for Ilony’s ghost?” Beka says she does.

by Morgan Lynn

 

Mastiff

Pierce once again expands Beka’s world by bringing her into the exclusive circle of royalty. Caught up in intrigues and politics, the royal family experiences a tragedy of unparalleled circumstances and reaches out to Beka for help. Along with Tunstall and Achoo, the weight of the realm is on Beka’s shoulders. Struggling against enraged mages and ambitious nobles, Beka and her team are all that might prevent the end of Tortall. While success may save the kingdom, it will cost Beka more than she could imagine.

Mastiff leaps into an interesting scenario, dropping hints about Beka’s personal life that will intrigue readers. Achoo is a sweet hound and Pounce, a talking cat, is delightfully sassy. However, what starts off as an interesting and exciting story quickly lapses into a long journey, with little to break up the monotony. While the middle of the book has readers turning pages out of loyalty to Beka, and little else, the final chapters arrive with a startling twist and heartwarming ending.

Sexual Content

  • Beka “went to him and kissed his cheek. ‘Thank you, Rosto. You’re a good friend.’”
  • When Beka meets the king, “all I could think as I stood there was the jokes from the days before his second marriage. ‘Randy Roger,’ ‘Roger the Rigid,’ stories of merchants’ daughters, soldiers’ daughters, noble daughters . . . Sabine, had earned herself a spell of patrol in the gods-forsaken eastern hills when she offered her king physical violence if he didn’t keep his hands to himself.”
  • Farmer complains that Iceblade only “talk(s) about his skill as a lover and his last woman. Beka overhears Iceblade talking about a woman with, “‘—nice, firm peaches,’ Iceblade was saying, his hands shaping the womanfruit he meant. ‘No pestiferous husband in the way, either.’”
  • A servant says she is safe from reprimand because “Master Niccols has taken his pleasures in my bed.”
  • After joining the Hunt, Lady Sabine talks to some silly noblewomen, who think her “travels with the three of you . . . though gods forbid they would say it! –are one long orgy.”
  • Beka mentions her ex-fiancé. “The best thing about Holborn was our time in bed. I missed the bedding, though not the man, and I deeply envied Sabine and Tunstall that night.
  • Farmer kisses Beka. “He caught me by surprise when he leaned down and kissed me softly. His lips parted from mine gently, he stroked a lock of my hair away from my face.”
  • When Farmer sees Beka dressed in a long shirt but no pants, he says, “It’s just that I’ve, I’ve never, well, you look different. Good. Very good.”
  • An evil mage says, “Sabine’s just a crude brawler, mad for sex and fighting.”
  • After being captured, Beka and Farmer admit they love each other, and kiss several times after that. “This time he held me carefully while kissing me in a most satisfying way . . . he sat on a bench and pulled me onto his lap. Then, with most of him around me, and me around a good bit of him, I was content to hold him.”
  • When Beka won’t stop laughing, “Farmer resorted to wanton kissing. That worked. I am much in favor of wanton kissing and other things.”
  • Farmer hides a ribbon that holds magic in his bum. When captured, he asks Beka, “Did they look in your bum, or in your coyne? . . . you could have a weapon in either place. A strangling cord at the very least.” Beka doesn’t watch as he removes the object from his bum.

Violence

  • Beka is slapped by a mother that blames her son’s death on Beka’s involvement with him. “I saw her slap coming, but I did naught to stop it. Only when she went for a second blow did I grab her wrist. ‘You cold, Cesspit trull!’ she screamed. ‘My poor lad was forever trying to impress you. He wouldn’t be here if he hadn’t been trying to prove himself as good as you.’ ”
  • Beka rides to a palace after there has been an attack. “Bodies lay among the flowers. Here were the missing Palace Guards, as well as men of the King’s Own, and the Black God knew how many servants, all burned, sword-hacked, or stabbed.”
  • The kidnapped prince is disguised as a slave and travels with a slave train. In Tortall, it is legal to own and sell slaves.
  • Beka finds a Dog that has been murdered. “The Dog lay half in the water, half out, just ten feet from the road. Animals had been at her legs. When we pulled her from the water, we saw fishes had been at the rest of her.”
  • Beka and her team discover a grave. Farmer digs the bodies up with magic, to discover what killed them. “With the other hand, he beckoned the dead forward. When they were but a foot away, he gently let them settle on the grass . . . The worms and beetles had been at them already. They were black and swollen with rot, their scant ragged clothes cutting into their flesh.”
  • Beka finds a young slave girl who was strangled. “The gixie Linnet was sprawled naked atop heaped slops from the kitchens. Her face was purple and swollen . . . I used my fingertips to push her up on her side. The blood in her body had flowed down into her back and bum, pooling there, turning that part of her skin purple.”
  • Beka and her friends are attacked. “I screamed as one hacked at Achoo. She danced out of the way and leaped for his throat, snarling. Pounce went for the eyes of the cove beside that one . . . A Rat came at me on my right. I swung my baton hard into his knees, hearing bone shatter as he pitched face-first toward the fire. He threw himself to the side, away from the flames, but didn’t remember I was still there with my dagger. I killed him and hunkered by his corpse, keeping low.”
  • Beka kills a mage who is trying to kill Farmer. “I reached the road just as lightning struck the ground in front of Farmer . . . I looked for the solid form inside the wavering illusion and struck as hard as I could . . . The image vanished. The mage lay in the road, a dent in her head from my blow.”
  • An inn catches on fire. “I could hear no voices, but I saw a burning body fallen on the steps . . . Three people stood by the well . . . their magics combined to draw up water into a great snakelike column that rose all the way to the attic.”
  • Achoo finds a pile of dead bodies. “Her face was bloated and black from the time she had lain here in the sun. She crawled with maggots. They all did.”
  • An evil mage insinuates that Beka slept with her foster father. “[Lady Teodorie] never struck me as the sort to let her man keep his child mistress under her roof.” Beka spits on him. The man then “slapped me hard, rocking my head back on my neck.”
  • Sabine slaps her cousin when she realizes she was involved in a plot to kill the King. “Sabine strode up to her and slapped her across the face. Nomalla let her do it, to my shock.”
  • Tunstall and Beka get in a fight. “I drew a long, flat knife from my arm guard and shoved the blade clean through the heavy muscle of his left forearm. Gritting my teeth, I wrenched it all the way around . . . he grabbed my braid at the end this time. I lifted myself as high as I could go, raising my arms as I gripped my baton two-handed. With all my strength I slammed my lead-cored baton down on Tunstall’s oft-broken knees.”
  • When his plot for power fails, “[Thanen] leaped from the tallest height in the castle. The coward left his family and remaining allies to face the royal courts.”
  • There are many executions after the plot to take over the throne is revealed. “When the day was done and the dead were left swinging or smoking, depending upon the magistrates’ judgment . . . since Prince Baird had not led the conspiracy based on the evidence, he would not be forced to endure being hanged, drawn, and quartered, as the other nobles had. Once it was done, his head was placed over the main palace gat as a warning to others with ambition.”

 

Drugs and Alcohol

  • Beka gives the queen a bit of wine to calm her after she suffers a fright.
  • Beka will consume alcohol on occasion, but she turns it down most of the time. “Tunstall offered me the small bottle of mead he always carries in case someone needs warming up, but I shook my head. I don’t like to drink at all when I’m on duty, even when it might warm me.” Another time, Beka “decided the wine was light enough that a cup wouldn’t addle me too badly, if I had some of the bread and cheese first.”
  • Farmer checks some water for sickness and poison. Beka is grateful and thinks, “I would have hated to slow us down while I shit my tripes out because someone had dumped offal upstream—or while I died of poison or spells.”
  • Beka drinks a bit while undercover. She “took a seemingly deep drink from my tankard. It was filled with strong ale. I sipped and let the rest stay where it was. The last thing I needed tonight was a gut full of spirits.”

Language

  •  “Piss” and “scummer” are used often, typically in regards to the smells that Beka’s hound can track, but occasionally they are used as profanity as well. “Just now I felt like an unmade bed, while the sky continued to piss on me.”
  • Phrases and words such as “cracknob,” “cracked mumper,” “doxy,” “guttersnipe,” and “pox rot it” are used often.
  • “Ass” and “arse” are used often. Tunstall says, “We’re wasting time here, standing about with our thumbs up our asses.” Beka once says, “Craven canker-licking sarden arseworms,” when she discovers the kidnappers have burned a bridge so she can’t follow.
  • “Bastard” is said a few times. Achoo is called a bastard dog, and a ghost tells Beka, “Well, he’ll soon learn I won’t do as some randy bastard with a title bids. He’ll rue the day he crossed by friends and me!”
  • When Beka is strict, a man says, “I bet she sets the Corus Rats to kissing the mules’ arses . . . Stricter than their old mams!”
  • “Bitch” is said once, when a mage tells Beka, “We were only a day behind you, stupid bitch, riding hard. We passed you by night.”

Supernatural

  • Some people in Beka’s world have the Magical Gift, as it is called. This varies widely, and can be used from anything from healing and fighting to predicting or controlling the weather. A pair of mages manages to raise two sunken ships from the bottom of the sea after another mage senses them and projects an image of the ships above the water. “Two ships drawn in fire floated over the middle of the cove.”
  • Beka travels with a mage who calls himself Farmer. He is a powerful mage, who practices magic often. Sometimes his magic isn’t visible; sometimes it is very flashy. Once he sets a trap for another mage. “The blue sheath that covered him sent power flowing out over the little river to its opposite bank. An image formed over the water, bright against the dark and the magic. It was that of a woman in dull olive silk . . . The mixed-color fires rose from the river and flowed into the image of the Viper, swirling around until they swallowed her.”
  • Beka and some companions travel “under magical sleep, trapped onto their bunks to keep from flying off of them” because the ship is blow by mage-winds and are so fast “they don’t sail over the waves, they bounce off of them.”
  • Beka has a magicked mirror that “seemed to show me all manner of magics, whatever they were for and no matter what their strength.”
  • Beka’s cat is a constellation visiting the human world. After a nasty sea voyage, the cat says “I went to the Realms of the Gods once Achoo was under the sleep spell . . . Why should I remain for such an abysmal voyage if I don’t have to?” The constellation is not supposed to meddle in the human world, so he does so at the risk of angering the gods.
  • Beka can hear unhappy souls that ride on pidgeonbacks until they go to meet the Black God in his realm. As such, Beka is considered to be in the Black God’s service, and she often says prayers for the dead. “I closed the big cove’s open eyes with my fingers and set two copers from my purse on them . . . ‘Black God take you gentle, brave defender,’ I whispered. ‘The living will carry your duty now. Find the Peaceful Realms and rest.’ ”
  • An evil mage melts people who get in her way. “We both raised our lamps so we could better see the nastiness that was before us. It was a great soup that lay on the grass, trickling slowly into the river. I stared at it, fascinated. I recognized pieces of metal from horses’ tack, metal amulets and jewelry, and swords and daggers, but naught that was leather, cloth, or skin.”
  • Pounce steps in to stop Achoo from dying, even though he knows the gods will be angry. “Pounce set a forepaw on Achoo’s bleeding wound. Achoo shuddered all over and whined, but held still. Pounce kept his paw there a moment longer, then took it away . . . The wound closed and shrank, until it looked like an old scar.”

Spiritual Content

  • There are many gods in Tortall, though most rarely interact with mankind. The Mother, the Black God, Mithros, and the Drowned God are a few. Their most-often appearance in Tortall culture is their names being used as profanity, or exclamations of surprise. Tunstall says, “Mithros’s spear, what kind of cracknob picks a mage name like Farmer?”
  • The gods’ names are also invoked in greetings and blessings. One man tells Beka and her team, “I’ll make sacrifice to Great Mithros in your names, in hopes he’ll keep guiding you.” Another time Beka writes, “Gods all aid me and my Hunting team, I beg,” in her journal.
  • Beka and her cat can talk silently during hunts and when they are bored. “Pounce and I had entertained each other through prayers at Lord Gershom’s for years, and had begun again when our Hunts took us to noble houses.”
  • When Beka almost cries because they don’t have time to bury the bodies they discover, the Black God appears and buries them for her. This is the first time she has seen the Black God, the god of death. “You need not try to bury them, my finest priestess. I will do so . . . The god I’d been taught to call black reached out hands gloved in ever-changing colors, holding them over the murdered slaves, the guards, and the Viper. Suddenly green tendrils sprouted from the earth, twining around limbs and bodies like so many agile snakes . . . By the time they had stopped, the ground where the dead had lain was sunken. It looked as if their remains had been placed there decades ago and only flowers remained.”

by Morgan Lynn

Melting Stones

Evvy is a young stone mage; someone who can communicate with and control stone. Her mentor is a nature mage, and their less-than-welcome traveling companion is a water mage. These three have powers that frighten and impress most people they meet, but they might not be enough to stop what’s coming to the island of Starns. Strange deaths and earth shakes are only a hint of what is to come, and Evvy will need all the help she can get if she is to survive.

Melting Stones is a wonderful stand-alone novel. Evvy is not a people person. She would rather be alone with her rocks than talking to people, but she has a beautiful soul. This is a story of a traumatized girl learning to be a better and more caring person. Placed in an intriguing world of mages and spirits, this story will be enjoyed by kids of many ages.

Sexual Content

  • ” ‘Bored is the last thing we’ll be!’ The man laughed. I suppose they were talking about fooling around. People always think they have to discuss it like I don’t know what it is. That’s grown-ups for you. I let them do their sideways joking about sex, while I let my power trail along the ocean floor.”

Violence

  • Evvy disarms and beats up a couple of boys. “I had a problem with some rich boys . . . They were bothering some of my friends. I said I would hit them with my staff if they didn’t stop, and they drew swords and daggers on me. It wasn’t as if I actually broke any of their bones.”
  • Evvy has a flashback from a war she was in. She panics and accidentally hurts a companion. “Terror flooded me. I forgot where I was. I thought I was a captive . . . Was I back in Gyongxe? . . . They beat me last time! They’d beat me again to make me tell on my friends. I screamed and slammed my head forward, hard, into the soldier’s nose. Then I lashed sideways and bit deep into his arm.”
  • Evvy talks about a war she was in. She says, “I knew where people were hiding. The soldiers tried to make me tell by hitting the bottoms of my feet with a cane.”
  • Jayat confesses that his master used to beat him, and Evvy thinks, “My owner had beaten me when I was a slave, after all. Joobe-Hooba . . . would have beaten me. I bet he would have smiled as he did it.”
  • Nory is upset and hits Evvy. “Even if I could have moved, I wouldn’t have been fast enough to escape the hard slap she landed on my cheek. Then she slapped me again. She was crying . . . Then she punched me in the eye and walked off.”

Drugs and Alcohol

  • Evvy’s mentor drinks a medicinal tea, though it is not said why. ” ‘Did you drink your medicine tea?’ I asked her. ‘The kind that smells like boiled mule urine?’ “

Language

  • Evvy complains that people aren’t grateful for mage services. “They should half-kill themselves in the service of this, this beetle-spit village next to its chicken-piddle lake on its donkey-dung island.”

Supernatural

  • Mages can commune with certain elements of nature, like growing things, rocks or water. “Alongside the ship came a long arm of seawater with Rosethorn’s hat on top of it. It passed the hat to Myrrhtide, who patted the tentacle as he’d pet a good dog.”
  • Luvo is the heart of a mountain. He appears as a small crystal bear who can talk and walk.
  • Evvy has a spirit self that can travel through stone. “In my magical shape I swooped through a vein of rock-water, the indigo crystal cooling me as I passed . . . My magical body was all ideas and power, controlled by my mind, but I was certain that if my magical self burned to ashes, my real body would die, too.”
  • Evvy senses magma spirits. Their energy is so enticing Evvy appears as though possessed while pursuing it.
  • Evvy meets magma spirits. “When they’d first grabbed me they were like a pair of comets, gripping me with long, molten stone tails. Now they were shifting, their bodies getting shorter . . . Flare was sapphire blue, still with his trailing flame of hair. He had blacked-rimmed eyeholes around flame eyes.”
  • Local mages can’t control nature, but they can do some small spells. “Jayat and Tahar drew spell designs on the floor. Their lips moved as they called on the rocks to show where they came from.”
  • Luvo makes contact with the spirits of several islands. “I didn’t know this great, female voice, but it was familiar. I knew the stones in it, from mica to obsidian to basalt. It sounded like . . . Starns. It sounded like the island.”

Spiritual Content

  • Slavery is looked down on, but is legal in some places. Evvy says, “my mother sold me as a slave when I was six. It was because I was one mouth too many, and only a girl.”
  • Evvy says she would leave the villagers to deal with the volcano. “It’s their island, they have to solve getting off. They’re lucky I could warn them.” Her mentor asks, “You would abandon even the babies, Evvy?”
  • Evvy says, “Heibei, take this bad luck and bury it . . . Heibei’s the god of luck back home in Yanjing. I asked him for help. He’s a good god, not undependable, like your Lakik.” She mentions a few other gods as well, for example, “Kanzan the Merciful smile on me.”
  • After the volcanic incident is resolved, Evvy says crossing the island, “was like a journey through the hell of those who defy the Yanjing will of heaven. I thought I’d stopped believing in those hells, but they hadn’t stopped believing in me. They had followed me all the way here. This one had, anyway.”
  • “Gods of all stones be praised,” Luvo says. “We are not too late.”
  • A young boy tells Evvy that, “You mages is god-touched.”

by Morgan Lynn

Alanna, The First Adventure

Alanna may look like her brother, but where Thom is timid and studies magic, she is reckless and filled with a desire to learn how to wield a bow and sword. When Alanna is to be sent to a convent and Thom to become a knight, the twins take their lives into their own hands. By forging their father’s letters, Alanna becomes Alan, a page in training to be a knight, and her brother goes to learn sorcery. Training to be a knight would have been difficult without hiding her true sex; with that secret on her shoulders, it becomes almost impossible. But Alanna isn’t one to quit, and being a knight is all she’s ever wanted.

The first book in a quartet, this novel is a wonderful introduction into a richly drawn world of knights and magic. Alanna is a noble and stubborn girl who will sweep readers along on her adventures and will have you rooting for her every step of the way. While there is much fighting in her story, the lack of gory descriptions and clean language will make this story entertaining for teenagers and younger readers alike.

Sexual Content

  • When Alanna begins to grow, she has to bind her breasts to keep them hidden. “Watching the glass closely, she bounced up and down. Her chest moved. It wasn’t much, but she had definitely jiggled. Over the winter her breasts had gotten larger.”
  • Alanna doesn’t know what is happening when she has her first period. “She got out of bed–and gasped in horror to find her things and sheets smeared with blood.” A woman healer asks her, “Did no one ever tell you of a woman’s monthly cycle? The fertility cycle? . . . It happens to us all. We can’t bear children until it begins.”
  • Alana is given a pregnancy charm, which she claims she’ll never use. The healing woman asks, ” ‘Do you know what happens when you lie with a man?’ Alanna blushed. ‘Of course.’ “
  • When Alanna visits George, “he wasn’t dressed–he always slept bare.” When Alanna reveals that she is a girl, George orders her to turn around while he gets dressed. She does, but she says “That’s silly. I’ve seen you naked before.”
  • Alanna and Jon fight beings of power who are nearly immortal. They expose her secret by vanishing her clothes. “Her clothes were gone. All she wore was her belt and scabbard . . . She looked at Jonathan. Her friend was openly staring . . . [Jon] pulled off his tunic and handed it to her.”

Violence

  • George hints that he killed the last Rogue and took his place. “Who knows when some young buck will do for me what I did for the king before me, just six months back.”
  • When the bully Ralon tries to force Alanna to swim, she “rammed herself into Ralon’s stomach. The older boy yelped as he tumbled into the pool . . . When Ralon finally surfaced, he was half blind and three-quarters drowned.”
  • A boy bullies Alanna mercilessly, and as a result they get into several fights. “She hit low and hard. Ralon doubled over, clutching his lower belly.” During another fight, “She bloodied Ralon’s nose. Ralon broke her arm.” When Alanna finally beats the bully, “She slammed a fist up and under, into his stomach again, knocking the breath from his body. Swiftly she broke his nose with the other hand. Ralon collapsed, crying like a small child. ‘Never touch me again. If you do, I swear–I swear by Mithros and the Goddess–I’ll kill you,’ ” Alanna tells him.
  • In an attempt to protect Alan, her friends “beat Ralon thoroughly.” When Ralon doesn’t stop the bullying, “Gary held Ralon. Raoul administered the beating, his face impossible to read.”

Drugs and Alcohol

  • George gives Alanna a tankard of ale, and he and his (adult) friends often drink at his inn.

Language

  • A bully tells Alanna, “If I say you’re the goatherd’s son, you say, ‘Yes, Lord Ralon.’ ” Alanna responds, “I’d as soon kiss a pig! Is that what you’ve been doing–kissing pigs?”
  • Ralon calls Alanna “dunghill trash.”

Supernatural

  • Some are born with The Gift, which can manifest in different ways. Some are great healers, while others use their Gift to control the weather or to fight.
  • Alanna threatens to make a man see things that aren’t there, unless he helps her become a knight. She also admits that she has made people see things in the past. “Coram turned pale. The afternoon the tarts were discovered missing, Cook started to see large, hungry lions following him around the kitchens… When the twins’ godmother came to Trebond to snare Lord Alan as her next husband, she had fled after only three days, claiming the castle was haunted.”
  • Magic is used to send a fever to the palace, in an attempt on the prince’s life. “The fever continued, drying Jon’s lips till they cracked and bled.”
  • Alanna uses her magic to heal. “She reached inside herself. It was there: a purple, tiny ball of fire that grew as she nudged it with her mind. Her nose started to itch, as it always did when she first called on her magic.”
  • Alanna asks the Goddess for aid, and the Goddess tells her to call her friend back from edge of death. Alanna has to go through the Black God to get to her friend. “She was twisting in a black, writhing well . . . Shrieks and cackling and the screams of doomed souls sounded all around her. She was on the edge, between the world of the living and the Underworld . . . A huge, dark shadow shaped like a hooded man came between them . . . This must be the Dark God, the Master of all death.”
  • Alanna and Jon fight powerful beings who say, “We are gods and the children of gods . . . We were here before your Old Ones, and we laughed when their cities fell.”

Spiritual Content

  • There are many gods in Tortall, such as the Black God and the Crooked God. Some gods guide mortals, while most never interfere directly.
  • Alanna discusses whether or not she should use her magical Gift. She says, “If a person has power–something that can be used for good or evil, either way–should they use it?” Her mentor tells her, “Magic isn’t good or evil by itself. I believe you should only use it when you are absolutely certain your cause is just.”

by Morgan Lynn

In the Hand of the Goddess

Few know that tiny Alan, who is squire to none other than the prince himself, is actually a girl named Alanna. In order to become a knight, Alanna has been forced to disguise herself for years. Despite this secret, she has managed to become one of the greatest squires of her year. Squire Alan is admired for his skill with the bow and sword, and he’ll need those skills for what’s coming. Dark magic and treachery surround the crown and Alanna’s friend, Prince Jon. Alanna might be the only one capable of bringing such plots to light.

While this book has slightly more adult content, the descriptions are not gory and the writing is discreet. During the course of the book, Alanna kisses two men and takes one for her lover, but there are no descriptions of her having intercourse. This book continues the exciting adventures found in the first installment, and Alanna remains a strong and likable female heroine.

Sexual Content

  • The Goddess asks why Alanna fears love. “Yet what is there for you to fear? Warmth? Trust? A man’s touch?” Alanna replies, “I don’t want a man’s touch!”
  • George and Alanna kiss. ” ‘Alanna,’ he whispered, ‘I’m takin’ advantage of you now, because I may never catch you with your hands full again.’ He kissed her softly and carefully. Alanna trembled, too shocked to do anything but let it happen.”
  • Alanna thinks about Jon’s relationship with Delia. “The girl would convince Jon one day that she was his alone, and ignore him the next. Soon they were sleeping together–”
  • George kisses Alanna goodbye. “George kissed her, pulling her close. His mouth was warm and comforting. Alanna had not forgotten the last time, and she had discovered that she liked his kisses. Relaxing, she let her friend hold her tightly.”
  • Jon kisses Alanna. “Suddenly he was very close. Alanna discovered she was afraid to breathe. Carefully, almost timidly, Jonathan kissed her mouth.”
  • Alanna is walking in a garden. “A night for lovers, she thought, then bit her lip. She had no lover, and she didn’t want one.”
  • Jon kisses Alanna again. “Swiftly he kissed her again and again . . . She was scared. She suddenly realized she wanted to be the one in his bed tonight. Jonathan stopped kissing her, only to start unlacing her bodice. Alanna shoved him away, terrified.”
  • Alanna and Jon start sleeping together, though it is not described further than “At night, Jonathan taught her about loving.”
  • When joking about bathing, Alanna says, “You just don’t want Gary to see me bare.” Jon replies, ” ‘You’re right I don’t! Do you?’ . . . When Alanna only giggled, Jonathan repeated, ‘Do you?’ “
  • Jon kisses her goodbye. “He kissed her fiercely before letting her go.”

Violence

  • When Alanna duels, her partner breaks the rules. “She stepped back too slowly, and the tip of Dain’s sword sank deep into her right arm below the elbow… According to the rules, Dain had won… He lunged for her chest, his eyes wide and crazy. Alanna jumped aside, just missing dying on the Tusaine’s sword.”
  • Alanna gets into a border skirmish. “Swiftly Alanna slid Lightning into the opening between the knight’s arm and chest armor, thrusting deep. With a gasp of surprise, her enemy fell from his horse, dead.”
  • Alanna is attacked by a wolf. “She saw nothing but the wolf, who was doing his best to fling her off his back. She held on, desperately striking again and again with her knife. Suddenly the wolf shuddered and howled; her blade had entered his side. He fell, his paws twitching. She had stabbed him to the heart.”
  • Alanna and George are attacked. “She rode Moonlight straight at a man who was putting an arrow to his bow. The mare trampled him ruthlessly as Alanna drew Lightning, slashing at a third attacker.”
  • Alex tries to kill Alanna when they are practicing their swordplay. “The blunt edge struck her collarbone rather than her skull. Bone cracked in her shoulder as she fell to her knees with a cry of pain. Helplessly she watched the sword swing up and down, unable to stop its slicing toward her throat.”
  • Alanna kills Roger after he tries to kill the Queen. ” ‘The Goddess!’ She yelled, leaping forward. Lightning struck the cloud, slicing it open to find Roger at its heart . . . The sword cut even deeper this time as Alanna opened her eyes, blinking to clear her vision. Roger stood, trying to pull her sword out of his body.”

Drugs and Alcohol

  • George and his other friends, all in adulthood or their late teens, drink ale.
  • George offers Alanna brandy in celebration. Alanna says, “Normally I just drink this stuff to clear my head, but–this is quite pleasant.”
  • George knows Alanna will worry herself silly before her Ordeal of Knighthood, so he sneaks something into her drink that makes her sleep.

Language

  • When captured, Alanna distracts a man so her fellow captives can escape. “Behavior I’d expect from the goatherd’s bastard, not a nobleman . . . Perhaps your mother tricked your father?”
  • Alanna occasionally curses with the gods’ names when surprised or upset. ” ‘Great Merciful Mother!’ Alanna gasped.”
  • Damn is said once or twice. “Myles said he was damned if he would get up at this hour . . . “

Supernatural

  • Alanna is blessed by the Mother, also known as the Goddess, who is one of Tortall’s many deities. The Goddess visits Alanna occasionally, bestowing advice and sometimes gifts.
  • Someone tries to kill Alanna with sorcery. “When an ugly, cloven hoof burst through the beaten snow over the tent opening, Alanna thrust upward with all her strength. She burst from the snow, shaking clumps from her face, to feel her sword wrenched from her hand… Gripping her sword hilt to pull it free, she stopped; the boar’s eyes were a demonic red. Suddenly he shuddered one last time–and vanished.”

Spiritual Content

  • There are many gods in Tortall, such as the Dark God, the Goddess, and the Crooked God. Different people honor different gods, and Alanna has glimpses of them because she is god-touched. “A huge shadow figure was bending over her. ‘Thor,’ she sighed, recognizing the Dark God. ‘You want Thor.’ Reaching out a hand that was blacker than night, the God touched Alanna’s eyes.”
  • Alanna’s partner cheats during a duel. Afterward, her friend says, “he gave you every excuse to kill him . . . even his Ambassador would have understood if you had.” Alanna replies that “Just because he behaved badly is no excuse for me to behave badly.”
  • Alanna thinks that soldiers, “only cared about pain and the Dark God’s arrival.”
  • When Alanna finds a dying friend, he asks for her help. ” ‘I’d just like to . . . go to sleep. I’m that tired.’ Alanna trembled. Healing was natural for her, but she had never killed a human being with her Gift. She didn’t think she could . . . Alanna pressed her good hand to Thor’s forehead, her Gift lighting the clearing with a deep violet fire. ‘Sleep, Thor,’ she whispered. She felt him falling away gently, slipping into a long, dark well. Alanna rose. Thor’s chest was still.”

by Morgan Lynn

Lioness Rampant

Alanna is restless. She has already accomplished the impossible by becoming a female knight, but that is not enough. She craves the sort of adventure that can only be found in legends. Luckily for Alanna, her life is quickly making her story legendary. Lioness Rampant introduces enjoyable and richly developed characters. Along with the reappearance of an old evil, Alanna must decide where she fits in. Will she ever be welcomed back at court, or will she spend the rest of her life wandering along the edge of the world?

There is slightly less fighting in this book than the others, but still plenty of excitement to keep readers engaged. Alanna takes a lover, as she did in book three, but there are no graphic descriptions and her relationship is not the main plot. Alanna continues to be a likable heroine and a fun character to follow.

Sexual Content

  • Coram tries to warn Liam off, but Liam assures him that his interest in Alanna is because he likes her, not because she is famous. “I’m not a village lad wanting to boast of having the Lioness’s pelt in my hut, Master Smythesson. I like her.”
  • When Alanna tells Coram that Liam didn’t touch her, Coram says, “maybe he’s plannin’ to.” Alanna responds, “Nothing wrong with that.”
  • Alanna gets involved with Liam, who is a Shang Dragon, a great warrior. She sleeps with him, but nothing more than kissing is ever described. “He kissed her gently, then passionately, and Alanna surrendered. Any misgivings she had were put away for thought at another, less interesting time.” Another time, “His first kiss was gentle, the second passionate. Alanna let him pull her into his arms, thinking, We should talk some more about why he was angry. I don’t think lovemaking will settle anything. The Dragon was so determined, however, that once again she put her questions aside to be dealt with later.”
  • Alanna kisses Liam a few times. “He jumped down and held his hands up to her. She slid into his grasp, and they kissed.”
  • A background check is run on a man called Claw. It is discovered that “He was disinherited after the attempted rape of the second daughter of the bailiff… The girl’s maid threw acid in his face, thereby leaving the purple scars of which you spoke.”
  • George kisses Alanna awhile after she breaks up with Liam. “He cupped Alanna’s face, his grave hazel eyes searching out her own. He nodded, liking what he saw, and kissed her gently.”

Violence

  • A group of rogues tries to kill Alanna and her man-at-arms. “The thieves understood simultaneous attack. Alanna and Coram blocked automatically . . . One of the staffmen swung and missed–she ran him through. Coram shouted fiercely, and someone screamed. When a swordsman looked to see the screamer’s fate, Alanna slashed his leg.”
  • Alanna finds a pile of dead bodies, the aftermath of a war. “Here the dead had been piled up and left, until only skeletons remained . . . Bone hands still clutched weapons. Kneeling, Alanna slid a lowland sword out of the pile.”
  • Buri tells a story of a queen who killed herself in protest of how her people were being treated. “Lowlanders take us for slaves; they steal our horses . . . She and Thayet tried to make the Warlord stop . . . Kalasin stood at her window and sang her death chant, about her shame at jin Wilima’s laws. A crowd was there to witness: nobles, commonborn, and slaves. My mother and brother were killed, but they held the door until it was too late for the Warlord’s men to stop her from jumping.”
  • An assassin shoots an arrow at a princess, then jumps off a roof to escape capture. “She lifted the assassin’s headcloth. The face, sickeningly misshapen after the fall, was male and coarse, the cheeks filled with a drunkard’s broken veins.”
  • Alanna battles an elemental for the Dominion Jewel. When she decides she does not want to kill the beast, it gives her the jewel. “She ducked and dodged. When he gave her an opening, she executed one of the jump kicks Liam had taught her, slamming into the ape’s shoulder and making him roar. When he swung to chop her down, she was away and circling. She sought her chance and flew in again, hitting the same shoulder . . . “
  • After the Queen dies, the King kills himself by jumping into a ravine. This act is not described, and the reader only learns about it when the Prince tells his friend.
  • A man is attacked. We don’t see the fight, but Alanna finds him afterward. “The old man staggered in, clutching a bloody right arm. Alanna grabbed a towel and swiftly bandaged the priest before he lost more blood, fighting brief nausea. Si-cham’s right hand was gone.”
  • Alanna is attacked by her once-friend, Alex. “He lurched once more, cross-cutting with a speed she could not dodge, slashing across her cheek and her bare right hand. In the split-second opening in the path of his sword she rammed forward, crushing his windpipe with one fist as she struck his nose with the other, thrusting bone splinters deep into his brain.”
  • Alanna kills the evil sorcerer who tries to destroy Tortall. “The effect was like loosing a bolt from a crossbow. Released from her pull, the sword shrieked as it flew . . . He didn’t even seem to know what she’d done until Lightning buried itself in his chest. Roger grabbed the hilt. Amazingly, he laughed. He laughed until his dying lungs ran out of air.”

 

Drugs and Alcohol

  • A man buys a glass of wine for Alanna, who is now an adult.
  • Alanna’s man-at-arms, Coram, drinks regularly. His worst behavior while drinking, is singing raucous songs that are not described. “Coram awoke late, with a head he would not wish on his worst enemy. For a long time he waited for his knight-mistress to arrive with her hangover cure.”

Language

  • A jealous girl calls Alanna a slut.

Supernatural

  • Many people in Alanna’s world have the magical Gift. Some use this Gift for fighting, while others use it for healing or to control the weather.
  • Alanna searches for the Dominion Jewel, which “may be more directly used, in healing and war, for fertility and death. A knowledgeable ruler, knowing fully the creation of magical formulae, may create new land from ocean deeps, or return the breath of a dead child.”
  • Alanna has a magical cat who can talk.
  • Thom’s magic is stolen by an evil sorcerer.

Spiritual Content

  • Tortall has many gods, such as the Crooked God, Mithros, and the Black God. Alanna was chosen by the Great Mother, also known as the Goddess. The Goddess visits Alanna occasionally, to bestow advice.

by Morgan Lynn

The Woman Who Rides Like a Man

Alanna has revealed to the world that she is a woman; the first woman knight in hundreds of years. Thanks to the less-than-warm welcome she received at court, Alanna decides to travel south in search of adventure. After a violent conflict with some hillmen, Alanna is set on a course that leads to her being adopted by a tribe of Bazhir. After becoming the tribe’s shaman, Alanna must train the young Gifted children in the tribe how to control their magic. As she begins to learn what life is like in the Southern desert, she finds herself the student as often as the teacher.

Alanna has become a knight, a duty that she takes seriously. She is a kind and honorable woman; a strong role model. Her story is packed with fighting, magic and adventure. The fighting is exciting but not gory, making it appropriate for a wide range of readers.

Sexual Content

  • Alanna and Jon are lovers. “He kissed her fiercely. She returned the kiss, feeling heat rush through her at his touch. He bore down to her sleeping mat; in the time that followed, they knew they still desired each other.”
  • Alanna tells Jon that, ” ‘women of bad reputation’ go without veils among the Bazhir . . . All this time I haven’t worn a veil, but it took me until tonight to get a bad reputation.”
  • Jon proposes to Alanna, then asks. ” ‘Do you still wear that charm Mistress Cooper gave you to keep you from getting pregnant?’ She showed it to him, hanging half-hidden on the same chain that suspended her ember-stone. ‘I never go without it.’ ‘I trust you’ll leave it off after we’re married,’ he said with a yawn.”
  • Alanna and Jon get into a fight. ” ‘What about all those women at the palace and the way they look at you?’ Alanna demanded. ‘And I know you’ve had affairs with some of them! They’ve made you into a conceited–’ “
  • After Alanna breaks up with Jon, she asks George to kiss her, but he says, ” ‘Oh, no . . . If I kiss you again now, one thing will lead to another, and this isn’t the proper place for that sort of carryin’-on.’ ‘Then take me to a place that is,’ she suggested.”

Violence

  • Alanna and Coram fight with hillmen. Coram is, “trying to fend off three at once. He yelled in pain as one of them opened a deep gash on his sword arm. He swore and attacked again, dropping his shield and switching his sword to his good left hand . . . Alanna caught another blow from the crystal blade on her shield, feeling the shock through her entire body.”
  • Alanna duels a Bazhir to prove her worth. “He feinted high and then drove in, his knife coming up from beneath. Alanna turned her side toward him; as his arm shot past her, she seized it and wrenched him over her hip . . . Twisting, Alanna stabbed through the web of muscle on the bottom of his upper arm. She yanked her knife free just as one of his fists struck the middle of her spine, driving the wind from her lungs.”
  • Alanna is forced to fight a shaman. “Violet fire sprang into being, whirling to encircle Ibn Nazzir. He shrieked and swept the sword around him; the wall vanished. He charged; Alanna jumped, kicking him to the ground. With a roll she was on him, wrestling for the sword.”
  • Alanna tries to tame an evil sword. “She ducked under the swing of the axe-man and came up inside, running him through. For an instant sick, black triumph roared into her mind. She froze, knowing the sword’s magic was turning her fierce pride in being the better fighter into an ugly joy at killing.”
  • Alanna helps her tribe fight off another tribe with her Magic. “She sent a whip of violet fire at the shamans, determined to end the problem at its source. One dropped to the ground when her magic reached him, screeching in agony. A second streak of fire, red in color, picked off another shaman–Ishak had seen her purpose, and was helping.”
  • A boy is destroyed by a magical sword. “The sword’s magic reflected back from her protection, enveloping Ishak in a ball of flame. He screamed, once. Then he was gone.”

Drugs and Alcohol

  • The Voice of the Tribes smokes a “long pipe.”
  • Alanna gives a girl wine to calm her down.
  • George tells Alanna’s brother that he, “Best have a shot of brandy to steady your nerves.”

Language

  • None

Supernatural

  • Some people have the magical Gift, which manifests differently in different people. Some are able to heal, while others use their Gift to fight or control the weather. In the Bazhir, people with the Gift are trained to be shaman. Alanna eventually starts a school for magic.
  • Alanna is adopted by a Bazhir tribe. “In a swift movement the man opened a low shallow cut on the inside of her forearm. Holding out his own wrist, he did the same to himself, then pressed his wound to Alanna’s . . . Alanna shuddered as an alien magic flooded into her body. She knew without being told that Halaf Seif was only a pathway for this sorcery, that its origins were as old as the Bazhir tribes.”
  • A shaman attacks Alanna’s pet. “Frantically he drew shimmering yellow magical symbols in the air . . . A wall of purple magic streaked from her fingers to surround Faithful, just as yellow fire left the shaman’s hands. It shattered against the wall protecting Faithful.”

Spiritual Content

  • There are many deities in Tortall, such as the Dark God and the Crooked God. Different people honor different gods. Alanna is watched over by the Goddess, who has visited her and given her a token. ” ‘It is a token given me by the Great Mother Goddess, from Her own hand!’ Those listening drew back, awed and frightened. The Mother was as well known and worshipped here as she was in the North; none of them would use Her name lightly.”

by Morgan Lynn

The Rosemary Spell

As Rosemary is moving into a new bedroom, she discovers a mysterious book hidden in a locked cabinet.  The book used to belong to the town’s famous poet Constance, an elderly poet who has lost most of her memory. With her best friend, Rosemary tries to unravel the secret of the words. However, when they read what is written within, Shelby suddenly disappears—no one remembers her, not even her own parents.

Rosemary and Adam desperately try to figure out how to keep Shelby’s memory alive and how to bring her back. As they embark on their quest, they need Constance’s help, but her memory is fleeting. The two aren’t sure how to get the answers they need to break the spell. And as each minute passes, memories of Shelby are harder and harder to remember.

Right from the start, The Rosemary Spell will capture readers’ hearts with the characters. The mystery of the old book adds just a bit of creepiness without being scary. The Rosemary Spell is full of suspense, but what really drives the book is the close relationship between the three characters. Throughout the story, the reader will also gain insight into Rosemary’s feels of being abandoned by her father, as well as how Alzheimer’s affects the elderly. In the end, Rosemary learns that “There is loss in life, and the best we can do is face it head-on and meet it with grace and remembrance.”

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • During a storm, Adam and Rosemary take a small boat across a swollen river. Rosemary injures her arm. “Swearwords I have never spoken, that I didn’t even know I knew, rise up inside me, but I keep my mouth shut. If I open my mouth, I’ll throw up.”
  • Adam, Rosemary, and Shelby try to cross back over the swollen river, and the three almost drown.

Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • None

Supernatural

  • Adam and Rosemary find an ancient book that has writing that appears and disappears. The book also has a spell, which when read out loud makes whoever hears it no longer exist. Not knowing it is a spell, Adam and Rosemary say it, and Adam’s sister, Shelby disappears.
  • When Adam and Rosemary repeat a line from Shakespeare, “Rosemary, that’s for remembrance. Pray, love, remember,” they remember Shelby.

Spiritual Content

  • None

A Nearer Moon

Luna’s world revolves around her little sister, Willow. Willow is happiness and sunshine, and she brings the family together. When Willow becomes sick with the mysterious river sickness, everyone tells Luna there is no way to save her sister. They say she will be dead in three weeks. Luna refuses to sit by her sister’s side and watch her die. Luna and her friend Benny embark on a series of adventures to find a cure for Willow.

Interwoven into Luna’s story is the story of Perdita, a spunky river sprite. The fairies moved to a new world, far from humans. But in a devastating twist of fate, Perdita was left behind when the fairies went through the magical door to a new home. All alone, Perdita flees to the bottom of a swamp and hates anything that shows joy.

Luna offers herself to Perdita in exchange for Willow’s life. Luna hopes the sprite can save Willow but has Perdita’s grief made her blind to others’ needs? Can Perdita find hope again?

A Nearer Moon is a beautifully written story about the love of sisters. The parallel stories about Luna and Perdita add interest. Luna is a plucky character who younger readers will love. The story has beautiful, vivid descriptions of Luna’s world. The only downside to this story are the long descriptions that slow the action.

Sexual Content

  • None

 

Violence

  • While riding in a boat, Willow’s laughter disturbs Perdita, who goes up and tips the boat. When Willow is dunked into the water, she “sputtered and coughed the filthy swamp water off her tongue . . . Willow leaned over the side of the boat, her stomach heaving as she retched, her eyes teary and her nose running . . . The creature slid, unseen, back to its cave, the silence, smothering its aching heart like a damp blanket over hot coals.” Both Willow and Luna know the water will give Willow the river sickness.

Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • None

Supernatural

  • The sprites used magic to build a door to take them to another world because humans poisoned the sprites’ world. “Only a hazy wrinkle of air betrayed that any magic had been done in that place or that anyone had passed through at that spot, passed through from one world into another.”
  • A girl’s grandmother “told us a story about a wood sprite that lived in her rafters when she was little. They never once saw it, but if they so much as dusted the beam where its bundle-of-sticks house was, the milk would turn sour and vegetables would rot overnight.”
  • Gia, a sprite, makes two lockets, one for herself and one for her sister. “These, when opened, would be like doors of their own. Private doors through which to call a lost thing home.” If both lockets were open, Gia could speak a word and her sister would be magically transported to wherever she was.
  • When Willow becomes sick, Luna tries to discover how to cure her. Some people “call it a sickness. Call it a curse . . . Maybe it was all the same thing, only different words used by different people struggling to understand the sort of thing no one can comprehend.”
  • Luna finds a book that has fairy recipes in it. Luna makes “a dram of flower essence for use in the purification of soured water.” When she uses the potion, she whispers a phrase. “She didn’t know if this was magic. It was pleading. It was hoping. It was speaking the deepest wish of her soul and asking the air to hear her.”

Spiritual Content

  • When Willow becomes sick, her mother “sank to her knees beside her own bed, clicking her prayer beads around and around again.” Willow’s mother goes to the chapel often to “click” her prayer beads.

The Serpent’s Secret

Kiran’s parents are just a bit odd, and she has never really fit in. Even so, she thought she was just a regular sixth grader living in New Jersey. Then, on her twelfth birthday, her parents disappear and a rakkhosh demon crashes through her house to try to eat her.

When two princes show up, trying to rescue her, she realizes that her parents’ stories are really true—she really is a princess that comes from another world. With the help of the two princes, Kiran is taken to another dominion, one with magic, winged horses, moving maps, and annoying talking birds. Before she can save her parents, she must fight demons, unlock riddles, and avoid the Serpent King of the Underworld.

The Serpent’s Secret is an interesting and action-packed retelling of Indian mythology. Filled with riddles, jokes, and a talking bird, the story will entertain middle school readers. Black and white illustrations will help readers visualize the characters. As Kiran learns about her cultural background, she also learns to accept herself. Although there is violence, the scenes are appropriate for younger readers because they are not described in detail and much of the action is running away from demons instead of battling them.

Kiran and the two princes talk like stereotypical teenagers. The main character’s dialogue is filled with slang and idioms such as when Kiran looks at the prince and thinks, “While I got my fill of Lal-flavored eye candy.” There is a lot of creative name-calling throughout the story, which does not involve cursing.

A dynamic story with a strong heroine, The Serpent’s Secret will delight those who like a good adventure story.  For readers interested in adventure stories or India’s mythology, Aru Shah and the End of Time is a must-read.

Sexual Content

  • The king has multiple wives.

Violence

  • A rakkhosh, or demon, swallows Kiran’s parents and then tries to swallow her. When Lal tries to help, the rakkhosh knocks him out. “I shrieked as the monster’s fist managed to connect with Lal’s head. The prince slumped forward, unconscious, and then began to slip off the rakkhosh’s neck.” The fighting takes place over several chapters.
  • A teenager spits at Lal. “The goober hung on a lone blade of grass, shimmering like a disgusting jewel.”
  • The Demon Queen attacks Kiran. “. . . The rakkhoshi ripped a handful of her own hair from her head and threw it at me . . . As soon as the magical hair hit me, I couldn’t move at all.” Neel saves Kiran, but not before the Demon Queen turns Neel’s brother and friend into spheres. The battle lasts over several pages.
  • When Kiran and Neel try to steal a stone that is being protected by a python, the “snake grabbed a hold of Neel, wrapped itself around him, and began to squeeze. . . Neel’s face got redder as the snake squeezed.” The battle scene takes place over a chapter. In the end, the python is defeated. “The python’s giant body lay still, oozing dark blood on the cavern floor. Trying to reach the jewel, it had instead split itself in two on Neel’s sword.”
  • A baby rakkhosh wants to eat Kiran, her parents, and Neel. “That snot-nosed newborn demon transformed himself into a whirlpool.” When the rakkhosh “eats” them, they end up in a cave with a seven-headed snake, who “wrapped Ma, Baba, and even poor terrified Tuntuni in his coils. As a last flourish, he slapped his nasty tail over all their mouths.”
  • The serpent king imprisoned Neel in a flaming sphere. “The prince screamed in pain—a sound that made my blood run cold. He writhed around within the glowing orb, his body twisting in unnatural contortions, as if he were being tortured.”
  • Kiran and the Serpent King battle. “He shot bolt after bolt of green fire, but I met them all with the shimmering, diamond light of my own.” Kiran’s moon mother shows up, and “as he launched the cracking lightning from his hands, the moon shot a white-hot beam at the Serpent King. He glowed an incandescent green, but then began to writhe and decay, his energy going from green to brown to gray to black.” The Serpent King disappears and everyone is safe.

Drugs and Alcohol

  • A rakkhosh sings a song, “Hob, gum, goom, geer! Pass the blood! Pass the beer!”
  • A “band of drunken demons” chase Kiran and Neel.
  • Kiran sees a warning sign that reads, “After whisky, fighting demons risky.”

Language

  • A bangle seller says her bracelets are for “generously proportioned and the skinny-butt offspring of slimy snake creatures alike.”
  • The Demon Queen calls Kiran a “snake in the grass” and “cobra dropping.
  • When Kiran is fighting a python, she thinks, “Holy serpent poop.”
  • Kiran thinks that Neel’s “Granny still had some chutzpah left in her.”
  • Kiran calls Neel a “Royal Pain-in-the- Heinie.”
  • Crap is used twice and heck is used once.

Supernatural

  • The story focuses on Indian mythology, including mythological monsters and demons.
  • Kiran’s parents are “swallowed by a rakkhosh and whisked away to another galactic dimension.”
  • Kiran’s father was a serpent king and her mother was a moon maiden. Her adoptive parents found her “in a clay pot floating down the River of Dreams.”
  • Kiran’s biological mother exiled her to New Jersey and put a protection spell over her and her adoptive parents. “Anyway, an expired spell also makes everything around it unstable—in this situation, the boundaries between the various dimensions . . . which is how the rakkhosh came into your world.”
  • Kiran’s tears have healing properties. “I remembered how Tuni had seemed dead, but how he’d come to life in my arms.”
  • Kiran can understand horses. “And then, as clearly as if the horse were speaking to me, I heard his voice in my mind.”

Spiritual Content

  • Kiran explains that her “Baba always tells me we’re all connected by energy—trees, wind, animals, people, everything. . . He says that life energy is a kind of river flowing through the universe.” Neel continues the thought and says, “When our bodies give out, that’s just the pitcher breaking, pouring what’s inside back into the original stream of universal souls . . . so no one’s soul is ever really gone.”

The Rose Legacy

Since the death of her parents, Anthea has never felt wanted. Her family shuffles her from relative to relative. Her life is uprooted when she receives a letter from an uncle who lives in the exiled lands. Anthea dreams of being a Rose Maiden to the queen like her mother, but she fears that being sent to live beyond the wall will end her dream. Feeling scared of living beyond the wall, Anthea’s nightmare becomes worse when she learns that her uncle breeds horses—animals thought to be extinct after bringing a plague to Corona.

Anthea questions everything that she has been taught as she learns more about her family, her country’s political history, and herself. When Anthea tries to flee, she meets Florian, a horse from her childhood. For years, Florian has dreamed of being reunited with Anthea. With the help of Florian and a mix of interesting characters, Anthea learns that things are not always what they seem.  When danger threatens her new family, Anthea learns to trust others as well as herself in order to save the horse that she has come to love.

Jessica Day George’s cast of characters in The Rose Legacy is diverse, interesting, and captivating. The story is told from both Anthea’s and Florian’s points of view. This allows the readers to understand Anthea’s confusion, fear, and her desire to be wanted. The connection between Anthea and Florian is remarkably sweet and shows the true meaning of love.

Anyone who loves a good story should add The Rose Legacy to their reading list. Full of suspense, emotion, and surprises, the story will captivate readers of all ages. The story isn’t just about horses, but the power of friendship and overcoming one’s fears as well.

Sexual Content

  • As part of the narration, Anthea mentions that a man had “gotten fresh” with her teacher.
  • A boy gives Anthea a necklace for her birthday and “kissed her on the cheek and then fled.”  Anthea thinks, “It had been a very nice kiss. . . . His lips had been very warm and soft.”

Violence

  • When Anthea tries to save an owl, a horse named Constantine gets angry and tries to trample her. Another horse, Florian, intervenes, and the stallions fight. “Constantine bit Florian’s neck with his yellow teeth. . . . Constantine came thundering toward them, seeing that Anthea was about to escape . . . lashed the boards, trying to break through to get to them.”
  • One of the horses gets caught in a hunter’s snare. When Anthea tries to free him, “the wires that were still wrapped around his legs arced through the air with a singing noise. . . . A wire slashed open her face just below the left eyebrow, narrowly missing her eye, and a rivulet of blood obscured her vision.”
  • A hunter shoots and hits a horse and Anthea. “When the bullet ripped through her side, Anthea honestly didn’t understand what had happened.”

Drugs and Alcohol

  • A train conductor offers Anthea’s uncle a glass of whiskey.

Language

  • None

Supernatural

  • People who have “the Way” can communicate with horses and feel the horse’s emotions.

Spiritual Content

  • One of the characters says, “Then they’ll probably find some long-lost sacred tablet that says that horses are the devil’s pets and we have to destroy them all or burn in hell!”

Pegasus: Olympus at War

Olympus is under attack, which gives Emily the chance to save her father from the clutches of a dangerous government organization. In order to find her father, she returns to New York with Paelen and Joel. Unbeknownst to the three, Cupid follows them in an attempt to help Emily.

While the Olympian gods fight for their survival, Emily and her friends try to free Emily’s father.  However, they soon discover that Olympus’s fight has followed them to New York. Soon Emily is captured by the Nirads and has to decide how far she will go to save the people she loves.

Pegasus: Olympus at War will capture the reader’s interest from the beginning. The suspense begins on the first page and doesn’t let up until the end of the story. Cupid is a welcome addition to the cast of characters. The Roman gods are not seen as perfect individuals but as complex characters. As the group tries to save Emily’s father, Cupid learns to overcome his fear in order to help his friends.

Emily is an interesting heroine who is a good role model for young readers. As she fights to control her powers, she realizes that there are some things that can never be done, even if that means sacrificing those she loves. Another positive aspect of Pegasus: Olympus at War is that Emily learns to take a look at the Nirads as individuals, and as she does this, she learns the real power of understanding others.

Sexual Content

  • When Cupid travels to New York, he is attacked by a mob of women. He says, “Women used to worship me. They were shy and needed coaxing. But tonight those girls were mad.  They were ripping at me . . . It was as if they were trying to steal a piece of me.”
  • Emily has a crush on Cupid. When she looks at him, her heart flutters. “He bent down and gave her the softest kiss on the lips.”

Violence

  • Emily is shot. “She flew backwards and fell to the floor. It felt as if she had been hit by a baseball bat. Her chest was on fire, and the blood was rushing in her ears.” Because she is now an Olympian, she does not die.
  • Emily and her friends are attacked by the government agents. The fighting takes place over several pages. “As the fight intensified, Cupid was struck by Agent T’s plank of wood. The force of the blow sent him hurtling across the restaurant. He landed on his wings and cried out in pain.”
  • When Emily’s father escapes from his cell, he attacks an agent. “. . . He launched himself at the agent. Knocking him to the floor, he started to pound him.”
  • While trying to escape from the government compound, there is a fight between the Nirads, the agents, and the Olympians. The fighting continues for several pages. “Howling in pain, the creature swung a brutal fist and knocked the golden blade out of Joel’s hand, sending it flying. The creature roared and lunged at him.” The Nirads capture Cupid, Paelen, Joel, and Emily’s father.
  • During a fight, Emily’s dad is accidentally shot.
  • Emily cannot control her power. As Emily and her friends try to escape being captured, Emily ends up wounding many Nirads. “The red beam struck the ferocious nightmare and burned right through the creature, cutting it in half. The air filled with howls of pain as it fell to the floor and died.”
  • In order to control the Nirads and Emily, the Gordons turn Nirad children to stone. They also turn several Olympians to stone. “The child’s frightened wails turned to howls of pain as its skin darkened slowly and became solid . . . With a final agonized cry from the child, it was done.”
  • Paelen was turned into stone. “Already he could feel his blood slowing as each cell in his body turned to stone. Paelen experienced pain he’d never known before. It was like freezing and burning at the same time. He could no longer move. All he knew was pain and then . . . black nothingness.”
  • There is a final battle between the Nirad, the Gordons, and the Olympians. During the battle, Emily is turned to stone, and then she ends up killing the Gordons. “Unlike Euryale, who had burned, Stheno simply disappeared in a soft, soundless puff. Black ash filled the air and rained down where the Gordon had been standing.”

Drugs and Alcohol

  • A character in the book tells about a government worker who disappeared. “A few months back we were all out at a bar. He was drunk as a skunk and spoutin’ stories of them bringin’ in these big, four-armed gray aliens.”

Language

  • None

Supernatural

  • Emily has the power to heal others as well as to harness the power of the sun. Cupid explains Emily’s transformation. “Emily, the human in you died in the Flames back in Olympus. Your other life ended that day. Now you are as we are. You can no longer be killed.”
  • Cupid unwillingly uses his charms to put people under his control.

Spiritual Content

  • None

Pegasus: The Flame of Olympus

Manhattan is thrown into darkness during the worst storm in history, so when Emily hears a crash on the top of her apartment, she is reluctant to go investigate. However, her curiosity gets the best of her, and what she finds changes her life forever.

Pegasus has fallen from Olympus during a terrifying fight against the Nirads, stone warriors who are out to destroy everything in their path. In an effort to help Pegasus, Emily teams up with Joel. Along the way, the two are greeted with danger from both the Olympian world and the Earth world. Fighting monsters isn’t Emily’s only worry. She must also learn how to avoid a government agency that wants to capture Pegasus. In the end, will Emily and Joel be strong enough to protect Pegasus and themselves?

Pegasus is a fast-paced story with a lovable heroine, Roman gods, and plenty of action. Because the story is told from Emily’s point of view, the reader is able to connect with not only Emily, but with the other characters as well. Even though the story has violence, the descriptions are mild and allow the reader to imagine the details. O’Hearn weaves the Roman myths into a modern setting that will leave readers wanting more.

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • When Nirads fight to destroy Olympus, many of the Roman gods are hurt. Mercury was, “lying on his side, a spear sticking out of his chest. Blood matted his fair hair, and his face was covered with bruisers.”
  • Paelen, an Olympian thief, was captured by a government agency. They put him in a secret government facility and restrain him with chains. “. . . Two men in white overalls rushed forward and caught hold of his hands to restrain him. But when Paelen proved too strong for them, more men arrived. They wrestled his hands down until he was finally handcuffed to the sides of the bed.”
  • The Nirads try to kill Pegasus and Emily. The fight lasts several pages. “Emily lunged forward and jammed the points of the pitchfork into its black eyes. Howling in rage, the creature fell to the ground and raised two hands to its face. Black liquid oozed between its fingers and dripped onto the tarmac.”
  • Paelen will not answer Agent J’s questions. “Driven to fury, the older man started to slap Paelen violently across the face.” When Agent J leaves, someone said, “If he keeps pressing Agent J like that, the man will have him sliced and diced and poured into Mason jars.”
  • Paelen finds a dead Nirad at the prison. “Instead his eyes were drawn to a deep scar burned on the folded-back skin of the Nirad’s open chest. Closer inspection revealed several other similar scars along its exposed body.”
  • When Paelen is trying to escape, he is shot with a tranquilizer gun. He, “felt the sharp stinging of bees. He looked down at his chest and saw darts sticking into him.”
  • In order to get Emily to talk, an agent grabs her wounded leg. “The pain was blinding. Emily had never known such agony. It stole the screams from her throat and drove the wind from her lungs. Stars appeared before her eyes as the sound of water rushed in her ears. A moment later she passed out.”
  • When a guard calls Pegasus a horse, Diana (Roman Goddess) shoves the agents against the wall. “The wind was driven from their chest with such strength that they were instantly knocked out and crumbled to the floor.”
  • When the government’s agents try to stop Pegasus and others from escaping, Pegasus fights. “The stallion rose on his hind legs and lunged forward. One golden hoof struck Agent O, leaving a deep horseshow impression on his chest. The other hoof hit Agent J in the head with a lethal impact.”

Drugs and Alcohol

  • Joel’s parents were killed when “a drunk driver lost control of his car and crashed into us.”
  • While being held captive, Paelen is given a truth drug. “As the drug took effect, Paelen started to feel what it must have been like to be Medusa. His head was full of writhing, angry snakes; his veins were coursing with fire.”
  • One of the guards at the government agency said, “Want to join me and the boys for a beer later?”

Language

  • None

Supernatural

  • When Emily looks into Pegasus’ eyes images appear. “. . . Strange images suddenly flooded her mind. She saw Pegasus in a dark room, storm-filled sky with lightning flashed all around him.  She felt his determination, his fear. . .”
  • Emily must sacrifice herself to relight the flame of Olympus. “The flames were coming from each part of her, consuming her and spilling out of her every pore. As she stood in the center of the flames, the pain slowly ebbed and finally disappeared completely.”
  • When Emily doesn’t die in the flames, Vesta (Roman Goddess) explains, “You have been reborn.”

Spiritual Content

  • None

Eragon

Dragons are all but extinct in Alagaesia, which is why Eragon is confounded when a blue rock mysteriously appears in the woods. Hoping to make a profit, he tries to sell the pretty stone. But the dragon inside has chosen a different path for the boy who found her.

Eragon is an exciting story that will enthrall readers. Although it is written at a junior high reading level, it contains much violence and alludes to some sexual content. If your junior higher is mature this tale will no doubt delight them. But if your child has not yet been exposed to adult content such as the brutality of war, this series may not be the best fit.

Sexual Content

  • Eragon asks his friend, “Did you kill someone important or bed the wrong woman?”
  • The elf reveals that while in captivity, “His methods were . . . harsh. When torture failed, he ordered his soldiers to use me as they would.”

Violence

  • In the opening chapter, an elf is ambushed by a Shade. The Shade “saw three of his charges fall in a pile, mortally wounded…Black Urgal blood dripped from her sword, staining the pouch in her hand.”
  • Eragon finds his uncle wounded. “His skin was gray, lifeless, and dry…Deep, ragged burns covered most of his body. They were chalky white and oozed clear liquid. A cloying, sickening smell hung over him—the odor of rotting fruit. His breath came in short jerks, each one sounding like a death rattle.”
  • Eragon and his friend Brom steal food, money, and supplies several times while on the run. “The thievery made him feel guilty, but he reasoned, It’s not really stealing. I’ll pay Gedric back someday.” “Brom pocketed the money with a wink. ‘Anyone who gulls innocent travelers for a living ought to know better than to carry such a large sum on his person.’”
  • Eragon comes across much slaughter on his travels. Once an entire village is killed. “A mountain of bodies rose above them, the corpses stiff and grimacing. Their clothes were soaked in blood, and the churned ground was stained with it. Slaughtered men lay over the women they had tried to protect, mothers still clasped their children, and lovers who had tried to shield each other rested in death’s cold embrace. Black arrows stuck out of them all. Neither young nor old had been spared. But worst of all was the barbed spear that rose out of the peak of the pile, impaling the white body of a baby.”
  • Eragon learns to fight with magic. “He shot, yelling, ‘Brisingr!’ The arrow hissed through the air, glowing with a crackling blue light. It struck the lead Urgal on the forehead, and the air resounded with an explosion.”
  • Eragon’s dragon fights on several occasions. “Saphira whirled on the monster, roaring savagely. Her talons slashed with blinding speed. Blood spurted everywhere as the Urgal was rent in two.”
  • Slavery exists. “He watched helplessly as the slave was sold to a tall, hawk-nosed man. The next slave was a tiny girl, no more than six years old, wrenched from the arms of her crying mother.”
  • There are many times where Eragon and his companions are attacked and fight to defend themselves. “An angry snarl from behind made Eragon spin around, sword held high…’Brisignr!’ barked Eragon, stabbing out with magic. The Urgal’s face contorted with terror as he exploded in a flash of blue light. Blood splattered Eragon, and a brown mass flew through the air…He caught a second one in the throat with Zar’roc, wheeled wildly, and slashed a third through the heart.”
  • Eragon threatens a soldier to get him to talk. “Do you know how much pain a grain of sand can cause you when it’s embedded red hot in your stomach? Especially when it doesn’t cool off for the next twenty years and slowly burns its way down to your toes! By the time it gets out of you, you’ll be an old man…Unless you tell me what I want.”
  • Murtagh kills a Shade. “The next arrow caught him between the eyes. The Shade howled with agony and writhed, covering his face. His skin turned gray. Mist formed in the air around him, obscuring his figure. There was a shattering cry; then the cloud vanished.”
  • Eragon rescues an elf who had been imprisoned and tortured. “The elf’s back was strong and muscled, but it was covered with scabs that made her skin look like dry, cracked mud. She had been whipped mercilessly and branded with hot irons in the shape of claws. Where her skin was still intact, it was purple and black from numerous beatings…Eragon silently swore an oath that he would kill whoever was responsible.”
  • Eragon and Murtagh argue over killing a man who attacked them. “Murtagh gazed at him coldly, then swung his blade at Torkenbran’s neck. ‘No!’ shouted Eragon, but it was too late. Torkenbrand’s decapitated trunk crumpled to the ground in a puff of dirk. His head landed with a hard thump.” Eragon says they should have let him run, Murtagh says “I’m only trying to stay alive…No stranger’s life is more important than my own.”
  • Angela says, “I loathe Shades – they practice the most unholy magic, after necromancy. I’d like to dig his heart out with a dull hairpin and feed it to a pig!”
  • There is a great battle. “At a command, the cauldrons of pitch were tilted on their sides, pouring the scalding liquid into the tunnel’s hungry throat. The monsters howled in pain, arms flailing. A torch was thrown onto the bubbling pitch, and an orange pillar of greasy flames roared up into the opening, engulfing the Urgals in an inferno.

Drugs and Alcohol

  • Eragon drinks alcohol a few times. “The inn’s food was barely adequate, but its beer was excellent. By the time they stumbled back to the room, Eragon’s head was buzzing pleasantly…What was I thinking? wondered Eragon in the morning. His head was pounding and his tongue felt thick and fuzzy.”

Language

  • Variations of damn are used several times. “I won’t deal with anything you bring back from those damned mountains!” “Damnation! It’s not locked.”
  • Bastard is used a few times. “I find that I prefer them when they’re greedy bastards.” “There’s only one reason for the king to gather such a force – to forge a bastard army of humans and monsters to destroy us.”

Supernatural

  • There are many races in Alagaesia. They include elves, dwarves, dragons, and Urgals.
  • Shades are created when a human tried to control spirits in order to practice magic but is overpowered. The spirits take over the human body and control it.
  • Many people can use different types of magic, whether speaking words from the ancient language or by harnessing spirits.
  • Eragon can communicate with animals by touching their minds. He can speak to people in the same way, hear their thoughts, and attack their minds using magic.
  • Eragon meets a were-cat. They can see the future, speak using their minds, and transform into small humanoid figures.
  • An herbalist uses bones to tell Eragon’s future.

Spiritual Content

  • Eragon and his friend Brom lie often since they are fugitives on the run. “Eragon knew he had to lie.”
  • When Eragon’s adopted father dies, he shouts “What god would do this? Show yourself! He didn’t deserve this!”
  • Eragon comes across a town that has been slaughtered and wonders, “What does our existence mean when it can end like this?”
  • Brom describes the religion of the city Dras-Leona. “Their prayers go to Helgrind. It’s a cruel religion they practice. They drink human blood and make flesh offerings. Their priests often lack body parts because they believe that the more bone and sinew you give up, the less you’re attached to the mortal world.”

by Morgan Lynn

Eldest

Eragon has accepted the responsibility that comes with being a Rider. As the only one who can stop the evil King Galbatorix, Eragon travels to Ellesmera to finish his training among the elves. He studies fighting, magic, and history. He grows stronger, but also weaker as the Shade’s dark magic continues to course through his veins. As its evil festers, Eragon begins to wonder if Saphira was wrong to choose him. For if he fails, all hope will be lost.

The second installment in the Eragon series, Eldest could have been cut in half and not lost anything necessary to the story. Eragon’s journey to the elves dragged on too long, as did his training. A good chunk of the book is told from the point of view of Eragon’s cousin, but his personality is flat and unengaging. There were, however, very interesting moments during Eragon’s time with the elves and the book ended with plenty of action. As with the first novel, this story has a lot of gory violence that might be too frightening for some readers.

Sexual Content

  • Eragon and his teacher wash in a stream after working out. “Going to the stream by the house, they quickly disrobed. Eragon surreptitiously watched the elf, curious as to what he looked like without his clothes…No hair grew upon his chest or legs, not even around his groin.”
  • During a festival, “the two elves raised their hands to the brooches at their throats, unclasped them, and allowed their white robes to fall away. Though they wore no garments, the women were clad in an iridescent tattoo of a dragon…Slowly at first, but with gathering speed, [they] began to dance, marking time with the stamp of their feet on the dirt and undulating so that it was not they who seemed to move but the dragon upon them.”
  • A woman “even went so far as to insinuate that one of his grandparents had mated with an Urgal.”

Violence

  • Eragon remembers a great battle he fought in. “Beyond that, he no longer believed that life possessed inherent meaning—not after seeing men torn apart by the Kull…and the ground a bed of thrashing limbs and the dirt so wet with blood it soaked through the soles of his boots. If any honor existed in war, he concluded, it was in fighting to protect others from harm. He bent and plucked a tooth, a molar, from the dirt.”
  • Eragon’s cousin, Roran, gets in many fights, lies, cheats, and kills many people with his friends. Some are in self-defense, some are initiated by him. “Sloan howled like an enraged beast, threw his cleaver, and split one of the men’s helms, crushing his skull…Sloan yanked him closer and gored him through the eye with a carving knife from his belt…almost prancing with a terrible, bloody glee.”
  • After a fight, “The boy, Nolfavrell, was kneeling by the body of a soldier, methodically stabbing him in the chest as tears slid down his chin.”
  • Ayra tells the story of a woman who murdered the man who spurned her. “She found him with the woman and, in her fury, she stabbed him to death.”
  • Eragon learns how to kill with magic. “All it takes is for a single artery in the brain to be pinched off, or for certain nerves to be severed. With the right spell, you could obliterate an army.”
  • When the braying of a donkey almost reveals his hiding place, “Without hesitation, Roran dropped to one knee, fit arrow to string, and shot the ass between the ribs.”
  • When a man finds out Roran is a fugitive, he “jabbed forward with his spear, catching the white-haired soldier in the throat. Scarlet blood fountained. Releasing the spear, Roran drew his hammer and twisted round as he blocked the second soldier’s poleax with his shield. Swinging his hammer up and around, Roran crushed the man’s helm.”
  • Before a battle, a woman poisons the soldiers on the other side. “Not a very honorable way to fight, I suppose, but I’d rather do this than be killed.”
  • There is a great and lengthy battle. “Eragon could not tell from whose mouth emanated the ravenous jet of flame that consumed a dozen soldiers, cooking them in their mail, nor whose arm it was that brought Zar’roc down in an arc, cleaving a soldier’s helm in half.”

Drugs and Alcohol

  • Wine/mead is consumed at many meals, by Eragon as well as Saphira.
  • Eragon and Saphira get drunk. “They abandoned their food and filled their stone tankards with beer and mead…Even Saphira took a sip of mead, and finding that she liked it, the dwarves rolled out a whole barrel for her.” They both wake up hungover the next morning.
  • A trapper says, “After a few steins of ale—to lubricate my speaking, you understand…”
  • During a feast, Eragon “drank the cup’s clear liqueur and gasped as it blazed down his throat. It tasted like mulled cider mixed with mead.”
  • Orik gets drunk on Faelnirv, “A mosht wonderful, ticklish potion. The besht and greatest of the elves’ tricksty inventions.”
  • After a battle Eragon, “took a small sip of the liqueur to revitalize himself and gasped as it raced down his throat, making his nerves tingle with cold fire.”

Language

  • Bastard is used a few times. When Roran sees the men who killed his father, he says “That’s…they’re the bastards…”
  • Ass is used to describe a donkey.

Supernatural

  • Elves, dwarves, dragons, Urgals, and many other creatures live in Eragon’s world.
  • Eragon has a premonition about a battle. When he asks his friend about premonitions, she tells him, “The elf Maerzadi had a premonition that he would accidentally kill his son in battle. Rather than live to see it happen, he committed suicide, saving his son, and at the same time proving that the future isn’t set. Short of killing yourself, however, you can do little to change your destiny.”
  • Eragon tries to bless a child in the ancient language, but accidentally curses her. His teacher tells him, “Instead of protecting this child from the vagaries of fate, you condemned her to be a sacrifice for others, to absorb their misery and suffering so that they might live in peace.”

Spiritual Content

  • An elf argues with a dwarf over their religion, since “elves do not hold with ‘muttering into the air for help.’ “
  • When Eragon learns to hear the thoughts of living creatures, he finds he can no longer stomach the idea of eating meat. “Gripped by revulsion, Eragon thrust the meat away, as appalled by the fact that he had killed the rabbits as if he had murdered two people. His stomach churned and threatened to make him purge himself.”
  • Eragon’s teacher tells him that his and Saphira’s “souls, your identities—call it what you will—have been welded on a primal level…Do you believe that a person’s soul is separate from his body?” Eragon replies, “I don’t know.”
  • When Eragon says an animal isn’t a person his teacher says, “‘Do you truly believe that any of us are so different from a woodrat? That we are gifted with a miraculous quality that other creatures do not enjoy and that somehow preserves our being after death?’ ‘No,’ muttered Eragon.”
  • The elves, “do not worship at all…if gods exist, have they been good custodians of Alagaesia? Death, sickness, poverty, tyranny, and countless other miseries stalk the land. If this is the handiwork of divine beings, then they are to be rebelled against and overthrown, not given obeisance, obedience, and reverence.”
  • Murtagh is under a spell. Eragon asks Murtagh for permission to kill him, as it is the only way to stop him. “‘It would free you from Galbatorix’s control. And it would save the lives of hundreds, if not thousands, of people. Isn’t that a noble enough cause to sacrifice yourself for?’ Murtagh shook his head. ‘Maybe for you, but life is still too sweet for me to part with it so easily. No stranger’s life is more important than Thorn’s or my own.’ ”

by Morgan Lynn

Bloodhound

The second self-sufficient book in the Beka Cooper series expands Beka’s word beyond the walls of her city. Off to Port Caynn to hunt down the mysterious origins of a colemongering ring that may have the power to bring an entire kingdom to its knees, Beka can’t afford any mistakes. Pounce is off in the Devine Realm, but a new friend might be able to help her catch the Rat behind this dangerous game.

Bloodhound is an excellent book that keeps Beka’s story fresh with new characters and scenery. The language and sexual content is slightly escalated from Terrier, but the long chase at the end will have readers rooting for Beka to succeed.

Sexual Content

  • Kora tells Beka, “You told the third one you’d lop his hands off if he put them on you again.”
  • Rosto, “kissed me so very gently on the forehead. He knows I might have punched him in the gut if he’d tried to kiss me on the mouth, him with blood on his hands.”
  • Beka mentions that her adopted cousin was illegitimate. “His mother being a peasant that my lord’s father had kept for a mistress on their home estates.”
  • Beka takes a fancy to a man named Dale. When he whispers in her ear, “Suddenly the cloth over my peaches felt over-tight, and I was finding it a little hard to breathe.”
  • A friend of Beka says, “Inside I am a beautiful woman . . . The Trickster tapped me in my mother’s womb and placed me in this man’s shell.” I’d heard of many tricks done by the gods, but surely this was nearabout the cruelest.”
  • Dale sits Beka on his lap. She protests, but “then said nothing else . . . I only know that my dress, decent enough before, now seemed scandalously low cut. Moreover, from the way his arm drew its fabric and the fabric of my shift tight over my peaches, he knew I was not thinking of the cards.”
  • Dale teases Beka, kissing her fingertips and the palms of her hands. She thinks, “The peaks on my peaches went so tight I thought they might pop clean off.”
  • Beka kisses Dale several times. “And then he did kiss me. Oh, I came all undone. He wrapped me about in his arms . . . He fit his lips to mine and went very quiet and gentle, breathing my breath, settling his hold on me until we matched, twined about like vines.” Another time, “He kissed me so sweetly, his arms just strong enough as he drew me tight to his chest. His tongue slid gentle into my mouth as I wrapped my hands around the back of his head, feeling his silky hair against my fingers.”
  • Beka thinks about how far she wants to go with Dale. “Will I bed Dale? Should I? Surely what is between us cannot last . . . I think I should stop at a healer’s in the morning and purchase a new charm to prevent babies. It’s been so long since I needed one, I don’t even remember where the last one went.”
  • Beka beds Dale. “Last night was the finest I have had in my life. Dale took me to a good supper . . . After that, we returned to his room. Not that I will be writing the details of that. I’ve heard tell of folk who write little books that are nothing but what happens when folk canoodle. How can anyone bear to write such things where other folk might read them?”
  • “Dale picked up my hand and kissed the inside of my wrist slowly, as he liked to do. I’d thought that perhaps, now that we’d had a tumble, his touch wouldn’t unravel my tripes as it had before. I was wrong.”
  • Dale gives a maidservant, “a pat on the bum. I kicked him under the table. ‘I was just being polite!’ he protested. ‘Mayhap she’d like to keep her bum to herself,’ I told him. ‘If you need to be patting someone, pat me.’ “

Violence

  • Beka is attacked by a slave. “She rushed me from behind, her hands gripped together over her head in one giant fist. Only my instincts got me out of the way, or my head would have been crushed. The blow glanced off my left elbow, numbing it.”
  • Rosto tells Beka that when he found criminals using false coin, he “had them branded we did . . . A coin with an X through it, on their right hands. So every time they shake a dice box or pick up a card, folk will know.”
  • Goodwin says she used to be loose with the law, many years ago. “I ended in the gutter, buried under two corpses and not sure I wouldn’t be the third by dawn. I promised the Goddess I would change my ways if I lived.”
  • When a friend says, “Mind those saucy sailor coves, Beka. Their hands are nimble, and they mean no good to a pretty mot like you,” she replies, “I smile all the time. I just don’t do it for nonsense from coves who only mean to get under my skirts.”
  • When a group jump Goodwin and Beka, Goodwin “in a flash she had her knife at his eyes. She had her other hand dug firm into his gems. His knees buckled. His face turned red in the dim light.”
  • Beka meets several acquaintances in a gambling house. “Hanse [gave a woman] a slap on the bum that made her squeal and smack him back.”
  • While eating seafood, Beka thinks about how, “Everyone knows the reputation oysters have for putting folk in the mood for canoodling.”
  • Beka arrests men who were stealing children for the slave trade. “The redheaded one came at me first, doubtless thinking the sword would scare me off. I let him reach a bit too far and slammed him on the wrist, breaking it.”
  • Beka is part of a group of Dogs that raids the Rogue’s Court. “He carried a length of firewood gripped in both hands. It would crush my shoulder if it struck, so I darted under his swing and, one-handed, smacked both of his kneecaps with my baton. When he stiffened, his grip on his weapons going loose, I jammed the end of my baton between his thighs and yanked it up.”
  • Beka is attacked while chasing a criminal. “He thrust out with a short sword that would have skewered me, had I still be in front of it. I seized the hand on the sword hilt, slamming my baton down on the forearm just above my grip. Bone crunched.”
  • Beka finds several murdered people. “One had bought passage to the Peaceful Realms with a neck slash from a very sharp blade . . . I almost missed the death sign on the other cove, until I saw the blood that ran from his ear. I crouched to inspect the wound. At a guess, I’d say that someone very knowing in the ways of murder shoved a thin blade into the cove’s ear all the way to his brain.”
  • Pearl fights, rather than let herself be captured. “She had knives in both hands. I learned that when I caught one knife on my dagger’s hilt, and took the blade of her second knife along my right hip. It hurt like fire had chopped in to my side . . . I twisted my knife hand around her arm, trapping it. Pearl shook and thrashed, trying to make me let her go as the tide dragged on us.”

Drugs and Alcohol

  • Beka tells her partner, “You walk a bit, and you stop for a jack of ale.”
  • Beka talks to a cruel Dog. “I could smell the drink on him. He was swilled, and the hour not even noon.”
  • When visiting friends, Goodwin says, “I am off duty, and I will have ale.” Ale is often drunk and served at dinner and other casual events, though Beka rarely partakes.

Language

  • Beka writes, “I should have known tonight’s watch would kiss the mule’s bum when Sergeant Ahuda stopped me after baton training.”
  • Insulting, but not profane, words such as cracknob are used as insults or exclamations of disgust. Once Beka says, “he’s a lazy, jabbernob, pudding-livered scut,” and Goodwin calls Tunstall a “jabbernob.”
  • The word bastard is used twice. Tansy says, “A flea I put in my cove’s ear, not stopping the plague bastard before handling a citywoman like me!”
  • Ass is said several times. Tunstall tells a criminal that he shouldn’t want, “us chewing at your ass.”
  • The Rogue of Port Caynn calls Beka and Goodwin bitches seven times throughout the book. “I know what you two bitches are doin’, sniffin’ about my turf.”
  • Piss and summer are used often, usually in reference to work with a scent-hound or to Beka’s pigeons. “Phelan had said things with piss or scummer on them were the best. I don’t know how poor Achoo can stand it. Mayhap the smells that made me like to puke were perfume to her.”

Supernatural

  • Beka has a cat who is, “a constellation, as close to a god as makes no difference.”
  • Beka can hear the unhappy ghosts that ride pigeon-back until they move on to the Black God’s realm. “I gathered the complaints of the dead from the pigeons while they ate. There were few ghosts complaining of their lot today.”
  • Many people have variations of the magical Gift, which can be used for healing, fighting or many other things. Beka’s Gift allows her to hear bits of conversations that are picked up by wind spinners. “Stuck in one place like they are, their veils of air spinning tall or small depending on the weather, they savor the taste of other places. In return they give me the bits of talk they’ve gathered since my last visit.”

 

Spiritual Content

  • Pounce tells Beka, “Have faith that the gods know what they are doing with your life.” Beka thinks, “It never goes well for the god-chosen! Pounce can just tell the gods to leave me be.”
  • There are many gods in Tortall, such as the Goddess, the Black God and the Drowned God. Different people honor different gods, and some people are more devout than others. The gods names are also used in greetings, or as exclamations of surprise. One man tells Beka, after she is almost killed, “I would give the Trickster, the Goddess, and great Mithros some offerings, if I were you.” Beka takes his advice, “and did all the offerings to the gods that I promised in return for their help in the last few days.”
  • Goodwin tells Beka, “This stream has a sprite in it. They hate mortal magic . . . Except for the tail, they look like people.”

by Morgan Lynn

Dragonbreath: Nightmare of the Iguana

Horrifying dream monsters are keeping Wendell awake. In an attempt to help his friend, Danny Dragonbreath and Suki the Salamander go in search of advice from Danny’s wise mythological great-grandfather Dragonbreath. Danny and Suki must defeat the Dream Wasp before it can lay eggs in Wendell’s dreams, which would cause Wendell to go crazy. So Danny, Suki, and a sleepy dream eater enter the “dark horrors of Wendell’s subconscious.” They climb mounds of healthy food, run from a school bully, and search a massive library before they find the Dream Wasp and smash her eggs.

Nightmare of the Iguana is hilarious, action-packed, fun. Wendell’s dreams are the frightening things that kids can relate to—not doing well on a pop quiz, a mother who is a health food nut, and a girl finding out that he likes her. Danny’s wise mythological great-grandfather Dragonbreath’s hearing problems lead to humorous statements. As Danny and Suki enter Wendell’s subconscious and fight dream monsters, the battles involve more running than actual fighting.

Green and black illustrations add to the allure of the book. Drawing with dialogue balloons helps break up the text and keep the action moving. Dragonbreath shows the value of friendship and will get even the most reluctant readers engaged in the story. Although Night of the Iguana is the eighth book of the Dragonbreath series, the story can be enjoyed as a stand-alone story.

Sexual Content

  • Suki kisses Wendell on the cheek.

Violence

  • Monsters chase Danny and Suki, yelling “We will crush their bones and then give them pop quizzes!” They hide in the library, and when a monster finds them, “the monster with the battle-ax swung and hit the weakened bookcase. It collapsed slowly. Books slid off in a waterfall of paper.” They find a staircase in a book and are able to escape unharmed.
  • The dream eater (baku)  fights the Dream Wasp. “The floor shook as the two collided. The Wasp slashed with its bladed forearms, but the baku’s hide was thick and knobby . . .” Danny and Suki began throwing it’s eggs at the Wasp. The battle is described over a chapter and with the dream eater killing the Wasp.

Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • When being chased by monsters, Suki says, “Oh, crud.”
  • While squishing the Wasp’s eggs, Suki says, “Oh god, this is disgusting.”

Supernatural

  • Danny and Suki enter Wendell’s dream world and see the “dark horrors of Wendell’s subconscious.”
  • Dream monsters enter Wendell’s dreams. The main one, the Dream Wasp, lays its eggs in Wendell’s mind. “The Dream Wasp was the size of a house . . . Its stinger was as long as a car and tapered to a wickedly sharp point. Its jaws were serrated and meshed together like a bone zipper. Its forelegs looked like steak knives, assuming that by ‘steak’ you meant ‘the entire cow.’”

Spiritual Content

  • Danny’s great-grandfather is helping Suki. “He’s teaching me meditative techniques. To help with being a ninja in a past life.”

 

Have Sword, Will Travel

Odo never dreamed of leaving his small town. His best friend, Eleanor, longs for adventure. Everything changes for the two of them when Odo pulls an enchanted sword, Biter, from the river.

Even though Odo doesn’t want adventure, Biter knights him and demands that Odo go on a quest to discover why the town’s river has dried up. Eleanor goes along, excited for the chance to explore the unknown. Along the way, Odo and Eleanor discover that life outside of their village is full of both good and evil and that danger often lurks in unexpected places.

A fast-paced story full of interesting characters—human and non-human— Have Sword, Will Travel takes the reader on an epic adventure. Eleanor is a feisty heroine and Odo is a reluctant hero that children will love. Written with humor, the story teaches lessons such as not bending the truth, fighting for what is right, and defending those in need.

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • When two boys make fun of Odo, the sword attempts to attack them. The sword slices “a figure-eight through the air despite Odo’s efforts to keep him grounded.” Odo manages to stop the sword, and the boys run off.
  • Odo must fight Fyrennian, a cruel smith. When Biter attempts to kill Fyrennian, Odo “managed to pull back on the sword at the last moment, deflecting the sword from a killing thrust.”
  • Eleanor is corned by a huge dog. She flings hot coals on the floor, trapping the dog.
  • Someone hits Fyrennian on the head, and “the smith toppled forward like a stone.”
  • A refugee tells a story about “corpses drifting down the river, the bodies of people cooked to death in boiling water.”
  • Sir Saskia challenges Odo to a duel to keep the citizens entertained. The battle is described over several pages. Odo is outmatched, and Sir Saskia strikes Odo’s shoulder twice. “His shoulder felt like it was swelling up inside the armor.” She hits Odo in the same spot a third time, “on his shoulder again, jarring it so much he lost feeling all the way down his arm. His nerveless fingers could no longer hold the sword, and the grip on his left hand was too weak.” Odo is forced to yield.
  • A dragon attacks Odo and Eleanor. Odo strikes the dragon. “The blade scored a vivid line in the blackened hide, exposing softer bone-white flesh beneath . . . he stabbed forward and pierced one wing right up to the cross-guard.” An older woman comes and helps the children escape.
  • A group of Sir Saskia’s troops attacks Eleanor. A person trips and “impaled himself” on the sword. In the end, there is, “one wounded, one dying . . . maybe . . . and one surrendered.”
  • Odo and Eleanor blow up a dam that has been built to stop the river from flowing. When they do, Odo almost drowns. “Odo lay weakly on his stomach, coughing up dirty water while Eleanor pounded his back.”
  • Odo and Eleanor get into a battle with bandits. The battle lasts over several pages. “Biter came down point-first on Mannix’s shoulder, shearing through his armor as if it were no more than river mud. Mannix screamed and swore and clutched at the wound with his left hand, his right arm now useless.” During the fight, Eleanor is kicked with steel-clad boots, and “the pain was like fire.”

Drugs and Alcohol

  • At home, Eleanor drinks weak ale because water isn’t always clean.
  • Odo and Eleanor find a group of men passing around mugs. One of the men is telling a story. In the middle of the story he stops, and they see his “eyes suddenly rolling back into his head and his falling backward, unconscious. Fortunately, the arms of his friends were ready to catch him . . .”

Language

  • None

Supernatural

  • Biter, an enchanted sword, is able to talk and control his own movements. He teaches Odo how to wield a sword and act like a knight. Later in the story, the children find Biter’s sister, who believes she is cursed and will bring death to those who wield her.
  • A smith has a firestarter that came from a dragon. He uses it to terrorize others into working for him.
  • A dragon appears to judge several of the characters in the book. The dragon looks at Odo, “really looked at him. He felt her ancient, knowing gaze penetrate into the very depths of his being.” Mannix is found guilty and the “dragon’s tail moved again, whipping around like a scorpion’s, the long spike on the end stabbing Mannix right through the middle and then flipping him back into the dragon’s mouth. It happened so quickly he didn’t even have time to scream.” Another person is cursed and forced to do as the dragon commands.
  • Urthkin, “pale-skinned, reed-slender demi-humans” that have “paws like a mole’s, with digging claws,” only come out at night because light hurts their eyes. They believe that “wisdom comes from closer to the ground.”

Spiritual Content

  • None

 

Liesl & Po

Liesl’s cruel stepmother keeps her locked away in an attic. With nothing to do, Liesl spends her time looking out a tiny window and drawing. One lonely night, a ghost named Po appears from the Other Side. Both Liesl and Po are less lonely when they are together. When Liesl’s father dies, she is determined to take his ashes to a special place. With Po’s help, Liesl is able to escape and the two embark on a dangerous adventure to bury her father.

The alchemist’s apprentice, Will, leads a miserable life. His one joy is to look at the small girl in the attic window. Late one night, Will accidentally mixes up a major delivery. Now, the person who ordered the most powerful magic in the world will stop at nothing to get her potion that Will failed to send to her.

The lives of the children—Will, Leisl, and Po—intersect as they help each other avoid the adults who would like to capture them.

Lauren Oliver writes a beautiful story that shows the power of friendship. Although Liesl & Po is age-appropriate, the story shows a frightening version of the Other Side—a place where the dead lose their shape and their memories. Another aspect that may frighten younger readers is the terrible actions of the adults in the story. The alchemist verbally abuses Will. Liesl’s stepmother plots the murder of Liesl’s father and attempts to kill Liesl. The other adults (except one) in the story are just as vile. However, the story ends in a satisfying way, leaving the reader with hope.

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • One of the alchemist’s apprentices was accidentally turned into a mouse, “just as the alchemist’s scrawny, always hungry tabby cat had come swishing in through the cat door.”
  • Augusta wants to kill her husband and stepdaughter, but she is afraid to kill both at the same time. Therefore, she uses poison to kill her husband because “the slow death of a middle-aged man is hardly likely to be attributed to poison, especially when the poison is administered teaspoon by teaspoon, a bit in the soup every day, over the course of a year.”
  • Will overhears a conversation when a factory worker says, “The problem is the boys. We’re running through ‘em! We’re running out! Boys are losing limbs, fingers, toes. One of the boys had his head chopped off last month.”
  • Someone tries to grab Liesl. “During her frantic struggles against the Lady Premiere, she had smacked her head against the door jam and gone as limp as a lettuce leaf.” Lady Premiere then locks Liesl in a room.
  • Augusta tries to feed Liesl soup that she has poisoned. When Liesl refuses to eat it, “Augusta, enraged, sprang to her feet. She grabbed Liesl by the shoulders and shook her . . . Augusta shook Liesl so hard that her teeth knocked together.” Augusta then tells Liesl she can eat the soup and die slowly or she can starve to death.
  • Two siblings are seen “hopping and twisting and slapping each other.”

Drugs and Alcohol

  • Po meets a ghost who died in a bar brawl.
  • Augusta kills her husband with poison.
  • Augusta says that her maid was, “dropped on her head quite frequently as a baby. Her mother was a hopeless drunk.”
  • An innkeeper thinks about a time when she served her customers “weak wine.”

Language

  • None

Supernatural

  • Po is a ghost who explains how death works. Some people go “straight on,” and others go to the Other Side. The Other Side is “vast and filled with ghosts.” When new people cross over to the “dark and twisting corridors,” people lose their shape and memories. When people first get to the Other Side, “they become a part of darkness, of the vast spaces between starts.”
  • When people die, they blend and become part of the Everything. “The ghost reminded itself that losing form was natural, and good, and the way things were in the universe.”
  • Po takes Liesl to the Other Side. “. . . She was aware of the sensation of Po inside her, urging her forward, like suddenly feeling a division down your middle and being two people . . .” Po leads Liesl through the Other Side, and then opens a passage so Liesl can go back to the living world.
  • When people first get to the Other Side they are often confused because they do not understand where they are. “All those new ghosts: All they wanted was to go back to the Living Side.” In order to help Liesl, Po tells the new ghost to follow him because the path would lead them home. Instead, they go to the Living World. “Because they were very new ghosts, they had not started to blend yet, and so were quite visible. . . Some had holes in their faces, or were missing arms or legs, where their physical selves had begun to dissipate and merge with the rest of the universe.”
  • Liesl’s father returns from the Other Side and accuses his wife, Augusta, of killing him. Augusta then reveals that the alchemist gave her “Pernicious Poison: Dead as a Doorknob, or Your Money Back.”
  • After helping Liesl, Po and Bundle appear as solid shapes. “They were golden—they’d been dipped in gold—no—they were made of gold. And then the golden Po-shape turned into tan brown arms and shoulders, a ring of curly yellow hair, and a laughing smile. . . ” Then he disappeared “to Beyond.”
  • Will works for an alchemist who makes spells. For one spell, Will “spent the whole day grinding up cow eyes, and measuring the blood of lizards into different-sized vials . . .”
  • The alchemist can make spells that “turned frogs into goats and goats into mugs of tea. He made people grow wings or third legs. Recently he had mastered a tincture that would make a person disappear entirely.”

 Spiritual Content

  • None

Pugs of the Frozen North

True Winter comes once in a lifetime. It turns everything into a magical wonderland and gives people an opportunity to win a legendary sled race. Whoever wins can make one wish that will come true.

Two friends, Siska and Shen, embark on a fantastical journey to win the race with sixty-six pugs pulling their sled. Along the way, they encounter many obstacles, including spaghetti-eating yetis, singing snow, and other racers. As they complete the journey, they discover that friendship is more important than winning.

Pugs of the Frozen North is a fun-filled story with outrageous characters, interesting obstacles, and snow that comes to life. Although the story focuses on Siska and Shen, the other characters are extremely funny and help add suspense to the story. The race generates kid-appropriate conflict that will keep the reader guessing and giggling as they watch pugs (and polar bears and dogbots) race to the top of the world.

The story is easy to read and engaging. However, the story doesn’t come to an end when the racers arrive at the top of the world and meet Snowfather. Once the racers reach their destination, the story becomes less interesting and readers may have a difficult time reaching the end of the story. The ending deals with the death of Siska’s grandfather, which may cause some children to have questions about what happens at the end of one’s life.

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • While in the race, Siska and Shen encounter weresnow that tries to form itself into scary snowdogs. The pugs bite “the snowmen’s snowy bottoms. After that the weresnow stopped its tricks.”
  • One of the racers goes over a bridge that breaks. As she is clinging to the edge, snowtrolls shout from the abyss. “They had been looking forward to Helga falling so that they could eat her. They started hurling big splinters of ice up at the bridge, hoping to dislodge her.” In the end, Siska and Shen are able to save her.
  • Siska and the other racers are kidnapped by yetis who feed them spaghetti in order to trick them. The yetis want them to wash dishes, because yetis like to make spaghetti but not clean up the mess.
  • One of the racers uses a rocket launcher to try to stop the other racers from making it to the finish line first. “’Take this, you scum!’ sneered Sir Basil. But just as he pulled the trigger, Side-Plate’s snow boot kicked the rocket launcher upward. The rocket whizzed harmlessly off into the sky.”

Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • None

Supernatural

  • During True Winter, there are various types of magical snow. For example, shrink snow makes one of the racers shrink to the size of a toy soldier.
  • When the racers meet Snowfather, he shows them a special type of snow. He says, “Everything you see here is made of snow . . . the special anything snow that falls only here, at the top of the world. Shape it into whatever you want, and it will become real.” The Snowfather then creates a bird that comes to life.
  • The Snowfather visits Siska’s sick grandfather. The Snowfather blows on snow that begins to float upward. “The snow that was under Grandpa’s bed caught against the slats and the underneath of the mattress and kept rising, so that the bed was lifted with it.” When Siska’s grandpa floats into the air, Sika’s mother says, “He’s going on that one last journey that he always wished for.” The Snowfather replies, “He’s going to places even I have never seen.”

Spiritual Content

  • None
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