Andrew Peterson’s middle-grade Wingfeather series that started out as an amusing tale full of rollicking names moves to epic scope along the way. In this fourth book, The Warden and the Wolf King (2014), it builds to a mighty conclusion full of heroic deeds. Andrew Peterson’s Wingfeather Saga is the story of the widow and […]
The Monster in the Hollows by Andrew Peterson, a review
January 16, 2020 by Leave a Comment
We learned in the second book that the fangs, which look like beast-humans, are actually recycled humans. In fact, the bad guys nearly succeeding in turning young Kalmar Wingfeather, the 11-year-old next king of Anniera, into a wolfish fang.
North! or Be Eaten by Andrew Peterson, a Review
January 14, 2020 by Leave a Comment
I am reviewing North! or Be Eaten by Andrew Peterson, Book 2 in the Wingfeather Saga (2009).This mid-series book could suffer from middle-of-story sag.
On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness, a Review
January 12, 2020 by
I’m reviewing On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness, by Andrew Peterson, Book One of the Wingfeather Saga (2008) . In this middle-grade book, the three children of the Igiby family are being raised by their mother and their grandfather. They live just outside Glipwood, a rustic village on the edge of the sea, in the house built by their grandfather many, many years before.
Museum of Thieves by Lian Tanner, a review
December 16, 2019 by
In Museum of Thieves by Lian Tanner (2010), Book 1 of a trilogy, Goldie is a protected child. She’s so protected that she has never been in any kind of danger, never petted a dog, never seen a snake, and … never been off a leash.
Flora and Ulysses by Kate DiCamillo, a review
December 3, 2019 by
She calls herself a cynic as she copes with her mother, who dotes on a pretty porcelain lamp named Mary Ann instead of her tomboy daughter. And Flora adores comic books, especially those about an unassuming janitor who transforms into a shining light of rescue. Plainly, she’d like her own life to be more like that.
Dreamtreaders by Wayne Thomas Batson, a review
December 1, 2019 by
In Dreamtreaders, a middle-grade story by Wayne Thomas Batson, Archer Keaton, age 14, serves humanity as a Dreamtreader. In his dreams, what he imagines becomes “real.”
Failstate by John W. Otte, a review
November 22, 2019 by
Failstate: Legends by John Ottte (2013) looks like a graphic novel, but it isn’t. It’s a middle grade novel, the middle book of a three-book series, but it stands alone very well . No one who picks it up cold like I did will think this is an unfinished story, and unexplained details from the past just make it seem more realistic.
Merlin’s Nightmare by Robert Treskillard, a review
November 20, 2019 by
Robert Treskillard concludes his terrific YA Merlin trilogy with this book, Merlin’s Nightmare (2014), leaving some threads open for starting a new work focused on Arthur. I’m really enjoying Treskillard’s re-imagining of Merlin as a non-magician. Merlin is a Christian who occasionally has visions. As the book opens, Merlin, in hiding in the North, has […]
Merlin’s Shadow by Robert Treskillard, a review
November 19, 2019 by
Multiple times, it looks like all is lost. How can they survive being stranded on a peninsula, with armed enemies cornering them? How can they survive being surrounded by Vortigern’s murderous men, and then by Pictish barbarians who are only too happy to murder them?
