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3.63 AVERAGE
3.63 AVERAGE
A little slow at first, but got better with the battle scenes.
adventurous
dark
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Okay, I’m admittedly well over the age of 12. Perhaps if I was actually the target demographic, I could go higher on my rating. Maybe. BIG maybe.
Sure, this was an adventure. And there was the teeny tiniest hint of magic (not nearly as much as I anticipated going into it), and maybe a bit of a folktale vibe. But man, talk about suspending disbelief. I have a hard time with that anyway, but we jump right into a 12 year old not only being 100% responsible for a baby (literally, like a not-even-walking-yet baby) but hauling said baby around town in a regular ol’ red flyer wagon hitched up to a bicycle? “Skidding to a halt” and leaving him alone outside the public library while she goes in to drop books off? These parents didn’t even set eyes on the actual baby from that morning until well AFTER the sister sneaks off in the middle of the night to rescue him.
There’s more, but I don’t really want to dedicate more time to every little thing. Really, the book could have easily been at least 100 pages shorter. The biggest issue I have is with their completely helpless and incompetent parents. It’s a pet peeve of mine in children’s literature. Yes, give us strong, resilient, intelligent children. But for the love of all the things, let them also have adults in their life that are realistic and reasonable!After hearing about the baby still being missing in these somehow-impenetrable woods, the parents are all like, Oh well, I guess we just live without him. Dad literally says, “We can be happy, the three of us.” 😳 Okaaayyy.
Anyway. I guess other than my own hangups with the story, being a boring grown up and all, it’s still a pretty fun adventure. There’s lots of travel between areas of the woods (realms?), random sidekick friends made along the way, battles, etc. The violence is actually a bit more than I would have expected—including guns used in battle and people and animals being shot and killed, in case that’s something you’d like to stay away from as parents. The ending is also left wide open for the next book. I believe there are three? I don’t think I’ll be reading them, but they’re there.
This was chosen from a selection of books by my library middle grade book club kiddos. I have not discussed with them yet, however. I’m very interested to see what they thought!
Sure, this was an adventure. And there was the teeny tiniest hint of magic (not nearly as much as I anticipated going into it), and maybe a bit of a folktale vibe. But man, talk about suspending disbelief. I have a hard time with that anyway, but we jump right into a 12 year old not only being 100% responsible for a baby (literally, like a not-even-walking-yet baby) but hauling said baby around town in a regular ol’ red flyer wagon hitched up to a bicycle? “Skidding to a halt” and leaving him alone outside the public library while she goes in to drop books off? These parents didn’t even set eyes on the actual baby from that morning until well AFTER the sister sneaks off in the middle of the night to rescue him.
There’s more, but I don’t really want to dedicate more time to every little thing. Really, the book could have easily been at least 100 pages shorter. The biggest issue I have is with their completely helpless and incompetent parents. It’s a pet peeve of mine in children’s literature. Yes, give us strong, resilient, intelligent children. But for the love of all the things, let them also have adults in their life that are realistic and reasonable!
Anyway. I guess other than my own hangups with the story, being a boring grown up and all, it’s still a pretty fun adventure. There’s lots of travel between areas of the woods (realms?), random sidekick friends made along the way, battles, etc. The violence is actually a bit more than I would have expected—including guns used in battle and people and animals being shot and killed, in case that’s something you’d like to stay away from as parents. The ending is also left wide open for the next book. I believe there are three? I don’t think I’ll be reading them, but they’re there.
This was chosen from a selection of books by my library middle grade book club kiddos. I have not discussed with them yet, however. I’m very interested to see what they thought!
Cute. Incredibly long winded and ended up being more about the boy then the girl.
Needed a really good editor. Reminiscent of The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe.
Needed a really good editor. Reminiscent of The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe.
I wanted to love this book. I had high hopes once I read the first paragraph but it went downhill from there. I think I'd love the story if only the characters weren't so one-dimensional. I don't feel anything for any of them because I don't feel like I actually know any of them. Prue is apparently a 12 year-old hipster and her parents are idiots as far as I can tell. They don't even know when their own son is actually just a pile of blankets? I may give the second book a chance if I'm particularly bored. The illustrations, however, are quite lovely.
This book was way too long for the story it contained. I realize that building an entire world with its own politics and history takes some time but I don't think there was anything so original here that it warranted almost 550 pages. The main characters were ok, but I didn't feel moved by any of them, really. It just didn't do it for me. Nice pictures though.
adventurous
challenging
slow-paced
This was a solid 3 star read for me: I finished it and found parts of it compelling and parts of it dragged. The world building was fun and the plot just intricate enough for the target audience: 8 - 12 year olds. But the book was too long for the actual story we got and several parts felt pretty convoluted. If you love animals and adventure (no whimsy here, despite what the blurb might say!), and really long books, this might be the book for you.
Take 10 cups Narnia, a dash each of essence of Redwall and aura of Dimwood Forest, mix well, and bake for 541 pages. Top with marzipan, colored richly in the theme of Grimm's Portland.
3 neutral stars. It was a fun read, if overly long and SUPER over done in themes.
However, despite the fun adventure that I was taken on, that's all it was. An adventure. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing, as adventures are fun. But when there is very little personalities or characterization to the characters themselves, it makes for a flat story. It seemed to just be going through the motions of the plot outline, rather than actually creating both a story and characters.
Despite this, I found it to be a quick read, and although the Narnia-ness was a bit over the top, the fairy tale tropes were fun (yes, it was stereotypical, but all fairy tale like things are stereotypes) and I did enjoy escaping into the world of the Impassible Wilderness. I think that those in the age range that this is geared towards would highly enjoy it... I probably would have adored this myself at that age.
I doubt I will pick up the other two books in the series as this installment felt more like a stand-alone story.
(Cross posted on my blog.)
3 neutral stars. It was a fun read, if overly long and SUPER over done in themes.
However, despite the fun adventure that I was taken on, that's all it was. An adventure. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing, as adventures are fun. But when there is very little personalities or characterization to the characters themselves, it makes for a flat story. It seemed to just be going through the motions of the plot outline, rather than actually creating both a story and characters.
Despite this, I found it to be a quick read, and although the Narnia-ness was a bit over the top, the fairy tale tropes were fun (yes, it was stereotypical, but all fairy tale like things are stereotypes) and I did enjoy escaping into the world of the Impassible Wilderness. I think that those in the age range that this is geared towards would highly enjoy it... I probably would have adored this myself at that age.
I doubt I will pick up the other two books in the series as this installment felt more like a stand-alone story.
(Cross posted on my blog.)
This book was overall good. The writing style was fairly basic, and I think that would have enjoyed the book more had I read it when I was younger, but the plot was very interesting, and the illustrations definitely added to the text. I found some things to be unbelievable, and even more to be on the edge of being so, but was still interesting. I also found the writing to be slightly graphic and violent in describing battle scenes, although it definitely got the point across. There wasn't that much emotion in the writing, but it was a cool story and the many details added to and enhanced the book. I am always impressed with authors who can create an entire new world, and this one certainly did.
so far I'm enjoying it, but I think the vocab and writing style are a bit difficult for what I assume the target audience is.