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3.97 AVERAGE
3.97 AVERAGE
adventurous
emotional
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Full of suspense and imaginative...after the Quint trilogy, I'm happy to go back to the world of The Edge Chronicles. Twig has such incredible (mis)adventures in Deepwoods and it's a great contrast to the city adventures plot of Quint. Can't wait to read more.
I decided to read this book partly because several authors in the excellent book, The Writer’s Map, spoke highly of it and the series, but also because I like to try to keep my ear to the ground on YA or middle grade fiction, especially fantasy. I like to see what it out there so I can recommend good stuff to my students, and also because I want to see what is in the same genre as Amy’s book will eventually be about.
I also finished it for these reasons (and, mercifully, it wasn’t very long), but it just wasn’t very good. I mean, if I were in 3rd grade, I might have liked it more, but the main problem with it is its lack of any real sense of timing or pacing. Every good fiction book, but especially something like fantasy or sci-fi, needs a good balance between tension and recovery. It needs some periods of stability for character development. This book was just flat-out action. Quite literally, Twig would be miraculously saved from one scrape only to get directly into another. It just doesn’t work. It’s not believable. You can’t get a feel for the setting or get to know any characters this way.
Diction was another problem. The number of times that various onomatopoeia words were used to describe something sticky, gooey, smelly, or disgusting in some way was just beyond all normal bounds. Just because a book is written for a younger audience doesn’t mean you have to write the book dumbed down. An analogy would be you don’t have to feed your kid chicken nuggets with ketchup. If you make a really good roast chicken with lemon and rosemary, they will love that even more.
This is definitely one of those sorts of books that I just feel like if someone had let me be the editor for it, it would have turned out so much better. The authors are undoubtedly very creative, have some cool ideas for creating creatures and setting, and even have a point to make about growing up and identity, but those elements were just lost because of the problems I mentioned above.
I would not recommend this to an elementary school student. There are far too many better books to recommend. But at least it gives me hope for Amy’s book because hers is already better than this and it’s not even done yet.
I also finished it for these reasons (and, mercifully, it wasn’t very long), but it just wasn’t very good. I mean, if I were in 3rd grade, I might have liked it more, but the main problem with it is its lack of any real sense of timing or pacing. Every good fiction book, but especially something like fantasy or sci-fi, needs a good balance between tension and recovery. It needs some periods of stability for character development. This book was just flat-out action. Quite literally, Twig would be miraculously saved from one scrape only to get directly into another. It just doesn’t work. It’s not believable. You can’t get a feel for the setting or get to know any characters this way.
Diction was another problem. The number of times that various onomatopoeia words were used to describe something sticky, gooey, smelly, or disgusting in some way was just beyond all normal bounds. Just because a book is written for a younger audience doesn’t mean you have to write the book dumbed down. An analogy would be you don’t have to feed your kid chicken nuggets with ketchup. If you make a really good roast chicken with lemon and rosemary, they will love that even more.
This is definitely one of those sorts of books that I just feel like if someone had let me be the editor for it, it would have turned out so much better. The authors are undoubtedly very creative, have some cool ideas for creating creatures and setting, and even have a point to make about growing up and identity, but those elements were just lost because of the problems I mentioned above.
I would not recommend this to an elementary school student. There are far too many better books to recommend. But at least it gives me hope for Amy’s book because hers is already better than this and it’s not even done yet.
There is some lovely world-building here, but I found the structure SO FRUSTRATING. All this book seems to consist of is Twig meeting a magical creature (either well or evil-intentioned), having a close encounter, and then repeat. That said, I may come back to it.
My son said, this book is a downer. He is right, but quite an immersive world.
adventurous
emotional
funny
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
lighthearted
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes