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tiofederico 's review for:
Skandar and the Unicorn Thief
by A.F. Steadman
My first foray into middle grade fantasy/ school fantasy since I was in middle grade myself! I picked up this book because a young reader in the bookstore told us/yelled “it’s better than Harry Potter!!” And that was enough of a recommendation for me to start diving into a world of violent unicorns who bond with humans and a kid who has the only fantasy name in the book (sorry that really irked me for some reason—it’s ok to have an ordinary sounding name, I swear!)
Skandar is fast paced without losing too much world or character building. And what’s nice about the series is that a lot of the tropes that are built in—the chosen one, kid without a mother, the unpopular kid, kid with a secret, a villain out to destroy society, a magic school with angels and devils in student form, etc., bc they’re tropes, the novel can get underway easily but Steadman does still make Skandar a unique story with new twists on old archetypes!
I quickly gifted the first book to my 3rd grade nephew and will be reading book 2 with him so we can talk about Skandar’s powers and how he’ll face his next obstacles! Definitely a good buddy read and read aloud :)
Skandar is fast paced without losing too much world or character building. And what’s nice about the series is that a lot of the tropes that are built in—the chosen one, kid without a mother, the unpopular kid, kid with a secret, a villain out to destroy society, a magic school with angels and devils in student form, etc., bc they’re tropes, the novel can get underway easily but Steadman does still make Skandar a unique story with new twists on old archetypes!
I quickly gifted the first book to my 3rd grade nephew and will be reading book 2 with him so we can talk about Skandar’s powers and how he’ll face his next obstacles! Definitely a good buddy read and read aloud :)