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A review by kailey_luminouslibro
The Secret History of Tom Trueheart by Ian Beck
4.0
Tom comes from a family of adventurers in the Land of Stories. He has six burly older brothers, all named Jack, and when they receive a commission from the Story Bureau, they follow their instructions and complete a daring adventure, awakening cursed maidens with a kiss, defeating giants up a beanstalk, or outwitting evil witches. But Tom is still too young to go on adventures like his brothers do. One day, the brothers all receive a new story commission and set off on new adventures, but they are each lost in the Land of Stories and they never return. Tom is assigned to find them and return them to their assigned stories. Tom begins to retrace their steps and finds that all their stories have been halted right in the middle, waiting for the hero to arrive and save the day. As Tom investigates, he must find the courage to go on his own adventure and save his brothers, so that his brothers can save the rest of the Land of Stories!
This was such a fun adventure! I loved Tom's character. He is very anxious about performing well in his adventure. He worries that he might not have the courage to continue, but when he is faced with a true crisis, he doesn't think about himself, and he doesn't worry about having courage. He just does what needs to be done. He discovers that true courage is not about posturing with big muscles; it's about caring for others.
I liked the world-building of the Land of Stories, since we get to see some well-known fairy tales like Snow White, Rapunzel, Jack and the Beanstalk, Sleeping Beauty, the Frog Prince, and Hansel and Gretel. Each of these stories have their own silly twist that makes for a really funny look into the "inner workings" of the stories. Rapunzel is getting very impatient waiting around up in her tower. Sleeping Beauty is not quite asleep all the time and whispers clues to Tom. The Frog Prince actually hates eating slimy flies. It was delightful to see these fairy tale characters "breaking character" to ask if the hero is on the way to finish their story.
Such a fun book, and it received a "Nothing Found" rating on the Screen It First website! https://screenitfirst.com/book/the-secret-history-of-tom-trueheart-494645
This was such a fun adventure! I loved Tom's character. He is very anxious about performing well in his adventure. He worries that he might not have the courage to continue, but when he is faced with a true crisis, he doesn't think about himself, and he doesn't worry about having courage. He just does what needs to be done. He discovers that true courage is not about posturing with big muscles; it's about caring for others.
I liked the world-building of the Land of Stories, since we get to see some well-known fairy tales like Snow White, Rapunzel, Jack and the Beanstalk, Sleeping Beauty, the Frog Prince, and Hansel and Gretel. Each of these stories have their own silly twist that makes for a really funny look into the "inner workings" of the stories. Rapunzel is getting very impatient waiting around up in her tower. Sleeping Beauty is not quite asleep all the time and whispers clues to Tom. The Frog Prince actually hates eating slimy flies. It was delightful to see these fairy tale characters "breaking character" to ask if the hero is on the way to finish their story.
Such a fun book, and it received a "Nothing Found" rating on the Screen It First website! https://screenitfirst.com/book/the-secret-history-of-tom-trueheart-494645