The Midwife of Bethlehem

Today we have a post by Ashley! Hooray!

Can you hear the distant jingling of Christmas bells yet? It's getting closer! Close enough that I don't mind posting now about this lovely children's book that was sent to me to review. It's called The Midwife of Bethlehem, written by Shad Driggs and illustrated by Diane Lucas.

Compared to many other more secularly-themed Christmas books, this one is decidedly religious. It tells the imagined story of a midwife called upon to assist Mary as she delivers Jesus in the stable in Bethlehem. The midwife contemplates beforehand what it might be like if she were to deliver the prophesied Savior. When she is summoned to this peculiar birth and sees the signs, she knows that that is just what she's been called upon to do.

The book's illustrations are simple but not distracting. The text is full of quoted scripture, which might make it a little harder to understand for younger readers. But if you're looking for a good lead-up-to-Christmas book that helps your family focus on "the reason for the season" and that will afford good opportunities for discussing Bible verses together, look no further. This one is a nice cross between reading straight out of the scriptures and reading a children's book. It'll definitely find its way under our tree for our Christmas countdown.*

Happy reading! And happy beginning to your holidays!

On a side note, if you're in holiday-season denial and need a good transition from Halloween to Thanksgiving, check out the book The Ugly Pumpkin by Dave Horowitz. It's one of our favs.

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*We wrap twenty-four children's Christmas books and put them under the tree at the end of November. Starting December 1, we take turns unwrapping one each night and reading it together by the tree. These are books we own as well as library books. We just make sure we unwrap the library ones in time to return them. :)

Start talking about your roots with The Tiny Portrait

Review by Ashley

I was sent this lovely children's book in the mail recently. I haven't accepted a lot of review copies lately---life is busy, and I'm not always interested in the book. This one caught my attention though. It's a children's book about family history! This is a subject that's near and dear to me, and I thought, what a brilliant idea, to write a children's book that might inspire young readers to learn a little bit about their own past.

The Tiny Portrait, by Heidi Carla, tells about two modern siblings, Tess and Toby, who find a small portrait of an unknown woman in a box of family heirlooms, dated 1890. Tess thinks she might see a resemblance between herself and the picture. The next day, Tess and Toby think they see the woman, real and alive, in their garden. They run outside to find her, and instead they find a rhyming clue written on a rolled-up piece of paper. They follow the instructions and are soon racing through their town on a treasure hunt, led by the distant image of the woman in the portrait, who is always just out of reach. She leads them to historic places, like the town library, an antique shop, and the railroad station---each a place that teaches them a little more about history and genealogy.

I liked the black-and-white photo art in this book, done by Karla Cinquanta. It was a clever way to illustrate a story about family history. Overall, a sweet little book, and a great way to start a dialogue with your own children about the interesting stories your own ancestors have to tell.
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Notes from Alysa

It's so lovely when a publisher offers you a review copy of a book that really interests you! (Happened to me recently, too!) The Tiny Portrait sparked my interest, as well, but I had too much on my plate. I'm glad Ashley "took one for the team" hehe.  I do have a review like this coming up -- look for my review *and* giveaway of The Night Before the Night Before Christmas later this week!

Just for fun, here is a picture of my great-grandparents. My aunt shared it recently and I had never seen it before:

Maud and George Burton

In the meantime, if you want to buy The Tiny Portrait, here are the Everead affiliate links. If you make a purchase after clicking through these, I earn a small commission. 'Tis the season to be jolly!

buy at Amazon

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Chick-flickiness

Post by Ashley

      

I've taken "a light summer read" to new levels this past month. About a year ago, I stumbled across this series of books grouped under the category of "A Proper Romance," meaning, the book is a romance, but it's full of proper, chaste, upright behavior. And I have to say, I've loved them. Some are forgettable, some are memorable, all of them are page-turning "I cannot make dinner because I have to finish reading this story!" kinds of books.

The Proper Romance books are Edenbrooke and Blackmoore, written by Julianne Donaldson (both stand-alone novels) as well as Longing for Home and its sequel Hope Springs by Sarah M. Eden. I have read all but Hope Springs, which I'm pretty eager to get my hands on. And the problem with reading a couple good books by an author is that you then feel compelled to read all the books that author's written. So add to that list Seeking Persephone, Courting Miss Lancaster, and The Kiss of a Stranger, also by Sarah M. Eden.

They have all been very fun books. Seriously fun. I highly recommend them all if you, like me, adore a good love story minus the steam and clothing removal. A love story like Jane Austen used to write. Not that the characters in these books really compare to the complexity of a good Jane Austen, but ya know. They're just good, addictive fun.

          

*Note from Alysa: The above images are affiliate links to Barnes and Noble. If you make a purchase through these links, I will earn a small commission. I've heard such good things about the Proper Romance books! I think I'd like to start with Edenbrooke -- I seem to remember it coming out first. Here is an affiliate link to Amazon, in case you prefer to shop there. ;)

The Selection Series

The Selection Series by Kiera Cass

Hi y'all---Ashley here. It's been a while since I last posted. Moving across the country can throw one's life a little out of balance. But I wanted to jot down some thoughts about a series I recently finished reading. You'll probably recognize the covers; they are gorgeous.

America Singer lives in a post-apocalyptic United States. Her society is divided into castes, and her family is near the bottom, though one caste higher than the love of her life, a close neighbor named Aspen. They meet secretly, because any kind of relationship outside of marriage is forbidden. If they did marry, America would be brought down a caste to Aspen's level, a fact she tries not to care about but which Aspen can't forget. When a nationwide Selection is announced, he makes America enter---a selection that will choose 35 candidates from across the country to compete for Prince Maxon's hand in marriage. When America is chosen to be one of the 35, she has to work through her secret feelings for Aspen, who eventually joins her at the palace as a guard, further complicating her situation, while she gets to know and fall in love with the prince.

So yes, it's the typical love triangle, girl + two boys. And throw into the mix a restless citizenry and two groups of rebels attacking the palace for their own agendas to add a bit of action and mystery and suspense. I told Alysa, I loved reading these books like I love eating a good cotton candy every now and then. Kinda fluffy and sweet and addictive. I wished there had been more to the rebel groups, but the main focus was on America and Maxon. The ending is a little too tidy and predictable. And I wished America would stop throwing tantrums and storming out of the room in a huff instead of talking through problems. But truly, the whole series was, nonetheless, very enjoyable. If you're looking for a fun and light and flirty group of books, look no further. If you want something with a little more gravitas, look somewhere else! :)

*note from Alysa: The first book costs $5.23 at Barnes and Noble right now!
If you use this affiliate link to make a purchase, Everead earns a commission at no extra cost to you.
Happy Reading!

A very fun new series

I have a problem with book groups. Even though I love to read, I don't love being told what to read (which is why I was an English major in college for exactly one day). I especially don't love being told what to read when the books in question are not my kind of books. So even though there is a book group in my congregation every time I move to a new place, I never join.

Well. I am not alone in my anti-book-group feelings. Some other young moms in my ward (an LDS congregation) got together and decided to start up their own underground book group where we will not read edgy, tragic, ultra-modern, and let's face it, often hard-to-get-through books. We're gonna read for fun! At the end of a long day, if I'm going to sit down to pick up a book, it's not going to be with a whole lot of remaining mental energy. I just wanna be entertained.

Our first book-group read was a new-ish middle-grade fantasy book called Keeper of the Lost Cities, by Shannon Messenger. I totally loved it and had to immediately reserve book two, Exile, at the library. Book two was, perhaps, even better. I really love this series. Imaginative, fun, exciting, clever, sometimes laugh-aloud funny, and just-plain great. Alas, book two was published this year, which means I have to wait for the next. I don't know if it's a trilogy or a series. On the back of the book, it's described as Harry Potter meets Lord of the Rings. That's kind of true. Definitely more Harry Potter vibe than the latter. Check it out, though, especially if you have a middle-grade reader who loves fantasy. Or if you are an adult reader who loves middle-grade fantasy. :)


Our next underground-book-group read is Keturah and Lord Death. My choice. I can't wait for my friends to read it!

Witchlanders

It's been too long since I posted anything---pretty much because it's been a long time since I had a chance to read a book! I was hungering for a little fun book-reading time, and I grabbed this one at random off the bookshelf in the YA section of my library. (Am I alone in feeling like I should get in and out of that section as quickly as possible, certain that the teens are giggling at my oldness behind my back? Guess I've retained some of that everyone-is-watching-me teenage paranoia myself. Oh well.) :)

Witchlanders did not disappoint in fun, fast-action, interesting plot and characters, and un-put-down-able-ness. It was a great story. I am bummed that the author seems to have no interest in writing a sequel. It's kind of begging for the story to be continued. She says she thinks it works as a stand-alone. But the big, overarching problem the book presents---an impending war---is unresolved. So. Personally, I think there needs to be a sequel.

Ryder does not believe in magic. His mother has raised him to laugh at the idea of it, at the religion that everyone else in the town follows---including his father and sister. Grudgingly, he gives his tithe to the witches, the bone-casters whose job it is to tell the future and warn their country of danger. When his mother sees a vision of an assassin in the mountains, Ryder has no choice but to follow what she's seen, digging far deeper into the history of his war-torn country and of magic itself than he ever could have imagined---or believed.

The Body Electric

Lena is an average, small-town girl who runs into (literally) an anything-but-average guy and finds her world completely upended. She is ordinary. He is related to ... I can't tell because it would spoil the plot twist ... non-human beings, we'll say. Lena soon finds that being dumped by her jock boyfriend was the least of her worries.

Allie Duzett is a newcomer to the ever-growing world of YA fantasy. I've loved the genre for a good-long while, so I've done my share of reading in it. Things I enjoyed about The Body Electric: it is good, clean fun. The plot is fast-paced enough to keep a reader's attention. And Zach, the protagonist, was very lovably clueless and good-hearted (and good-looking, natch). His scenes were extra entertaining. Things I didn't love: the revelation about Zach's true nature completely blind-sided me. Which is why I won't spill it here. I felt like it wasn't built up to well enough. The first half of the book was totally different from the second half of it. There wasn't enough world building. I mean, it's not a long book, so an author's limited in that way. Anyway. I just didn't see the second half of the book coming.

Still---good, clean fun. Kudos to the new author!

Fairy Tales from the Brothers Grimm---Giveaway Closed

This year marks the 200th anniversary of the Grimm brothers' collection of classic fairy tales. To celebrate, Philip Pullman, most famously the author of the His Dark Materials trilogy, has recently written a retelling of fifty of his favorites from the original collection. Penguin Books sent me a copy to review, and I have to say I was surprised---and ultimately happily so.

Pullman maintains the Grimms' original style and much of the original language. This is not an embellishment or re-imagining of the original tales, which is what I had anticipated. Instead, Pullman has examined multiple translations and versions of the original stories, added a bit of detail, minutely shifted storylines here and there, and created this lovely new version that maintains a classic feeling. At the end of each of the fifty stories, he describes the sources he used and the revisions he made and his reasons for doing so. I love these extra analyses; they add so much to the stories that I'd never considered or known before.

So. I was a little disappointed they weren't reinvented. But that was my own fault for misunderstanding what Pullman had done and why. Now that I know, I enjoy picking up the book and reading a tale or two while feeding my little baby five or six times daily. This is a great collection, especially nice for those who don't have time to sit for hours to finish a novel.

Now for the giveaway---if you would like your very own copy of Philip Pullman's Fairy Tales from the Brothers Grimm, leave your name and e-mail address to enter a drawing for a copy. Also, fill in the blank on this little phrase for me: Christmas wouldn't be Christmas without _______. The answer that comes to my mind, for instance, is The Carpenters. Love that Christmas album. I listen to it many times every December. What's a tradition or place you go or thing you must see/eat/listen to at Christmastime to really feel in the spirit? I love hearing about others' traditions.

To summarize this rather long-winded post:
1. Philip Pullman's collection of 50 fairy tales is great.
2. If you want to enter to win a copy, leave a comment with a) your name, b) your e-mail, c) Christmas wouldn't be Christmas without _______.
3. Giveaway is open now (December 29, 2012) through Friday, January 5, 2013.

And here's a book trailer, in case you're interested.


Want to purchase this book? Here are some affiliate links to it:
   

Shadowfell

Post by Ashley
I'm pretty much crazy about everything I've read that Juliet Marillier has written. This is the sixth book of hers that I've read, and it was just as good as the other five.

My least favorite part about blogging about books, if you must know, is summarizing the plot. I feel like cheating today, so here's the summary from Juliet's own website:

Its name is spoken only in whispers, if the people of Alban dare to speak it at all: Shadowfell. The training ground for rebels seeking to free their land from the rule of the tyrannical king is so shrouded in mystery that most believe it to be a myth.

But for Neryn, Shadowfell’s existence is her only hope. She is alone and penniless, a fugitive concealing a treacherous magical power that will warrant her immediate enslavement should it be revealed.  She finds hope of allies in the Good Folk, fey beings whom she must pretend she cannot see and who taunt her with chatter of prophecies and tests; and in a mysterious stranger who saves her from certain death but whose motives remain unclear.

Will Neryn be forced to make the dangerous journey alone? She must reach Shadowfell, not only to avenge her family and salvage her own life, but to rescue Alban itself.


Neryn is a powerfully likable main character, and the world of Alban is equal parts tragic, detailed, and absorbing. Flint, the love interest, is full of secrets as dangerous as Neryn's own, and it takes a long time for trust to take hold. But Neryn is smart about it, not dramatic or overly emotional, which I really appreciate in her. Juliet Marillier's writing is beautiful, and her imagination just astounds me. I half-wish I could write a book someday, but I just don't know how people dream up such amazing stories. Ms. Marillier's dreams must be lovely.


Shadowfell gets a tad overly violent in a couple places, which I mostly just let my eyes skim over. But it's a great first novel in what will be, of course, naturally, and obviously, a trilogy. Fantasy books cannot exist alone, after all. It's some kind of unwritten rule that all authors adhere to. So grab it from your library. It's great. Oh, and definitely pick up Wildwood Dancing while you're at it. It's pure loveliness.
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Previously: Ashley's review of Cybele's Secret by Juliet Marillier

Have you met Itsy Mitsy?

So begins this totally adorable children's book I randomly grabbed off the library shelf. Itsy Mitsy is part Cindy Lou Who, part Precious Moments doll---totally adorable, in other words, but with tons of little-girl spitfire.

Itsy Mitsy hates bedtime. So she decides that she'll be running away to a place where there are no bedtimes ever, not even one. Her dad tearfully "helps" her pack. She must bring a friend. No bedtimes is one thing, but no friends? That would be terrible. So along comes her friendliest dinosaur, Mr. Roar. But Mr. Roar needs a snack. And his snack needs to be guarded from the bedtime beasties. And Puptart needs a light to bark at the beasties. And the light needs an outlet. And the outlet needs a house! And ... you get the idea.

I love that the story includes Itsy Mitsy's dad. I love the childish voice and imagination of it---how it's not quite real, and yet very real to Itsy Mitsy. I love the playful illustrations. And I love the poetic rhythm of the writing. This is just one seriously cute little book! Check it out. Itsy Mitsy is one little storybook gal you've got to meet.

Seraphina

Christopher Paolini was quoted on the cover of this book as saying that the book's dragons were "some of the most interesting" he'd read. And while I don't love everything Paolini has written, he was right! Seraphina's take on dragonkind is unique, fascinating to think about, and indeed, very interesting.

Seraphina is a young woman trying to pass herself off as human---but she isn't, entirely. Her father was human, but her mother was a dragon, one who'd made the ultimate sacrifice of all her family, her loyalty, and her kind for the love of Seraphina's father. A treaty, only forty years old, brought a very tenuous truce between the human and dragon worlds, but recent deaths threaten to tip the precarious balance between peace and all-out war. And Seraphina finds herself in the middle of it all, trying to simultaneously hide her parentage and use its truth to her advantage in uncovering the identity of the crown prince's murderer.

The writing is so imaginative and lovely. The story twists and turns and is completely fun to get lost in. The characters are awesome. I really enjoyed this book. Though naturally, it'll have a sequel, as pretty much every last YA fantasy book these days does. So the ending is less than conclusive. But ah well. Definitely a good read.

I Want My Hat Back

I first saw this book in an email from Amazon.com. I could see in the thumbnail photo that it had a couple of awards stuck to the cover, so I hopped on my library's website and reserved it. And what a treat we were in for!

I Want My Hat Back by Jon Klassen = awesomeness. I loved another reviewer's summary: "The plot is a classic whodunit; a likable yet slightly daft bear investigates the loss of his beloved hat." I can't say much more, since it's a pretty straightforward book. But the things we love about it are the totally understated illustrations and character expressions and text, the author's clever use of punctuation and ALL CAPS instead of exclamation points, and the unexpectedly hilarious ending. It's won the NYT Best Illustrated Children's Book Award and is a Theodore Seuss Geisel Honor Book. To quote the book jacket:

A bear has lost his hat. What if he never sees it again? WAIT! He has seen his hat ...

My husband took me to a bookstore for Mother's Day and instructed me to get any book I wanted. I chose this one. :) It'll definitely be a classic in my family.

Here's the Youtube book trailer, for your viewing enjoyment.

update by Alysa 7/8/15: If you want to go one better than the book trailer and buy this book, here is our affiliate link!

 

Illuminate by Aimee Agresti

Yes, the girl-in-an-opulent-gown book cover has been majorly overdone for some time now. But aside from that bit of unoriginality, which I know the author generally has little if any control over, this was a fast and fun and not unoriginal read.

Haven is a smart, quiet, driven high school student who lands a prestigious work-study position at the opulent Lexington Hotel in Chicago, along with her best friend Dante and their brilliant, shy-guy classmate Lance. The position seems too good to be true---which, of course, they find out not far into the book, it is. The ridiculously young and beautiful people running the Lexington (who call themselves "The Outfit") are in the business of collecting souls, working for the devil himself. And they hope to recruit Haven and her friends into their elite club. But Haven and Lance are harder to sway than The Outfit expected, and their hoped-for recruits fast become their most dangerous enemies.

Aside from the pacing being a bit choppy in places and the unanswered questions that readers will just have to mull over until the next book comes out, this was an entertaining, diversionary book. I was in a reading slump, and Alysa brought this new YA mod-fantasy to my attention. In the early stages of the book, I was afraid Haven was going to cave to the pressure of the glamorous, hedonistic lifestyle she was surrounded by and then have to spend the rest of the book trying to overcome her early bad choices. It was refreshing instead to have a leading lady who stuck to her moral, goody-two-shoes guns. I definitely wouldn't have liked the book as much if it had been the typical teen-has-to-learn-the-hard-way, dark-and-a-little-scandalous sort of read. It was dark, but it wasn't scandalous. Pretty much squeaky clean, actually. Maybe that makes Haven unrealistic. I thought it made her likeable.

In any case, if you're in a reading slump and are looking for a fun thriller to get lost in, this one gets my thumbs up.

Sequels, sequels!

I've been excited about a number of sequels this past half a year, Midnight in Austenland included (which I'm currently halfway through and loving). The three I've just gotten my hands on recently (been kinda busy moving halfway across the country to good ol' CA this winter):

Crossed, by Ally Condie
The Secret Prince, by Violet Haberdasher
Liar's Moon, by Elizabeth C. Bunce

All three of these books had really, really promising first installments. None of them quite lived up to their predecessors. BUT, they were all still good, fun reads.

First, Crossed. Picking up where Matched ended, Cassia chooses to search for Ky, beyond the city into the dangerous Outer Provinces where he's been sent to certain death. This one for me was a bit overly introspective, a little shy on more forward-moving plot elements, but still a lovely read. I'll be interested to see how she manages to wrap up all of the loose ends in book #3. I think too often I tend to love a second book based solely on the fact that I loved the first book and was therefore excited for and entirely convinced that I would love the second. So I've had mixed feelings about this one. Still, I enjoyed reading it. And that's important.

The Secret Prince:  The sequel to the promising, though admittedly very Harry Potter-like Knightley Academy, the title is a little less-than subtle on this one. Following his roommate's lead, Henry Grim begins to befriend the other boys at school, no longer the outcast he was convinced he would always be. Together, the boys form a secret club to train for battle, though such training is against the Brittonian laws. When they're discovered, Henry disguises himself as a servant on a train headed for the brink-of-war Nordlands, searching for evidence of their treachery to use as his own redemption back at Knightley Academy. The secrets that he finds there, however, will lead us nicely on to book #3 ... Highly recommended for middle grade readers, male and female alike, who adored Harry Potter.

Finally, Liar's Moon: Digger is back in the city, mostly trying to survive, half-heartedly searching for other wielders of magic like herself, not sure where she fits in with the brewing rebellion. When she learns that an old friend has been imprisoned for murdering his wife, she throws herself into the task of clearing his name. The secrets and plot twists she unearths along the way force her to question what she thinks she knows about her friends, herself, and even her evil brother---the man responsible for the imprisonment, torture, and deaths of so many born to magic ... just like herself. The first book in this series (Star Crossed) had me gasping for breath, again and again, literally biting my fingernails, wondering how on earth a plot so twisted, knotted, and switch-backed could ever manage to right itself in the end. This one was less gasp-worthy, but I'm still impressed by the gritty new talent that is Elizabeth C. Bunce.
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affiliate links were added to this post on 10/7/2014. Happy Reading!

StarCrossed

I have to blog about this book, because it's just one of those books that must be blogged about! Know what I mean?

StarCrossed, by Elizabeth C. Bunce (who first wrote A Curse Dark as Gold, another awesome read), follows Digger, an irreverent thief-turned-revolutionary. I'm finding it difficult to summarize this book---like, where do I begin? It's so jam-packed with complex people and plot twists, none of which I want to say too much about, that it's hard to find a footing.

Digger is a professional thief on the run, her partner in crime captured and likely dead already. She stumbles upon a group of joy-riding aristocrats, lies about her identity, and is taken under their wings and turned into a lady's maid for one of them---a young woman, Meri, who's about to come of age, and who hides an extraordinarily dangerous secret: she has magic. Magic is strictly outlawed in the kingdom, and those found with any connection to it are swiftly and brutally dispatched.

Plot twist, plot twist, plot twist, holding your breath, a lot, and then an ending with an ultimate cliffhanger about sums up the rest of the book. There's no love story, as the title might lead you to believe. Just hair-raising action adventure at its finest. And maybe, just maybe a little set-up for a romance in a subsequent book? We shall see. At least, I know I shall---November this year. :)

The Santa Club

*Before you begin reading this post!*

Are you over the age of 12?





Have you and your parent or guardian had a chat about Santa Clause?






If your answer to one or both, especially the second, is Yes, continue.






Okay, so funny this should be such a hush-hush post, but, you know. Santa has a way of being controversial. :) The Santa Club, by Kelly Moss, walks kids who are ready through that troublesome question of the veracity of the Man in Red. If your child is ready for "the talk," I think this book's approach is perfect. After confirming that the reader is accompanied by a parent and has permission to read, The Santa Club poses that singular question, "Is Santa real?" The answer: a resounding Yes! It all began with St. Nicholas, who wanted to honor the Baby Jesus, and the gift giving continues today with millions of Santas all over the world. After reading, the child is admonished to not share this top-secret information with anyone else, especially younger children, and is then officially inducted him- or herself into The Santa Club.

I loved that this book took such a positive approach to what can be a traumatic revelation. I loved that it embraced the true meaning of Christmas---the birth of Jesus Christ. But ... I didn't love the illustrations. :( I'm no judge of art, but the people depicted throughout the book are generally unattractive and occasionally a little scary looking.

So. The text? Loved it. Fantastic. The pictures? Not my fav. Still, I'll keep this one on a high shelf until my kids are ready for it. A better approach to teaching them about both Santa and his role in the real Christmas, I have yet to encounter.

My Hands Sing the Blues

I received this lovely book in the mail recently, and I sat down to read it to my three-year-old the night it came. My Hands Sing the Blues is a visual journey through the life of Romare Bearden (who, call me uncultured, I'd never heard of before reading this). Romare Bearden, I now know, was considered "one of America's preeminent artists" and was best known for his collage-paintings. The illustrations are inspired by his style, and the text is inspired by the jazz and blues that inspired his art:

Rocking on her creaky swing, we hear the crickets chirp.
We feel the humming Magnolia Mill and hear the crickets chirp.
We gulp down warm tomato slices, trying not to slurp.

The rhythm of the writing is mellow and fun, and the book touches on important historical events that I hadn't considered how to approach with my son yet. This book helped create a good atmosphere in which to discuss segregation and how the world is better today. It's a lovely book.

A World Without Heroes

The latest and greatest Brandon Mull book (author of the Fablehaven series and The Candy Shop War) hit the shelves not too long ago. I've read all of Mull's books, and I must say, after I got about halfway into Heroes, I enjoyed this one best. For whatever reason, it wasn't grabbing me from the get-go. Maybe I'd gotten out of the habit of reading. Maybe it's impossible to get into a book when one has only two-to-five-minute snatches of time in which to read. Maybe I wasn't convinced that I was ready to invest myself in learning about and caring about a whole new middle-grade fantasy world (this is the first book in a slated trilogy). In any case, I (eventually) enjoyed the fast-action pacing, the likeable (if somewhat unbelievable) main characters, and the plot twists that kept me guessing until the last chapter.

The book has a very strangely quirky beginning for what turns quickly into a serious story. Jason, age thirteen, works at a zoo. Cleaning by the hippo cage one day, he hears music coming from ... inside one of the hippos? Leaning closer to investigate, he falls in, gets swallowed by the melodious water horse, and ends up in another world, where he suddenly finds himself on a seriously dangerous quest, accompanied by another young "Beyonder," Rachel, to recover all the syllables of the one word that can undo the purely evil magician/dictator who rules it.

I say the characters are slightly unbelievable because they are a little too well-spoken and mature for your average thirteen-year-old. Which is not to say that thirteen-year-olds aren't either of these things. These kids just come across as college professors on occasion.

Still, entertaining book. I'll definitely read the sequel, but I won't be dying for its release.