Tag: series

Over Sea, Under Stone

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By Susan Cooper

Do you like Arthurian fiction?

The answer should be yes.

And if the answer is yes, then you will like this book.

Think about it this way. Imagine that you went on holiday to an old house in Cornwall. In this house, you and your siblings proceeded to find a map – an ancient map – that revealed the location of an ancient Arthurian artifact. And as you and your siblings set out to recover this artifact, you realized that you had become caught up in the fight against the Dark itself, which is as old as time itself.

Pretty epic, right?

This is one of my favorite retellings of the King Arthur legend because it creates a world I desperately wish I could inhabit. It takes place in the real world (probably 30-40 years ago) and the characters are ordinary kids. But they get to participate in the world of this legend that goes back hundreds of years. How cool is that? As someone who has always loved King Arthur legends and wants to go into the field of medieval studies, I love this book.

The best part is that this book is also a part of series, The Dark is Rising Sequence. I believe that there are five books in total and I think I have most, if not all of them. Each of the other books takes spin in a slightly different direction, and though on the surface they might not all seem connected, they definitely are.

One of my favorite parts of this book, and really in the series in general, is that the overall conflict is between Dark and light, good and evil. While there may not be a real villain, all the “bad guys” are serving the same forces of evil, and that is a literary device that I particularly love. It’s definitely a theme rooted heavily in ancient Celtic and British myths.

Overall, I wouldn’t say this book has any content to watch out for. The only thing I would note is that it can be a bit creepy at times, as some of the plot features the main characters (who are children) coming into conflict with adults who are working for the Dark.

General Stats:

  • Genre: Fantasy (Arthurian)
  • Book 1 of 5
  • Age: 5th grade and above
  • My rating: ★★★★☆

Mark of the Thief

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By Jennifer A Nielsen

A lot of people know Jennifer A Nielsen for her historical fiction. A lot of people know her for her fantasy. But did you know that she writes historical fantasy? 🤯 Shocking, right? Or maybe not…..

Anyway, this book is fantasy, but, it takes place in ancient Rome. So basically, it’s just twice as great!

If you have read and liked the Ascendance Series, I am almost completely positive that you will like this book, and the subsequent series. For one, the main character (Nic) does read almost identically to the main character of the Ascendance books (to the point where I would regularly have to do a double take when another character said Nic because I was thinking something else in my mind). But we love Sage here, so it’s fine. Honestly, Nic is basically Sage, but better. Sage 2.0.

If you haven’t read Ascendance, ignore all that stuff I just said, you’ll just be confused. Sorry. Here’s the basic premise.

Nic is a slave outside Rome. He works in the quarry where he spends his time digging, being sassy, arguing with the overseer, being sassy, protecting his little sister, not actually getting any work done, and being sassy. So basically, we already love him.

Then he finds a golden bulla that belonged to Caesar. Wow! If that’s not special enough, it also is filled with divine magic. Maybe now he can finally be free! But the cherry on top? Everyone wants Nic’s new magic and he gets involved in a dangerous conspiracy.

So now Nic doesn’t only have to worry about getting free, he also has to stop the conspiracy and save Rome. Oh, and let’s not forget dealing with the dangerous magic he now possesses. Sounds like a lot for one guy to handle, right? It’s a good thing that he ends up with some awesome allies.

For any Jennifer A Nielsen fan, I’m sure that you will love this book. Especially if you liked her other fantasy series. It’s funny at times, witty, and generally just keeps you invested. And the best part is that it’s a trilogy. My favorite of the series was probably the 3rd one (the end is spectacular!!!) but there are some really great moments in the 1st and 2nd as well (don’t ask me about how my parents bought me the 2nd book and then it was printed wrong so the entire best scene in the book was taken out and I had to wait like a week to read it).

Only content warning is romance, but it’s pretty mild. It’s very cute though.

General Stats:

  • Genre: Historical Fantasy
  • Book 1 of 3
  • Age: 6th grade and above
  • My rating: ★★★★☆

Half Upon a Time

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By James Riley

This has got to be another of my favorite books of all time, at least, it was in middle school. My parents got it for my younger brother for Christmas and I stole it as soon as possible and probably finished the series before he did. It’s one of the best fairytale mashup/retellings I’ve ever read, and this is coming from someone who read all of the Sisters Grimm books (this is ten times better I’m sorry).

Jack has spent the majority of his life training to rescue a princess. What else is a guy going to do if he lives in the world of fairytales? Unfortunately, he’s kind of a failure at that. But luckily, an opportunity drops right into his lap when a princess falls from the sky practically on top of him. At least, Jack thinks she’s a princess. What else would her Punk Princess shirt mean? (You have no idea how hard I tried to get my hands on a shirt that said that and failed 😭) So Jack decides to rescue the princess (and we all know how we wake up sleeping princesses).

As one would expect, the “princess” is none to pleased at her situation. She’s even less pleased when she realizes that the only person who can help her escape from the huntsman who is chasing her and rescue her grandmother is……..Jack! Yay!

So Jack and the princess set off on their quest, in which they meet up with countless other fairytale characters who I’m sure you will recognize. It’s ridiculously funny and you will fall in love with the characters – they’re so well written. You will find yourself wanting more, which is great because it’s a trilogy!

Twice Upon a Time and Once Upon the End (the rest of the trilogy) are both amazing books as well. The writing, the humor, and the plot are so consistently high quality, which is why James Riley is one of my favorite middle grade authors. If you decide to read the entire series (which you totally should) you will love the ending. Does anyone else love prophecies/ultimatums, even if they’re a bit cliche? Chapter 22 of Once Upon the End, anyone? IYKYK 😊

Only “content warning” is hilarious romance, but I would say that it is appropriate for everyone!

General Stats:

  • Genre: Fantasy (fairytale)
  • Book 1 of 3
  • Age: 6th grade and above
  • My rating: ★★★★★

The False Prince

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By Jennifer A Nielsen

You have no idea how many times I’ve read this book. Frankly, neither do I. All I know is that I read it for the first time for Battle of the Books in eight grade, and then again in ninth grade, where I finally finished the series.

This book is so good. There’s practically nothing else I can say about it. If you like sassy main characters who don’t take anything from anyone, you will like this book. If you’re a fan of books where the main characters are participating in something a bit underhand, you will like this book. If you like unreliable narrators – read this book!

Here’s the basic plot overview. Sage is a normal orphan who does normal orphan things, like stealing, getting into trouble, and escaping from people who want to catch him. One day, he gets caught (as you could probably have expected). But he doesn’t get caught by the authorities and prosecuted for his petty crimes. He is caught by a nobleman named Conner, who is looking for a boy who resembles the long-missing dead prince to play the part. Sage, along with three other boys, foots the bill. So he and the others compete for the role of the puppet prince. Sage has his doubts about the plan, both its success and its morality, but he doesn’t have another choice. Because Conner is a patriot, and will do whatever it takes to keep his country out of civil war.

Now when picking up this book, you may think to yourself that the plot line looks overdone, it looks familiar, it looks like your run-of-the-mill fantasy book about a fifteen-year-old boy in a competition, if he doesn’t win he’ll be killed, blah blah blah….

But wait. There’s so much more to this book than you realize. Yes, it can be a bit slow at the beginning, and from a distance, it may seem normal. But this book will hook you by the end. This was one of my favorite books of late middle-school and early high-school because of how good the plot twists are. And it has an unreliable narrator, which I love.

If you’ve read The Mark of the Thief by Nielsen, you’ll like this one. You may, like me, think that the main characters are the same person because they sound so similar and start calling them by the same name (but in my case I read The False Prince first).

So I encourage you to give this book a try. Pick it up, read it through (it should go fast like other Nielsen books), and I am confident that you will love it.

And if you like this book, there’s far more where it came from. This series (called Ascendance) has 5 books. The best one (in my opinion) is the third book (iykyk), but the 2th one was fun as well. I do have to say, it was originally going to a trilogy, but Nielson then wrote the 4th and 5th books several years later. To me, they feel a bit redundant and aren’t my favorite, but there are still some good parts. Read the whole series, but really read the first 3 because those are the great ones.

Almost forgot this, but the only content warning I have is that there is mild romance. It’s nothing explicit, but it is there, and it increases as the books go along, but is always very family friendly.

General Stats:

  • Genre: Fantasy
  • Book 1 of 5
  • Age: 6th grade and above
  • My rating: ★★★★☆

Eager

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By Helen Fox

How would you like it if robots were able to do all of your menial tasks, take care of you little sibling, talk to you, and even become your best friend? For Fleur and Gavin, that’s normal. They talk to the house, discuss philosophy with a computer, and rely heavily on their robot butler, Grumps. So when he begins to run down and must be replaced, they’re less than pleased. The replacement: the experimental robot EGR3.

Know as Eager, EGR3 can learn from his experiences and even feel emotions. Quite strange for the human children, who avoid him at first. But as Eager seeks out more knowledge and strange humanlike robots begin to act suspiciously, Fleur and Gavin might need to rely on their robot friend more than they would like. As their adventure unfolds, Eager must answer one vital question: What does it mean to be alive?

Why should you read this book?

This is one of the only sci-fi books I’ve read where the robots aren’t just servants or evil creatures trying to take over the world – they’ve been developed to feel emotions and respond like humans. Maybe I haven’t read enough science fiction (I definitely haven’t) but I really liked the way the robots were depicted in this book. The characters were also relatable (even with them being futuristic) and very enjoyable. If you like robots and technology and humor, this is the book for you.

Who should read this book?

One of the main plot points of this book is the strange humanlike BDC4 robots and how suspiciously they are acting. At times, the story gets creepy, or even down right scary. But overall, the book is not a scary book, it more explores concepts and ideas that could be slightly disturbing. I would say that 5th graders are old enough to read this book.

Series:

There are two more books after this one, Eager’s Nephew and Eager and the Mermaid. I have only read Eager’s Nephew, and though I liked it, it was not as good as the first one. I have not read Eager and the Mermaid, but I assume that it will be along the same content lines.

General Stats:

  • Genre: Sci-fi
  • Book 1 of 3
  • Age: 5th grade and above
  • My rating: ★★★★★

A Wrinkle in Time

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By Madeleine L’Engle

It was a dark and stormy night. Aside from that, life wasn’t anything special , or at least until a mysterious stranger appeared on Meg’s doorstep and changed her life forever. Meg’s father is trapped somewhere far away in space, and he can’t return to them. This stranger offers a way for Meg, along with her brother Charles Wallace and her friend Calvin O’Keefe, to save him. The three travel across space and time by way of a tesseract and must face the dark powers that threaten the universe.

Why should you read this book?

If you’re not a big science fiction fan, either because you haven’t found something that you’ve liked or you just haven’t read a ton in this genre, A Wrinkle in Time is a great place to start. It was one of the first sci-fi books I read and the first that really piqued my interest. It’s not just a book about science or technology or space, it’s a book about family, friendship, and unconditional love. It’s a book about children who just want to save their father and put their family back together. Even if science isn’t your thing, there is a great chance that you will still love this book.

Who should read this book?

The only content warning I have for this book is that it can be a little scary at times. Not really in a way that should lead to nightmares, but it can be very suspenseful at times, and that’s not for everything. Aside from that, it’s very tame. I would say that 5th graders and even adventurous 4th graders should read this book (to be completely honest, I might have been as young as 7 or 8 when I read this – but I still love the books!). As for the rest of the series, books 2 and 3 are along the same lines, but I would wait a little longer for books 4 and 5 as they deal with older characters and mature concepts.

Series Info:

This is a 5 book series contain the books A Wind at the Door, A Swiftly Tilting Planet, Many Waters, and An Acceptable Time. Though all of them are centered around the Murry family, they are all very different. I would describe them as having different focuses (from history/mythology to biblical stories) but all being told from the lens of science fiction. A Swiftly Tilting Planet was one of my favorite books when I was younger, and Many Waters remains one of my most reread books – it’s so good!

General Stats:

  • Genre: Sci-fi
  • Book 1 of 5
  • Age: 5th grade and above
  • My rating: ★★★★☆