(Originally written October 2010)

When I asked my niece what she wanted for her birthday she said, “I love anything to do with owls.”  Then a television commercial pointed me toward the animated movie Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’hoole.

Hmm, I thought.  Where there’s a movie there’s often a book.  So I did a search on the County of Los Angeles Public Library website (www.colapublib.org/), and sure enough there’s not just one book but a series of 15! 

My niece’s book report is still pending, but here’s mine.

Guardians of Ga’Hoole: The Capture is an odd mix of fantasy/adventure and natural history.  In the “About The Author” section it says that Kathryn Lasky did extensive research on owls with the idea of writing a non-fiction book, but decided to go the fiction route instead.

Her research shows at the beginning, which seems true to nature except for the talking animals.  Two-week-old barn owl, Soren, is nested high in a fir tree watching his baby sister hatch.  Her egg tooth pokes a hole in the shell and after a while a slimy blob with huge bulging eyes emerges.

Meanwhile Soren’s older brother is starting to branch, that is hop from branch to branch as practice for flying.  The parents bring the youngest birds bugs, and the older ones meat, boneless at first and then bones-in.

It all seems so right, except maybe the blind nest snake that apparently keeps the nest clean of maggots and other vermin.  I don’t think real owls keep nest snakes.

The book soars off into high fantasy when Soren is abducted by a couple of nasty chick-snatching owls, and taken to St. Aegolius Academy for Orphaned Owls. 

It’s obvious from the beginning that the owls running St. Aegolius are evil and up to no good.  For one thing, Soren knows he’s not an orphan!  Hi was chick-napped!  But there’s also the metal battle claws that warrior owls wear, and the strange metal flecks they are forced to search for in regurgitated owl pellets.

Soren meets little Gylfie, an elf owl, and the two of them learn not to ask questions, which are forbidden, and figure out how to avoid the brainwashing techniques that have made all the other owlets behave like obedient robots.

The two friends decide to escape as soon as they are fully fledged.  (And here we learn about different feather types, like the ones that barn owls have to help them fly silently.)

As much as I enjoyed learning about owls, and as much as I usually like fantasy, I was not totally pulled into this book or its characters.  Perhaps I just expected too much after seeing that 126 Amazon.com readers had given it an average of 4.5 stars out of 5, not to mention that a movie had been made!

But check it out yourself and make up your own mind.  The Guardians is suggested for grades 4-8.

Happy Reading!

Theodosia Throckmorton is only eleven.  Even so she is perhaps the world’s expert on neutralizing ancient Egyptian curses. 

She has to be.  Her parents run the Museum of Legends and Antiquities, and are constantly bringing in new artifacts, most of them cursed. 

Theodosia’s parents are oblivious to the black magic attached to the statues, funerary jars, amulets and such.  Somebody has to protect the family and museum workers from the black magic.  It’s a good thing Theodosia has been studying ancient texts like Hidden Egypt: Magic, Alchemy, and the Occult for most of her life.

But Theodosia finds herself in over her head when her mother brings back the powerful Heart of Egypt from her latest Egyptian dig.  The amulet turns up missing – stolen, to be precise – and Theodosia goes looking for it.  She finds herself in the midst of cutthroat thieves with a plan for world domination.

The story starts out in dreary drizzly London in 1906 where political intrigue abounds.  The world seems perched on the verge of a huge war, and the Germans have apparently stolen the Heart of Egypt to use as a weapon in the impending battle.

Theodosia finds some unlikely allies, including a secret society, an orphan pick-pocket, and her little brother.  But when everything comes to a head, it’s Theodosia alone who must make her way to Egypt and set things right.

Author R. L. (Robin Lorraine) LaFevers is a neighbor of ours.  She grew up in Los Angeles and now lives “on a small ranch in Southern California."  Check out her website for a list of her many other novels for kids.

The Theodosia series is recommended for grades 3 through 8.

Happy Reading!

By the time we meet 17-year-old Briony her stepmother has already died, but the woman’s shadow darkens every corner.  Briony’s stepmother was the only one who knew the girl was a witch, and she generously kept the secret, even from Briony’s father.

Briony herself had not realized she was a witch until her stepmother pointed out all the horrible things she’d done using her powers of evil. 

For instance, in her young jealousy Briony had called up a powerful wind that knocked her twin sister, Rose, from her swing.  Rose has the mental age of a much younger child, and needs constant care all because of Briony.  She remembers now what she did, now that her stepmother has reminded her. 

The guilt and self-hatred would have been enough, but on top of that Briony lives in fear that the town’s people will find out she’s a witch and hang her in the village square.  As much as she hates herself, she doesn’t want to die.

When Eldric, the university drop out, arrives to stay with them while his father drains the swamps of Swampsea Parsonage, she finds she can’t hate him as she’d expected.  As handsome and worldly as he is, he is also sensitive and funny.  He becomes an ally in her search for the truth, and struggle to save her sister from the swamp cough brought on by an angry magical swamp dweller.

Chime is a fantasy full of witches, Dark Muses and Old Ones, who live in the swamp and tell stories only Briony can hear.  It has the feel of the distant past, except for the appearance of a bright red motorcar, which I thought was more of a distraction than an asset to the tale.

Suggested for grades 8 – 12, Chime has earned a lot of praise from book reviewers for its unique characters, lyrical prose and mysterious storyline.  If you like your fantasy with a little mystery, give Chime a whirl.

Happy Reading!