- 12-year-old Lily finds herself transported to a realm where dreams come to life…and not just the good ones
- themes include: friendship, good vs. evil, courage, creativity, loyalty
- convo: recent loss of a parent, fantasy creatures (dragons, creatures from Lily’s imagination turned real, shrouds, ogre, unicorn, harpy, griffin, etc.), near-death moments, a bully at school, battle scenes (some with deaths), a 12-year-old boy is temporarily bound & gagged, lying/trickery
- language: heck, freak x4, maggot, stupid x6, idiot, brat
Type: chapter book
Ages: 11-15
Author: Kathryn Butler
The story begins a couple months after Lily lost her father. She and her family are understandably struggling in their mourning–Lily at school, mother at work, and both mother and Lily taking care of Gran at home. But life takes a dramatic turn for Lily when she discovers a stone on a necklace her father used to wear. This is what transports her to the realm holding secrets her father never told her about.
She soon finds herself in a fierce battle between evil and good. With the help of a small dragon and eventually a few other people/creatures, she comes out on top but not without struggles, injuries and grief.
It’s not all difficulties, though! I love how creative Lily’s imagination is and how determined she becomes in her quest. She encounters lovely creatures who become her friends and she makes sweet memories with them in between the more intense scenes.
Please note for your sensitive readers/listeners: The evil creatures are very evil. Because of this, I disagree with the publisher’s minimum age. They said 9 years, but I would recommend 11+ due to the intensity of some of the scenes. Update: See a *spoiler* at the very bottom of this post for further discussion on age. The shrouds can transform themselves to look like your loved ones or even become destructive tornadoes. They “fight with deceit” and “disguise themselves as the things for which we long.” They all serve an enormous black dragon who delights in suffering and destruction. “He’s the amalgamation of all the wicked things your people [humans] dream up, Miss Lily.”
There are Christian parallels to this book, the most obvious ones being the Christ figure (a unicorn) and Satan (the above-mentioned dragon). I won’t mention others as they involve spoilers. I would venture to predict some good conversations could come from a discussion among believers. If you’re looking for a free book club guide to get you started, check out Blossoming Through Books! They are a great ministry for both young people and women looking to chat purposely about books.
At the risk of making this review FAR too long for most readers, I want to type out a longish quote I found beautiful–something we can reflect on as Christians (keeping in mind, of course, that this isn’t Scripture and simply an allegorical idea):
“Mankind is a race of creators, young lady. It’s in your nature, because you bear the mark of the one who created everything. Surely you’ve known the joy of molding a kingdom from a lump of clay, or a jungle from a heap of grass clippings? … The power to create is a gift, my dear. And at one time, your people could do so much more than produce clay kingdoms. … Long ago, when all was still good, your ancestors would envision a harvest, and trees would drip with ripe fruit. Creating was effortless, and it was always good. But then evil broke into the world and corrupted everything. Mankind created for his own selfish gains, for self-worship, rather than for stewardship. And so, to prevent destruction of all the earth, his creative powers were limited. He could create only through toil, and what remained of his richest abilities were relegated to dreams. The Realm was founded so the imaginings of man could be monitored, cared for, and–in the case of malicious forms–confined.”
As I read through this series, I will link to further reviews below. Please let me know if this was helpful and happy reading!
Review on Book 2: The Prince and the Blight
Okay, now for the spoiler…
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spoiler below…
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After I read this book and had written my notes above, a fellow book reviewer made a really good point on Instagram: for children who have experienced a loss, they might need to be significantly older than my above age recommendation. We learn toward the end of the story that Lily’s father is not actually dead. This could cause a lot of mental angst with young readers, potentially giving them false hope that their own loved one is still out there. Please use wisdom in introducing this to your children. ♥︎