It was a race weekend – and I still am waiting for my legs to start working so I can walk like a normal person. I will post a race recap/weekend post later this week. But today I can’t wait to share this fun new book that just came out. It’s going to be a Christmas gift for the kids this year for sure… (if I can hold off not giving it to them between now and then!)
Brandon Mull
128 pages
ARC through NetGalley
From the Publisher:
The 3.5 million fans who bought Fablehaven know the series has many imaginative mythical creatures especially dragons. Every one of the dragons has a name and a special power and they all look different and are described in words, but they existed only in our imagination….UNTIL NOW. The Caretaker’s Guide to Fablehaven is the first visual discovery of the creatures in the series and is written as if the reader is the new caretaker of the Fablehaven preserve. It has all sorts of insider’s knowledge the new caretaker of Fablehaven would have to know, such as dragon tears are very powerful in making potions but they are extremely difficult to come by and cruel people have been known to torment young dragons just to collect tears! So don’t YOU want to be their caretaker? Entries detail important information about artifacts large and small, a complete bestiary of creatures (from fairies to trolls to satyrs), a guide to identifying demons, dragons, and wizards as well as valuable insights into the other magical preserves. Scattered throughout the book are colorful fairies that also mark some of the characters, artifacts, and creatures that will be featured in the upcoming sequel series, Dragonwatch.
Review:
I received an advanced copy of this book for a review – but I have to say, this is a book we will be buying for our library no matter what! We LOVE Brandon Mull around our house.
I read the Fablehaven books years ago and convinced my husband that we needed to read these out loud to our two boys. The boys (my husband included) ate these books up! They were hooked. It has been a few years since we read them, I searched our family blog and believe it was in 2012/13 that we read them all…we’ve also read all the other Brandon Mull books since then. They are loving the Five Kingdoms series too, but Fablehaven continues to be their go-to favorite books.
This book is full of great illustrations and information. It’s a guidebook – of all the creatures and secrets from the Fablehaven books. I love that the characters now can totally come to live in our heads from these pictures. There are six chapters – Artifacts and items, Creatures, Demons, Dragons, Locations and Wizards. If I had to pick a favorite chapter I think it would be the creatures chapter. Characters like the Limberjack and the cow, even Newel and Doren come to life. I showed my husband some of the advanced copy too and his favorite chapter by far was the dragon chapter.
I also think my kids would love the little side notes from Kendra and Seth. I can hear them laughing now at some of Seth’s remarks throughout the book – like when it shows a giant and Seth makes the comment that this is a picture of Kendra’s next boyfriend.
I also really like the pulled quotes from the series, throughout the book. One of my favorites,
“Good choices are not always safe choices. Many worthy choices involve risk. Some require courage.” -Patton
Final Score:
