The Green Book by Penny Luker

This is another author i'm honoured to soon be sharing the pages with in the forthcoming anthology: You're not Alone. I've perviously reviewed the Thruthfinder by Penny luker.
This is the first time I'm reviewing a children's book. Even though it was a very easy read, the review is much harder. It's a long time since I was a 10 year old and as I live in France I couldn't get an opinion of a young child. I personally would have liked the children to have been way more irresponsible with the magic book. Apart from asking the book to provide a third helping of ice cream and getting punished for it things don't get out of hand any further. But this book is not aimed at me but at the 5 to 10 age group and you don't want to stray into the occult or have kids setting bad examples. So I decided for a 5 star as for the very young ones they will be nice bed time stories, without nightmares to follow.

The Green Book by Penny Luker

A spell book appearing one day in your room is a dream for any ten year old, especially if you just been told to tidy up that room. Alana is the lucky girl with the book. It must have chosen her as she is really very responsible; choosing not to use her spell book when it asks her if she wants it to magic her exam. I’m not sure I would have withstood the temptation. I also doubt that my friends would have given me a moment’s peace if they had discovered that I had a book of spells. But Alana and her friends learn a lesson early on; if you misuse magic it will have consequences. This is a short and entertaining book for young children. I think this would make a good book for bed time, as it will leave you having sweet dreams about having a spell book that makes all your troubles go away.

The Truth Finder

Motoring on with reviewing books.It is always a good sign when you get through a sizable book quickly. It was nice to read a well edited book, not all self published efforts are!

The Truth Finder by Penny Luker

The Truth Finder is set in the fifth millennium, in a world destroyed by nuclear wars. There remain but three inhabitable cities and the land in between (The kingdom of light). Some of humankind has evolved to possess special powers. Vrail is one such young boy. He is a Truth Finder, one who has the ability to read minds. At the start of the book we find him alone at the age of 17 after the death of his father. We follow his at times perilous journey into manhood. The author describes nicely how Vrail experiences his gift is as much of a curse as a blessing as he finds his own place in this dangerous world. Even though the story is set in the future, the land between the cities has more of a ‘Shires’ feel about it. People go about farming the land and use horses for transport. Some of this book reminded me about the Hobbit. Vrail also enjoys normality next to a cosy fireside and at times wishes he wasn’t special. I think this book will appeal to a young adult that likes to read adventure/fantasy.

My problem with the Truth Finder was that it screams for a follow up and I hope Penny is hard at work on book number two. There was a wealth of information to take in about this new future world, but I feel I’ve hardly scratched the surface of what there is to know about the cities. We got to meet many fascinating characters, but apart from the main character Vrail, we don’t know too much about any of them. Especially Vrails neighbour Grace, a fellow thruth Finder and the woman he is closest to seems very interesting. She is over 300 years old! She must have some interesting stories to tell. I’m looking forward to reading the follow up and I hope Penny goes a bit deeper into the many characters she has introduced me to.