Emerald Atlas (galley) by John Stephens pub April, 2011 from Knopf.Audience: 5th-7th grade
My Rating: 3* of 5
Summary: Kate, Michael, and Emma have been in one orphanage after another for the last ten years, passed along like lost baggage. Yet these unwanted children are more remarkable than they could possibly imagine. Ripped from their parents as babies, they are being protected from a horrible evil of devastating power, an evil they know nothing about.
Comments: Thank you, Cindy B., for loaning this ARC of Stephens' debut novel. Pacing was off for me and several aspects seemed too Harry Potter-ish to be original. Some compelling characters, though, in Dwarf, Witch, and Gollum-esqe categories. The climax was confusing and relied upon the reader remembering a detail from much earlier in the book; in general the time-travel "rules" were fuzzy to the point of disbelief. The late appearance of the true antagonist (very a la Voldemort) showed promise for the next two installments.
Read-Alikes: Harry Potter series, Series of Unfortunate Events
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