The Fearless Travelers' Guide to Wicked Places by Pete Begler
Twelve-year-old Nell Perkins knows there is magic at work that she cant yet understand. Her mother has been taken by witches and turned into a bird. Nell must journey to get her mother back, even if it takes her deep into the Wicked Places the frightening realm where Nightmares resides. There she must break the spell and stop the witches from turning our world into a living nightmare.
This book was an easy read; Pete Begler has a very nice writing style that flows so you can just fly through the pages. At times the pace seemed a bit slow but never enough that I wanted to give up. The author created a very descriptive world so you could really see yourself walking side by side with the characters. His dialogue and character development were detailed and believable. I think the magical world and interesting creatures would surely appeal to the age range he was directing this book towards.
Due to the very strong theme of a mother’s love for her children, which Begler did a nice job on accuracy, as a parent I feel compelled to easily recommend this book to other parents for their kids to read.
The author has an interesting take on Dreams and Nightmares which would make for some fun discussion and creative thinking. I felt he did a good job on creating something new to capture the imagination.
I think kids around 8-12ish will probably get the most out of it and the writing style lends itself easily to be a good book to read aloud either in the classroom or at bedtime.
Thank you to Netgalley and Capstone for allowing me to review this book.
*synopsis and pic from amazon.com