Rating: Needs Parental Supervision

More of Harry Potter meets Lord of the Rings, including, magical powers (called “lore”), adventure, and a quest for identity as an 11-year old orphan struggles with fear over who he is and whether he belongs. A supervillain arrives from an unexpected character, and some history comes to the surface. I like how there continues to be essentially no romance.

You definitely want to read Book 1: The Accidental Apprentice before taking on this one.

Potential concerns remain nearly the same as Book 1:

  • You won’t like this one if you’re against magic, fantastic (literally) beasts, and battles between lore-keepers (i.e. people who harness the magic and tame the beasts).
  • The main character, Barclay, is an orphan who struggles to belong in the rule-driven culture that shuns the lore-keepers. Against his will, becomes one of the lore-keepers that he was taught to fear, and is soon driven out of his home and away from the only “family” he has ever known. He battles his new identity and eventually learns to discover and accept that the lore-keeper world is where he truly belongs.
  • Barclay’s roommate and former nemesis struggles with revisiting his hometown after his father’s passing.
  • The author describes skin color more often or prominently than I think is really necessary.
  • There is an occasional explicit mention of a “butt sniff” when a wolf is meeting a new beast.