Landon Snow and the Island of Arcanum (Book 3) by R.K. Mortenson

Rating: My bookshelf

Reading Level: Mid Elementary, Late Elementary

Landon and his little sister face peril as they seek to bring animals back to Wilderwood and rescue Ditty’s parents from the clutches of evil. There were strong, beautiful themes of hope and of trusting God to illuminate the path when you need.

Possible Concerns:

• Curses. Landon breaks a curse by chanting a spell. The main thrust of the book is God’s sovereignty, and Landon was surrendered to God in the moment. Therefore, Landon’s chant didn’t feel dark and occult to me, even though technically saying a chant to break a curse typically qualifies.
• Romance. Landon and Ditty continue to feel things, admire each other, and develop affection without any PDA more than a hug.
• Fantasy. This book had magical creatures in a fantastic land, but I felt the fantasy was less crazy than book 1.
• Peril. There are a few scary moments (e.g., fighting spiritual creatures). I expect everything is appropriate for a typical mid-elementary audience.
• Villain depicted with darker skin. The leader of the evil spirit beings is pictured with dark skin and a skull on his head. He looks of islander descent. I don’t think the illustrator meant to be racist, but I do want to point out that the heroes are depicted as white and the villain is depicted with dark skin. This might be worth a conversation with your child, and I encourage writers to try to uplift dark-skinned characters as heroes sometimes too, as the books out there seem imbalanced.

I liked this one much more than Book 1, and even a bit better than Book 2. I found the plot even easier to follow, and the spiritual parallels were even greater than the others.