Fart Quest: The Troll’s Toe Cheese

Author: Aaron Reynolds
Illustrator: Cam Kendell

© Date: 2022
Publisher: Roaring Book Press
Pages: 271
Chapters: Yes
Illustrations: Many – most page layouts have an illustration
Publisher Recommended Age: 8-12
Bonus Activities at End of Book: No, but mentions a game that can be downloaded

Summary from Book: Something smells rotten… After their latest quest, Fart, Pan, Moxie, and TickTock return to the Great and Powerful Kevin to claim their reward-a chance for Pan to see her mother, who died many years ago. But bringing her mom back seems impossible. Is Kevin full of hot air?

When our heroes sniff out the truth behind his secret plans, they unleash a terrifying danger that sends them on a nail-biting journey. Will their nose for trouble take them down for good? Or will they finally prove that they deserve the sweet smell of success?

Page Pig Thoughts: The seemingly last book in the Fart Quest series is definitely action packed and gets you to the edge of your seat early on. The story brings in characters that were met in the previous three books in the series for an epic battle at the end. The battle is rather reminiscent of the final battle in “Lord of the Rings” by J.R.R. Tolkien. Although instead of warriors being led into battle by a noble, selfless hero; this time, experienced teachers with lots of inexperienced students are led into battle by a self-centered creature determined to always be right. I read through this book quickly due to the suspense factor. Maybe I just wasn’t in a place to read about undead armies just before bed, but I like the second and third books in the series a little better. This one is still a good read and wraps up lots of questions. I would have been sad to miss out on the final blowout, and I am a little sad that there are no further Fart Quest books, they were a fun adventure.

Use caution for younger or sensitive readers, this one is heavier than the other books in the series and some of the illustrations could be scary. With an army of the undead and lots of characters dying, including some from previous stories, there is plenty of content that is heavier and scarier than the previous books. No gore or details are provided, but lots of death. Hard to do a big, final battle scene without any deaths, but still something for a reader to wrap their mind around.

Family Unit:

Fart, the main character, met his friends and battle companions, Moxie and Pan, at Krakentop Academy for Heroes. They had left the academy and were following their respective masters for wilderness training. Each of their masters died when they were vaporized by goblin magic in an attack gone horribly wrong. The Threesome decide not to return to the academy in shame and disgrace. So the trio goes out into the world to try heroic adventuring on their own.
Fart was left at Krakentop Academy by his family, he is a mage.
Moxie is a dwarf and was an orphan taken in by her master at Krackentop Academy.
Pan is an elf and her mother, Cypress Silversnow, died when Pan was young.
Ticktock is a phibling that the trio met in book one and he continued to go on further adventures with the trio. He had been living and working for Kevin the mage that has been sending the adventuring trio out searching for items.

Conflict/Social Issues:

Pan feels guilt because she is the reason that her friends found Kevin and the banshee is unleashed.
The group finds great sadness at what seemed to be the loss of TickTock.
Master Elmore comes to terms with his lifetime of silence on something that has brought him a lifetime of guilt. Headmistress Verbina and her stubbornness prevent admitting to past mistakes and bring her to her death.
Fart and Pan struggle to accept mistakes that they have made along the way of their adventures.
Many people are mourned when they die.

Positive Items:

Fart finds his confidence. The kids that used to mock him at school no longer bother when he returns. He confidently states that he goes by Fart and rides out to battle plans.
Pan gets the closure that she seeks with her mother.
Moxie learns the value of patience and that her brain can save lives, just like her battle skills.
From the escape from the goblin cave, we see that sometimes the best things to come are way are not planned out in great detail.
Pan is reminded that improvising can be as useful as a well thought out plan.
From the death of Kevin and Headmistress Verbina, we see that the rough edged sorts can still be sad losses.
Fart, Pan, and Moxie learn that everyone makes mistakes, and that is okay. Master Oonah wisely states, “Some of the most heroic deeds ever performed were done by mistake. And some of the vilest acts are committed on purpose.”
The book ends with Fart, Pan, Moxie, and TickTock leaving Krakentop to go out on whatever adventures the future has in store for them, and to make mistakes together, and all of that is good.

Items of Interest:

Yes, there is potty humor. The main character, Fart, can cast a flatulence spell that can turn him into a gassy fart and float around.
Turns out the Almighty Kevin has a chip on his shoulder because Krakentop Academy would not accept him as a student. He has been plotting revenge and using Fart, Pan, and Moxie to collect the ingredients that he needs to create and army of the undead to attack the Krakentop Academy headmistress and Master Elmore (Fart’s master).
Kevin has been working with Pan’s mother, who is now a banshee (cursed spirit of an elf with a deadly touch). When Kevin lets Pan see her mother, Pan is a bit horrified, her mother does not recognize her and is now just consumed by seeking revenge against those who caused her death.
The banshee (Pan’s mother) started attacking Fart. A small skirmish ensues, and TickTock is thrown across the room by the banshee. The trio is very sad and protective of TickTock’s body. Kevin holds off the banshee with magic so that Fart, Pan, Moxie, and TickTock can escape his tower. A huge explosion erupts that destroys everything (tower, banshee, Kevin).
Pan is rather upset about her mother. The trio is rather upset about TickTock. The trio heads to visit the muck elves while they sort out their heads. They take TickTock’s body with them.
Fart starts reading through the book that Kevin had been writing before the explosion. Fart and Moxie discover that their masters are likely still alive.
Pan and Peat Blossom the muck elf maybe have some sort of romance, details are not clear, but there are hints at it.
Turns out TickTock did not die in the explosion, but is just in a state of stasis until his body heals. The trio watch over TickTock constantly until Meemaw promises to watch over him and sends them away. They are called back for a joyous reunion with TickTock when he wakes back up. Then they comfort TickTock when he finds out that Kevin died. Kevin had taken in TickTock when nobody else would, and when Kevin saw what seemed to be dead TickTock, he said that “he was like the tadpole he never had.” While TickTock mourned, Fart says that “sometimes the only thing you can do is show up and sit there awkwardly.”
Fart, Pan, Moxie and TickTock follow the magic of Fart’s staff to find its master (Master Elmore). They are interested to find out if their masters are indeed still alive.
The group makes a plan to sneak into the goblin cave where the fateful explosion took place in book one. In the end, they wind up prisoners/slaves of a future predicting goblin. They do discover their broken spirited and dejected masters have been prisoners in the same cave. Since the goblin can predict their plans, escape seems impossible. After their first escape plan, the goblin puts Pan and TickTock in one cage and Fart in another. Both cages are suspended in the air by chains that Moxie has to hold onto otherwise the cages will plummet into lava. Somehow Moxie holds on.
When Fart sees the goblins kicking around Master Elmore and thinks that they killed him, he does what he does best and enters spontaneous hero mode. He discovers that “he would rather die fighting than wind up broken and beaten like Master Elmore.” Despite the lack of pre-planning, the momentary prediction of Fart’s spells allows the goblin king to avert the spells. And also like he does best, Fart slips and fires off his big spell in the wrong direction. Which wakes up the inferno troll. Which leads to a fast breakout from the cave. Fart, Moxie, Pan, and TickTock emerge with Master Elmore, Master Redmane, and Master Oonah.
They emerge from the cage and find the banshee and undead Kevin along with undead humans, elves, and animals that joined the banshee as she tracked Master Elmore. The hero group manages to escape the inferno troll and banshee.
Fart admits to everyone else that when he whacked the banshee with his staff, it left a sliver of stone embedded in her chest that allows the banshee to track Master Elmore.
The group returns to Krakentop Academy to give warning of the banshee arriving. Headmistress Verbina finds the stories of Fart, Pan, Moxie, and TickTock’s adventures a little far fetched. Master Elmore recovers enough to hobble into the meeting and remind Headmistress Verbina of the events leading up to Cypress Morningsnow’s death (Pan’s mother’s death). Cypress was the one who came up with the idea for hero training in the wilderness with masters and students. This would better prepare students for the real world because their studies were good, but they needed real world experience. Verbina did/does not happily accept ideas that aren’t her own. Cypress lead students out into the wilderness anyway. To make the task harder, Verbina sent a younger student prone to mischief (Master Elmore in his younger days) with items that would create distractions. Verbina sabotaged Cypress leading to her death. Then Verbina took claim for the wilderness training idea and swore Master Elmore to secrecy. Master Elmore feels regret and would like to se things right, but Verbina has no interest because she is always right.
As Headmistress Verbina gives a rousing speech to gather masters and students to go to battle with the banshee, Master Elmore tries to stop her. That only angers her further.
Fart, Pan, Moxie, and their Masters watch the battle action from a balcony. Moxie struggles with sitting on the sidelines while she watches the slaughter of so many. She is even more upset when Master Redmane leaves the school walls and tells her that she should not follow. Master Redmane enters the battle scene to call masters and students to retreat back into the safety of the school. Headmistress Verbina puts up a decent fight against the banshee, but winds up dying by undead inferno troll. There is a picture of the undead inferno troll picking up the mace that Verbina is holding onto (following the text of the story), the banshee comes over and speaks her last words of hate into the face of Verbina. Then all it says is that she dies, no further details or gore.
Moxie finds a book in the school library that brings Pan some further peace about her mother, it indicates that Cypress’s spirit is trapped as a prisoner of the banshee form. She is powerless to do anything or be herself.
TickTock collected friends from previous adventures and they create a final battle against the undead army and banshee. Master Elmore creates a plan of attack against the banshee. Turns out Fart’s Gas Attack spell comes in handy yet again.
Master Elmore creates one final magic attack and takes out himself and the banshee. Pan’s mother’s spirit is released. Cypress says farewell to Pan in a touching moment.
The dead bodies are wrapped in herbs and cloth, then placed in funeral boats and launched into the sea. Words of remembrance are spoken. Then flaming arrows are shot into each boat.
The school is cleaned up, a feast is held. Goodbyes are said to departing frineds that came for the final battle.
Master Oonah and Master Redmane take over instruction at Krakentop. Fart, Pan, and Moxie put good thought into the offer for them to become teachers. But they wind up turning down the offer.
Fart creates his own staff using the instructions Master Elmore left him. The staff includes little memories of his adventures to that point.
The series ends with Fart, Pan, Moxie, and Ticktock at camp awaiting new adventures on whatever path comes their way.

Other Books in Series (At Time of Posting):

Fart Quest (Book 1) [Review]
Fart Quest: The Barf of the Bedazzler (Book 2) [Review]
Fart Quest: The Dragon’s Dookie (Book 3) [Review]

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