Author: Wade Albert White
Illustrator: Mariano Epelbaum
© Date: 2017
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
Pages: 371
Chapters: Yes
Illustrations: Yes, but only on the first page of a chapter
Publisher Recommended Age: 8-12 years
Bonus Activities at End of Book: No
Summary from Book:
There are two kinds of adventure:
- The kind that involves unicorns and lollipops
- The kind that involves escaping from a prison-like orphanage, falling off an exploding mountain, and getting fireballed by a dragon (or possibly eaten by a zombie shark).
This is a story about the second kind.
Anne has spend most of her thirteen years scrubbing dirty hallways and laboring in dark mines at Saint Lupin’s orphanage, dreaming of finding her true home and of becoming an adventurer alongside her best friend, Penelope. Her dreams finally seem within reach…until Anne is denied her rightful ticket out of Saint Lupin’s. Determined to leave the controlling Matron and her life of chores behind, Anne’s daring escape plan takes a surprising turn when a mysterious medallion fuses to her hand. Anne, Penelope, and their new questing partner, Hiro, have just days to solve unsolvable riddles and triumph over undefeatable foes—or face the horrible consequences.
Note: This review is done from memory. I originally read this awhile ago.
Page Pig Thoughts: I did not enjoy this one as much as the first one. Admittedly, I read this one while in a particularly sleep deprived phase, so following things was a bit trickier for my tired brain. I found more instances of not really following the descriptions that were being provided (e.g. I had a hard time mentally picturing the archway that was visited with Emmanuelle), so I was attempting to look at the pictures at the start of the chapters more frequently. I also just read on without full understanding and followed the action as best I could.
While I still enjoyed the humor style, this one did not seem to have as much humor. Overall, I still liked this one, but I was left a bit confused and wish there was a way to know what the story is with the black smoke characters. I’m not sure if Page Pup will take an interest in these, but if so, I would not be opposed to reading them a second time.
Use caution with younger or sensitive readers, this has scary parts with characters battling different creatures and robots zapping people. Also, the whole removing eyes that have turned to stone and people being replaced by a different personality hologram may be a little unsettling.
Family Unit: Anne, Penelope, and Hiro have found a family of sorts at the Saint Lupin’s Quest Academy where they are the only three students
Conflict/Social Issues:
- Anne inadvertently starts a new quest that is to kill the dragon queen and becomes an enemy of dragons.
- Valerian is trying to do what he thinks will save his mother from turning to stone, even if it upsets others.
Positive Items:
- Anne, Penelope, and Hiro are able to trust Valerian.
- Even as a half dragon, in the end, Valerian gets to go back with the dragons and even becomes king.
- Anne, Penelope, and Hiro survive another quest and can go back to Saint Lupin’s.
Items of Interest:
- Saint Lupin’s is now a questing academy
- Valerian is supposed to be a new student at Saint Lupin’s, but he turns out to be a thief. His motive turns out to be trying to save his mother from turning to stone.
- Penelope initially has a lot of sympathy for Valerian because he seems to be punished for actions of his parents.
- Valerian turns out to be half human half dragon. His mother, Emmanuelle, sister of the dragon queen, clearly has a soft spot for humans. The dragon queen feels differently and banished Emmanuelle and Valerian from the kingdom. The dragon queen also set Emmaneulle on the path of slowly turning entirely to stone. In the end, Emmanuelle does turn entirely to stone.
- Anne has questions that she would like answered about her past, but doesn’t get any answers.
- The dragon queen kills herself to turn into a giant robot.
- Anne, Penelope, Hiro, and Valerian wind up operating robotic knights as they try to battle dragons. Anne winds up in a giant robot knight battling a giant dragon robot.
- Several people were replaced with hologram versions of themselves. One of them happened to be Jocelyn, which Anne picks up on and manages to locate the real human form of her.
Other Books in Series (At Time of Posting):
- Book 1 – The Adventurer’s Guide to Successful Escapes [review]
- Book 2 – The Adventurer’s Guide to Dragons (and Why They Keep Biting Me)
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