The Shadows

Faerieground #2

by Beth Bracken

Lucy is a prisoner in the Faerieground, and Soli must take the silver necklace that Lucy's mother has given her and venture into the Willow Forest if she is to rescue her best friend.

Genres: Fantasy, Young Adult, Childrens

96 pages, Library Binding

First published January 1, 2012

About the author

Beth Bracken is a children's book editor. She lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota, with her husband, Steve, and their son, Sam. When she's not reading, writing, or editing books, Beth spends most of her time knitting endlessly while watching reruns of old TV shows and drinking lots of tea.

Reviews

[Carol · Rating 4 out of 5]

Still interested still going to the next book,kind of hooked at this point.

Happy Reading 📙📚📗📓📒📘📚📙📕📚📓📒📘📚📗📙📕📚📓📒📘📗📖📚📓📚📖

[H · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hi interest / low reading level fairy/horror geared towards girls. This is #2 in the series, and reads more like a few chapters within a regular book, but the illustrations are good and the story will be appealing to middle grade girls (4-6) who struggle to read. It isn't so much a reluctant reader book as a low reader book, and there are few out there targeted to girls this age who struggle, which earns it a third star. I will buy the series to help serve this under-served group.

[Ophilia Adler · Rating 3 out of 5]

To be a "easier" read and a fantasy book it got me intrested in the book. I had it in the school library i work at and i knew some kids loved them. And i cant more than agree, it has Everything a good fantasy book should have.

I loved it and i read all the books the library had in such a fast pace….I just needed to know what was going to happen, even if it was rather obvious to an avid reader.

But we only had 4 books and i can now see there is 12...i need them. I feel a bit addicted XD both to the story but also the wonderful illustrations.

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this series aloud to my daughter, found at the library. Interesting graphics, engaging story.

[Emi · Rating 5 out of 5]

You can learn a whole lot from this story. It was amazing!!!!!💕
I love fantasy books so when I was looking for a book at school on the internet to read this was one of the series and now I am in love really really love it!!!!!💙

[Yue Luna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good boon serie. Have really good memories of it

[Tori Conrad · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very confusing

[Natalie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A rare occurrence of the second book being better then the last. The urgency is clear in all of Lucy's parts.

[Cathy · Rating 1 out of 5]

I picked this up because it had an appealing cover and I haven't read any middle grade fantasy lately. The story has a good premise: Solidad and her best friend, Lucy have a fight. Solidad wishes that Lucy would disappear, and poof, she was gone. Turns out Lucy got whisked away to fairyland, held captive by the evil Queen Calandra. Now it is up to Solidad to rescue Lucy. But just as Solidad reaches fairyland, the book ends and I really felt cheated. Really? It felt more like a book teaser than an actually book.

Then I noticed it was published by Stone Arch, which is a publisher of books for reluctant readers, which somewhat explains the brevity (92 pages and that counts the title page and the verso), but even so half the pages are illustrations and some pages only have a sentence or two of text. So really, it's about 40-some pages of double spaced text with wide margins. How can a publisher in good conscience call that a book and sell it for an astounding $23? And then I noticed that it was Book 2 in a series! How many books is it going to take to actually tell the whole story? What a scam Stone Arch has going! How many books at $23 each can they convince schools and libraries to buy?

I understand that the series is aimed at reluctant readers, but if a story is good, even a reluctant reader will keep reading. There are plenty of reluctant readers who have tackled Harry Potter and Twilight. Stone Arch: don't sell your readers short.

[Faye · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really good second book, quick to read, proves you should be careful what you wish for!

[Lina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Link to the review: http://ett-liv-med-canon.bloggplatsen...

[Setareh Najafi]

I like to read the whole series at once to see what happen finally.should say thx Odessa Sawyer for such a beautiful illustrations you made.

[Rcoku · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was a nice book

[Brittany · Rating 3 out of 5]

Beautiful Illustrations still- story falling a little flat, still going to give the next one a shot.

[Karen]

Really short read.

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's a natural Segway between 1 and 3, not to be read in isolation

[Bibliotekstanten · Rating 2 out of 5]

Jag har snabbläst de tre första delarna i serien Svarta skogens hemlighet. Heter En farlig önskan, Ut ur skuggan och Smycket. De är utgivna av förlaget Nypon som specialiserat sig på lättlästa böcker.

Jag tycker väl inte att Nypon har lyckats så jättebra med de här böckerna. Det är Lucy och Soli som berättar historien. I början av varje kapitel står det vem som berättar + första meningen. Sedan fortsätter kapitlet på nästa sida, vilket jag inte alls tror är lyckat för en svag läsare. Svårt att se sambandet mellan person som berättar, första meningen, vända sidan, fortsätter utan inledning eller förklaring. Blir rörigt att hoppa mellan rösterna och den märkliga kapitelindelningen hjälper inte till.

Lucy och Soli är bästastebästa vänner. När Lucy lovar att hjälpa Soli fånga/få Aron, men istället själv kysser honom skakar naturligtvis vänskapen till. När Soli konfronterar Lucy mitt ute i Svarta skogen och i ilska säger: "Jag önskar att du försvann" händer förstås det. I Svarta skogen lever nämligen rätt obehagliga feer och en önskan är en önskan och den gäller för evigt! Förkrossad av dåligt samvete måste nu Soli försöka ställa allt till rätta.

Kommer inte att prisa dessa böcker, men nog tror jag en och annan fantasy-sugen kommer att ta sig an dem. Rätt lockande framsidor om inte annat.