Suitable for upper elementary readers, this book is fantastic! Bruce Coville, the author, pulls out all the stops and has created a novel that is modern, up to date in layout, and with a story line that is geared towards today's reader. Following up with his previous work, Cursed and Hatched, Trolled takes older readers through a series of of weirdness: adventure, love, talking cats, magic spells, prophecies, insulting and farting trolls, mysterious grandparents, and Finnish heritage. This journey is experienced through the first person writing of Cody as well as Ned Thump who is a lonely 6 foot eleven, 345 pound security guard (who is secretly a troll) with a nose like a pickle. Both Cody and Ned tell much of the story through remembrances, journal writing, text messages, and letters. This layout is intriguing, fun, and definitely geared towards young readers.
It turns out, Cody has some talents that he didn't realize at first, such as hearing cats. Ned is actually a troll who has had to move into the human world after refusing to kill a handsome prince. Cody meets up with Ned to get some information for a school project and low and behold, Ned (despite his size) is actually a girl! Turns out that Ned is small for her size, as far as trolls go.
While the story is great and the layout of writing interesting, what impresses me most are the two very different but realistic voices of the two main characters. It is as if I would recognize either of them on the street after a short conversation and certainly I would have loved to have Cody as a student, despite his habit of "skying" (telling tall tales).
Highly recommended!!!