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The Last Firehawk #12
The Shadow Returns
Tag's greatest enemy has returned to Perodia! Pick a book. Grow a Reader! This series is part of Scholastic's early chapter book line, Branches, aimed at newly independent readers. With easy-to-read text, high-interest content, fast-paced plots, and illustrations on every page, these books will boost reading confidence and stamina. Branches books help readers grow! The Shadow has come back to Perodia! Skull, his evil army of rats, and The Shadow are now hiding in secret as they plan their next move. Tag, Skyla, and Blaze need to find The Shadow quickly before it turns the creatures of Valor Wood into its army of spies. But their friend Bod is still trapped in the Underland! Can Tag and his friends rescue Bod before it’s too late? The Shadow’s dark magic is growing stronger… With nonstop action and adventure, this fully illustrated series makes a great introduction to fantasy and will have younger readers on the edge of their seats!
96 pages, Paperback
First published June 6, 2023
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
November 25, 2025
This series has been a read-aloud with my boys. I thought this was a series of 12 books, but this last one ends with more story to be told. It was published in 2023 and there seems to be no information about a 13th book. Why does the series end without actually resolving the story?
April 10, 2026
The series ends here. But, it didn’t have a fully end feeling. There is another quest and it’s implied that it goes well, I think? One more book would have been nice to really put the finishing touches on the series.
June 23, 2026
Pretty good kinda drags the last few books
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July 14, 2023
Read aloud to the kids.
July 10, 2026
Putting a combined review here so as not to totally pad my Goodreads count for 2026
Book 1: Blaze hatches & they get the first piece of the stone out of the volcano
Book 2: They get the 2nd piece out of the ice with help from a lost seal who has been trapped in a cave for years?!?! They leave a trail of berries even though the monkeys in book 1 stole all their berries.
Book 3: They cross a desert rather than going around, bring a honeycomb to the bears & retrieve the 3rd piece of the stone.
Book 4: Much more interesting than book 3. Tag meets Thorn for the first time, Blaze is talking in full sentences, Nixies that have a magical song to put creatures to sleeps, a city under the water.
Book 5: They travel through the shadowland even though they don’t really need to. They get captured, rescued, find the final piece of the stone and prepare for battle. Blaze sometimes says full sentences and sometimes “peep peep”.
Book 6: Blaze, Tag, Skyla, all the friends they’ve met in books 1-5 and the completed Ember Stone all work together to defeat Thorn, his shadow and his spies. It doesn’t make sense that a whole colony of Firehawks with the Ember Stone couldn’t have easily defeated Thorn in the first place.
Book 7: Portal to the Cloud Kingdom
Book 8: One of the weakest books so far. Rescue Blaze (why couldn’t he rescue himself?), meet Claw, keep trying to find the rest of the Firehawks
Book 9: They find the golden temple and make a portal to the Firehawks. Still does not explain why Blaze was “forseen” to defeat Thorn but dozens and dozens of Firehawks could not.
Book 10: The group experience the hatching of 6 Firehawk eggs and Blaze participates in a “hatching ritual” he missed out on, making him super extra strong. If this is true, why don’t they always wait until Firehawks are older to complete the ritual? Then they find the mythical egg that’s been lost for hundreds of years, make a permanent portal home, discover Claw is Thorn, realize Thorn is only evil because he had no friends, tell Thorn they will be his friends and Thorn decides to assume his alter-ego Claw and be a good guy 🙄 Tag and Skyla are officially dubbed Owls of Valor.
Book 11: The plot is really going downhill. Talia, Blaze’s mom gets captured somehow. The Shadow entices a Rat to take up its cause and hypnotize other animals to do its bidding. When Blaze and friends go to rescue Talia, they accidentally set the Shadow free. They leave Bod, the new guy, behind.
Book 12: There’s really no rhyme or reason to this series anymore. The Shadow has power it didn’t have before: blocking sound, moving people, making Skull larger…Blaze is making all sorts of portals, there’s a wall between Perodia and the Underworld that is thin (?!)… probably fun and exciting for a kid but really there’s nothing grounding this series in any sort of plot or logic.
Also, this appears to be the end of the series. Evidently the author lost their inspiration for it to continue…
Book 1: Blaze hatches & they get the first piece of the stone out of the volcano
Book 2: They get the 2nd piece out of the ice with help from a lost seal who has been trapped in a cave for years?!?! They leave a trail of berries even though the monkeys in book 1 stole all their berries.
Book 3: They cross a desert rather than going around, bring a honeycomb to the bears & retrieve the 3rd piece of the stone.
Book 4: Much more interesting than book 3. Tag meets Thorn for the first time, Blaze is talking in full sentences, Nixies that have a magical song to put creatures to sleeps, a city under the water.
Book 5: They travel through the shadowland even though they don’t really need to. They get captured, rescued, find the final piece of the stone and prepare for battle. Blaze sometimes says full sentences and sometimes “peep peep”.
Book 6: Blaze, Tag, Skyla, all the friends they’ve met in books 1-5 and the completed Ember Stone all work together to defeat Thorn, his shadow and his spies. It doesn’t make sense that a whole colony of Firehawks with the Ember Stone couldn’t have easily defeated Thorn in the first place.
Book 7: Portal to the Cloud Kingdom
Book 8: One of the weakest books so far. Rescue Blaze (why couldn’t he rescue himself?), meet Claw, keep trying to find the rest of the Firehawks
Book 9: They find the golden temple and make a portal to the Firehawks. Still does not explain why Blaze was “forseen” to defeat Thorn but dozens and dozens of Firehawks could not.
Book 10: The group experience the hatching of 6 Firehawk eggs and Blaze participates in a “hatching ritual” he missed out on, making him super extra strong. If this is true, why don’t they always wait until Firehawks are older to complete the ritual? Then they find the mythical egg that’s been lost for hundreds of years, make a permanent portal home, discover Claw is Thorn, realize Thorn is only evil because he had no friends, tell Thorn they will be his friends and Thorn decides to assume his alter-ego Claw and be a good guy 🙄 Tag and Skyla are officially dubbed Owls of Valor.
Book 11: The plot is really going downhill. Talia, Blaze’s mom gets captured somehow. The Shadow entices a Rat to take up its cause and hypnotize other animals to do its bidding. When Blaze and friends go to rescue Talia, they accidentally set the Shadow free. They leave Bod, the new guy, behind.
Book 12: There’s really no rhyme or reason to this series anymore. The Shadow has power it didn’t have before: blocking sound, moving people, making Skull larger…Blaze is making all sorts of portals, there’s a wall between Perodia and the Underworld that is thin (?!)… probably fun and exciting for a kid but really there’s nothing grounding this series in any sort of plot or logic.
Also, this appears to be the end of the series. Evidently the author lost their inspiration for it to continue…
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 11, 2024
Skull and some of his minions have made it to Perodia and brought the Shadow with them. Tag, Skyla, and Blaze are trying to find where Skull is hiding. In the process, they accidentally return to the Underland and take the opportunity to see if they can rescue Bod, but something has happened to the Ember Stone along their travels. It is their only hope of defeating the Shadow. Can it be fixed?
This book is working on building suspense. I was pleasantly surprised by how things turned out with Bod. The book ends with a glimmer of hope, but some big new problems and challenges to overcome. I like how the friends work together and encourage each other. Skull and his fellow rats are menacing, but aren't too scary for the target audience.
Notes on content:
Language: None
Sexual content: None
Violence: There is violence threatened, and a scuffle, but a blast of magic usually works to scare bad guys away before anything gets too bad.
Ethnic diversity: N/A characters are all animals, some mythical ones
LGBTQ+ content: None
Other: There are some tense situations so super sensitive readers may need to know that things will end up ok (and need to wait for more books to come out to know this) before they dive in.
This book is working on building suspense. I was pleasantly surprised by how things turned out with Bod. The book ends with a glimmer of hope, but some big new problems and challenges to overcome. I like how the friends work together and encourage each other. Skull and his fellow rats are menacing, but aren't too scary for the target audience.
Notes on content:
Language: None
Sexual content: None
Violence: There is violence threatened, and a scuffle, but a blast of magic usually works to scare bad guys away before anything gets too bad.
Ethnic diversity: N/A characters are all animals, some mythical ones
LGBTQ+ content: None
Other: There are some tense situations so super sensitive readers may need to know that things will end up ok (and need to wait for more books to come out to know this) before they dive in.
April 11, 2025
I didn't care for this one as much. It was darker than the others. And I was disappointed when I looked up #13 in the series, and apparently, there's not a 13th one planned. But #12 definitely ends on a cliffhanger. Disappointed with how it all "ended." Overall, it's been a good series to read aloud with my boys.
Want to Read
January 3, 2024A
August 31, 2025
Disappointed the series ends without knowing what happens
February 20, 2026
My son and I really liked this series overall. Disappointed how it ended though. I feel like there should be more books to resolve and give the story a proper ending
April 9, 2026
My son wants more!!!
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews