I'm being generous and giving this three stars, because within its narrow context I suppose it's a decent enough book. But for me this is yet another series book about a plucky teenager on a quest (with time travel and magic, of course) that I read with my daughter at bedtime, and we've read a lot of similar books this year. For the record, she loved it, and since she's the obvious target audience for books like this, I'll be lenient. Call it three stars for adults, five stars for young teen girls. This is SO WELL DONE.Smart, complex, emotionally resonant kids' fantasy that has appeal for any age. It leans on tropes, but it doesn't rely on them and manages not to devolve into a cliche. You can see the influences from the whole rich tradition of fantasy and young adult - Narnia, The Hobbit, Series of Unfortunate Events, Harry Potter - but it doesn't lean too much on any one source, just takes a little from each and then makes it its own. It's well plotted and tightly paced and the characterization was generally strong and I'll just be here in the corner, crying forever about Emma and Gabriel.EDIT: I was gonna give this a 3, but I'm bumping it to a 4 solely because of the Screechers. My jaw literally dropped when I read Gabriel's explanation that the terror was real but it originated in your mind. The Screechers are walking panic attack inducers. As a lady who's perpetually dealing with anxiety, I've found myself repeating Gabriel's advice a lot in the past few weeks. For that reason alone I'd give this book 4 stars. Who woulda thought kidlit would prove more helpful than therapy?
What do You think about The Emerald Atlas (2011)?
I used my summer on reading this book and every night I slept with fantasi, magic dreams.
—alexfriedl
A fantastic fantasy for young readers. One of my favorite in that category.
—themarsco
Great book, action packed for little adventures
—DOOO
