What We’re Reading

The Land of Elyon, Book 2: Beyond the Valley of Thorns | Patrick Carman

Rating:

Another year has passed, and Alexa is pleased to be going back to Bridewell for the summer. Though her father has a strict litany of rules for her to follow, she fully intends to get into at least a little trouble.

Upon her first visit to the Library, she wistfully dreams of escaping through the secret tunnel out into the wild, but she knows it’s not possible, now that the tunnels are patrolled. Naturally, when she hears a knock on the wall behind her, she’s therefore quite alarmed. When she opens the door to find her friend Yipes dangling there, she knows everything is about to change.

With instructions in a letter left for her by Warvold, Alexa leaves behind and enclosed letter to her father, and escapes through the tunnels with Yipes, narrowly avoiding capture. Excited to be on another adventure, she’s also unsure. When one of her new companions turns out to be a convict, she becomes even more uncertain, but she decides that if Warvold trusted him, she can too.

Along the way, new secrets are learned, and Alexa comes to realize that whatever this mission of hers is, it’s huge. Save the world as she knows it huge. Daunting, to say the least.

With the help of her assorted companions, human, animal, and giant, Alexa makes her way to the dark kingdom at the edge of the land, only to find that everything is even more different than she had thought. And while the group earns itself some success, their journey is really just beginning, as is their battle.

Find it in the Catalog