Synopsis:

In Casseomae's world, the wolves rule the Forest, and the Forest is everywhere. The animals tell stories of the Skinless Ones, whose cities and roads once covered the earth, but the Skinless disappeared long ago. Casseomae is content to live alone, apart from the other bears in her tribe, until one of the ancients' sky vehicles crashes to the ground, and from it emerges a Skinless One, a child. Rather than turn him over to the wolves, Casseomae chooses to protect this human cub, to find someplace safe for him to live. But where among the animals will a human child be safe? And is Casseomae threatening the safety of the Forest and all its tribes by protecting him?

My Thoughts: My Thoughts: I'm not going to lie, I'm actually a tiny bit surprised at how much I liked this book. I happen to love books that are from animals points of views, they're just fun to read. Since this is a Middle Grade novel it's a nice, quick read, but very enjoyable!

I think what I like most about this story is that it brings together four of the most unlikely companions for a journey to take the child, that fell out of the sky, some where safe so that he won't be hunted by the wolves and killed for what he is. I'm not sure what happened to the humans, but it seems there are a lot of stories circulating throughout the animal kingdom about what happened to them. The main one being that the wolves all banded together to wipe them out, and for that reason, wolves are in charge.

My favorite character in this novel would have to be Casseomae. Even though she realized what the child was, she still recognized him as a child, therefore wanted to keep him safe. She is a very unfortunate bear, who has had multiple stillborn litters. I can't help but feel bad for her, but she still has a great maternal instinct. So she saves the child and they head off on a journey with a rat named Dumpster (a very noble rat name) to take the child somewhere safe.

This was a very futuristic Jungle Book story, based in a dystopian future, so it really had two things going for it. Talking animals and dystopian. How could I not like it? It had a lot of action and wasn't slow for me at any point. I would definitely recommend this novel to anyone, I'd think it would be enjoyable for any age group, and if you are an animal lover who loves dystopians, so much the better.

Thank you to Random House Children's Books for giving me the opportunity to review this novel!

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Friday, May 25, 2012

Review: The Prince Who Fell from the Sky by John Claude Bemis

Synopsis: