The Land of Elyon
The Land of Elyon series by Patrick Carman.
I chose to borrow these three books because I fell in love with the cover art. The pictures on the covers are beautiful, gorgeous. I eventually discovered that these beautiful pieces were created by Brad Weinman Actually, it was the style of font on the spines that caught my eye first and when I pulled them off the shelf and saw the covers, well, I just couldn’t help myself I HAD to borrow them! This was while the boys were gathering a multitude of books for themselves (especially Garfield comics) at our local library. I was of course, in the kids section of the library, so, no surprises here, but the ‘Land of Elyon’ books are actually written for kids - upper primary through to lower high school (junior or middle school if you’re not in Australia - I think), however, as an adult reading these books, I gotta say, I really, really enjoyed them. I mean, I REALLY enjoyed them. And I also gotta say, hubbie enjoyed them too.
And Brydon, well, Brydon loved them. He’s even given them a rating at the end of this post 
Now just a quick note about our ratings - we are NOT bonafide book critics or anything, we are just people who enjoy reading - we are well known at our local library and mobile library, first name basis in fact! So we decided to sometimes write posts about some of the books we’ve read just because we want to. So the rating at the end, well, the rating is our opinion. And just because we liked it, or didn’t like it, doesn’t really mean anything, you’ll have to read them yourself to make up your own mind. There are some “bad” books out there, but as a general rule, if they’re bad, I don’t bother finishing them. I used to, but I just don’t have time to read stuff I’m not enjoying. Heck, I don’t have time to read good stuff, but I do
I started reading ‘The Dark Hills Divide’ to Brydon (he’s 7 1/2) but I wasn’t reading chapters fast enough, he waited a few days, but one chapter a day was just too slow, so he tried going solo and finished the book in a couple of days. I think it took him a week to read all three and he can’t wait for the next one!
I have to say, I was kind of disappointed, I have always enjoyed sitting with my kids and reading stories to them and I was looking forward to reading these books to him, sitting with him enjoying the story together… instead he read them on his own… I guess you’d call it a ‘bittersweet’ moment - I was disappointed that I didn’t get to read them to him, but I am so wrapped that he was able to read them, his first novels.
Brydon loved ‘The Land of Elyon’ books and wants to own them, so I expect some time in the future these Patrick Carman books will find a home on our shelves. Brydon was also excited to discover that the next Alexa adventure will be out this September, that’s only a month away! He talked to us about Alexa’s adventures for weeks after he’d finished and just recently, when he needed to create a user name for something, he wanted to be Alexa until he realised that other people would think he was a girl, so then he went for Darius, another character in the first book.
Now, I’m NOT going to tell you much about the books themselves, because I don’t want to spoil them for you. But if you enjoy adventure, mystery and magic, then I think there’s a pretty good chance that you’ll enjoy these books. I can tell you what they didn’t have though - there was no romance stuff, or sex, or drugs and the characters didn’t have foul mouths either, which I enjoyed the absence of.
What Patrick Carman himself has to say about these books is: “The Land of Elyon is largely about finding your place in the world, overcoming fear, and not reading a book by its cover.” I must say, I smile at the last bit ‘not reading a book by its cover’ considering I chose to read these books based solely on their covers! I also have to say that ‘The Tenth City’ has one of the best descriptions of ‘what Heaven might be like’, that I’ve come across.
In book 1, ‘The Dark Hills Divide’ we meet Alexa Daley, the hero of the story, a short, skinny 12 year old who is trying to find a way out of the walled city she has lived in all her life. And this book is that adventure.
Book 2, ‘Beyond the Valley of Thorns’ takes place a year later when Alexa meets up with some old friends, some new ones and sets out on another adventure which actually ends up spanning two books, ending in ‘The Tenth City’. So I’ll give you one piece of advice, when you are reading ‘Beyond the Valley of Thorns’ make sure you have ‘The Tenth City’ as well or you’re going to be mighty frustrated.
Book 3, ‘The Tenth City’ is the conclusion of the adventure begun in ‘Beyond the Valley of Thorns’. And we finish this book knowing that Alexa and friends are about to set off on yet another adventure which, fortunately for us, will be released in September 2008. Brydon’s hanging out! (so am I!)
And we have discovered there is also a prequel to the Land of Elyon called ‘Into The Mist’ which we haven’t read yet, but we will.
Brydon’s Ratings: ‘The Dark Hills Divide’ 10 stars, ‘Beyond the Valley of Thorns’ 9 1/2 stars & ‘The Tenth City’ 9 1/2 stars
And my opinion? I thought they were great. I really, really liked them! A pleasure to read sweeping me off into the Land of Elyon and lots of adventure.
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