I think after the Wingfeather Saga (and for my son, The Hobbit), my kids would rate The Green Ember by S.D. Smith as one of their favorite read-alouds. The story is a great combination of action, mystery, and character development.
In The Green Ember, rabbit siblings Heather and Picket are separated from their family and swept into events much larger than themselves. Not only must they learn their connection to this dangerous new world, they must also work through their own fears and insecurities in the process. This book will make your kids laugh, think, and cheer.
But don’t take my word for it. The Green Ember was a finalist for World Magazine’s Children’s Book of the Year in 2015. It’s an Amazon best seller with over 400 reviews (90% of them five-stars). The audiobook, narrated by Joel Clarkson (yes, that’s Sally Clarkson’s son), was a finalist for Audible’s Kid’s Audiobook of the Year. Not to mention the fact that the author, S.D. Smith, is the founder of Story Warren, a website committed to supporting parents as they guide their children’s moral imaginations (I’ve written several articles for them).
And now, I’m excited to say, the sequel is on the horizon. And you have the chance to be a part of it! Until July 10, 2016, you can help fund the sequel, Ember Falls, on Kickstarter and get rewarded for it! They have all sorts of incentives including print, ebook, and audiobook editions of The Green Ember, The Blackstar of Kingston, and Ember Falls. [update: this project was sucessfully funded! Ember Falls is now available on Amazon.]
Whether you are looking for your next favorite read-aloud series or you want a book you can confidently hand to your 8-12-year-old reader, I encourage you to go check out these books.
Have you read The Green Ember?
I read The Green Ember as a read-aloud to my kids ages 6&8 at the time and I actually *didn’t* like it–as a read aloud. It’s practically a tongue twister as a read-aloud and I felt I was constantly tripping over myself with the amount of description. I really liked the book, but I would have rather waited until my kids were older, and passed it around. They really loved the story, though, and apparently didn’t notice my frustrations!
Hey Sarah, thanks for the input! My husband was actually the reader on this one, and he’s gotten through some tricky read-alouds (like The Hobbit). The language is very descriptive, and I think age 8 plus would probably be the ideal audience. Hope you’ll give the new book a chance now that your kids are older 🙂
Amazon currently has The Green Ember for Kindle for free!!! I am very excited to read this with my little ones!
Since you got the Kindle version, you should be able to get the Audible audiobook for $1.99! You don’t have to be an Audible member for this to work either. 🙂
You’ve named all of my favorite read-alouds in one post! We just finished Monster in the Hollows today and will start the Warden and the Wolf King tomorrow (and will probably finish it two months from now as it is huge!). We love the Wingfeathers! We really enjoyed The Green Ember tremendously but personally I think I enjoyed its prequel even more. I can’t wait to get Ember Falls come July!
Wow! It sounds like we have very similar tastes! 🙂 I’m definitely looking forward to Ember Falls as well as the Wingfeather Tales (although they won’t be written by Andrew Peterson).
I had never heard of this book, but it sounds like a great one! I’ll have to look into it for my grandchildren. 🙂 Thanks for sharing at #LMMLinkup!