We were approached to see if H would like to review Guardians of the Scroll, the second book in The Palace Library series – a new series of books for us. Described as ‘The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe meets Tolkien’ I knew it might be something H would like – so decided to give it a go!
Guardians of the Scroll by Steven Loveridge was published in paperback on the 21st January 2016 – and is described as being ‘perfect for 8-12 year olds’. Now, H is only six – but she loves reading. She reads books way too advanced for her and doesn’t struggle. At the moment she’s mid-way through ‘Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix’ while simultaneously reading the other three Harry Potter books. She loves ‘The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe’ so we thought it was worth trying.
So what’s the plot? Well, The Palace Library is an extraordinary library in an old house. It has magical books inside, and when three children (Harry, Eleanor and Grace) stumble upon it, they head through a door (with an enchanting deerhound) into a world in the past. Within that world they have to unlock secrets in the books as they face storms, fight traitors and tackle dragons.
Guardians of the Scroll is the second book in the series, and we meet Harry, Eleanor and Grace again. This time they’re thrown back in time again and have to protect a dangerous and magical manuscript. Only the power of the scroll can control the savage creatures of The Nether World. The children battle monsters and face fire to wrestle the scroll from Caesar and Cleopatra (interesting!). Just as they find success a new evil comes to steal it away – the children are left with the Library of Alexandria all around them, so how do they escape?
H really enjoyed both books – and I mean REALLY enjoyed. She is still young, but I found that Guardians of the Scroll sits well alongside the books she chooses to read at the moment. I really like that the theme within the books is about the power of reading, libraries and how important great books are.
Both books are around the 200 page mark, and were straightforward reads. Genre-wise, I’d put this under Children’s Fantasy, and as I said at the start, it does sit well alongside Harry Potter, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and Tolkien books (we’re not quite there on the latter yet!).
They get a big thumbs up from H!
Steven Loveridge’s website is over here, and you can follow him on Facebook and Twitter too.
Guardians of the Scroll can be bought here
We were sent The Palace Library and Guardians of the Scroll for the purpose of review. All opinions are our own.