by John Flanagan
ages: 10+
First sentence: “Morgorath, Lord of the Mountains of Rain and Night, former Baron of Gorlan in the Kingdom of Araluen, looked over his bleak, rainswept domain and, for perhaps the thousandth time, cursed.”

After C and I abandoned our last book, we were fishing around for something to read next. M, being the promoter of All Books She Loves, began pushing for us to start the series. I admit that I had little interest in beginning it, even with the buzz it gets, and M’s high recommendation, but she piqued C’s interest, and so Ranger’s Apprentice it was.

Will is one of Baron Arald’s wards living in the Castle Redmont. He doesn’t quite fit in with his other wardmates — Horace, Alyss, Jenny and George: he’s the smallest, he’s the least sure of his future, and (probably most importantly), he doesn’t have any idea who his parents are. (The other ones, although they are orphans, have some knowledge of where they came from.) All Will is really good at is climbing, sneaking and pilfering… not exactly things that are conducive to one of the apprenticeships in the village.

So, when the wards turn 15, and are set to be apprenticed out to the various Craftmasters, Will has no idea where he belongs. That is, until a mysterious Ranger — the super seceret guardians of the Kingdom — decides that he wants an apprentice, and that Will is it.

The beginning of the book — the choosing and training of Will with his master Halt — is actually pretty slow. C would often complain that nothing was going on. Still, we both liked Flannagan’s writing, and his detailed descriptions. That, and the story would switch back and forth between Hoarce (whose training at the battle school was really quite torturous) and Will, which kept us entertained, even if C wanted to know what was going on with Alyss and Jenny. My complaint was that for a Middle Grade book, most of the action, decisions, and plot advancements were being done by someone other than Will or Halt, and I was starting to get in a snit about that. Why bother writing a children’s book where the children aren’t even the protagonists?

But, then, the action picked up. Granted, we had to wait until the final quarter of the book (but then, it’s the first in a series, so maybe the other books won’t be so slow in starting), but we both finally got our wishes (almost): the action picked up and Will did something major. (The only thing that we didn’t get was more on Alyss and Jenny…. but M assures us that they show up in later books.) It was very intense and exciting; we couldn’t wait to get to reading those nights.

And, we’re excited to move on to the next book, which says a whole lot. At least we won’t have to wonder what we’re reading next. For a while, at least.