Welcome to my stop on the tour for Root Bound (Emma and the Elementals Volume 1) by Tanya Karen Gough. Root Bound is an upper Middle Grade fantasy adventure recommended for ages 10+. The tour is to run February 3-14 with reviews only. Be sure to check out all the details and the tour schedule on the tour page.
Root Bound is a fast-paced, action fantasy novel about a young girl finding her place in the world through a series of adventures involving magical creatures, and a journey to the centre of the earth. Root Bound is both a topsy-turvy riff on traditional literary children's fantasy and an allegorical coming-of-age tale.
Emma and her father, a jazz musician, are always on the move, travelling from place to place as her father’s work demands. Their new home, however, is different. There’s a frightening woman who lives down the hall: she bears an uncanny resemblance to a witch. A mysterious light comes from her apartment, and a small boy seems to be trapped inside.
School in this town is no happy place either, with an odd principal and a gang of girls who make tormenting Emma their special project. And strangest of all is the fact that there seem to be brownies - basement brownies, in the air vent in her bedroom. They are searching for the Wanderer, a powerful being who can help free the Crown Prince of Under from the black magic prison that holds him. Emma travels through the brownie burrow to the valley of Hades to visit with the goddess Ceres, following a series of clues that lead her across the sea of memory to the centre of the world. There, on an inhospitable rock floating in a sea of steaming lava, Emma must find a way to free the prince, release her mother from the sea of memory, and restore magic to both the brownie burrow and the human world above.
My Opinion:
Emma moves around a lot because of her father's job who is a musician. They move into their new home and Emma is glad to get her own room. There is something strange about her new home though. Emma feels that the building is alive and there's a creepy old lady that lives down the hall with a strange light coming out of her apartment. Emma's new school didn't make her feel any better though because she had bullies bothering as soon as she got there. Poor Emma! The action really begins when she meets basement brownies in the air vent. I loved the brownies they are my favorite part of the story. I loved Mat especially but they were all so funny.
I wanted to read this book because of the words "fast-paced, action fantasy" and "adventures involving magical creatures" in the book description. Since that's the type of books I am looking for lately I thought I would love Root Bound and I'm a little sad that I don't. It's a good story and I did like it but I just really wanted to love it. The beginning was a little slow for me but it gets better towards the middle and the ending is really good. I felt that there was too much description of little things that weren't so important and not enough action. I wanted to skip over to the action! Also I wanted to know more about the prince and if the prince (and the brownies of course) is in the second book I will definitely want to read that book too. I give Root Bound 3 stars.
About the Author:
Tanya Karen Gough owned and published The Poor Yorick Shakespeare Catalogue from 1997-2007, earning a strong international customer base of world class academics and high school educators.
Tanya was also a contributing editor for the Internet Shakespeare Editions at the University of Victoria (BC), audio advisor for the Sourcebooks Shakespeare textbook series, and theatre reviewer for Playshakespeare.com. Tanya grew up in New Hampshire and currently lives in Toronto, Ontario.
Author Links:
$25 gift card to bookstore of choice, or $25 in books from TBD. Open worldwide.
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This tour was organized by CBB Book Promotions
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Thanks for giving this one a try and reviewing it on the tour!
ReplyDeletegreat giveaway love the books thanks
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