My oldest has become a voracious reader over the past few years, so when we were sent the first 2 books of The Hamelin Stoop Series by 12 Gates Publishing, she was ready to get started. The book titles are Hamelin Stoop: The Eagle, The Cave, and the Footbridge (Book 1) and Hamelin Stoop: The Lost Princess and the Jewel of Periluna (Book 2). They are both written by author Robert B. Sloan.
Each one we received was as softcover chapter book with right around 300 pages each with no illustrations. My daughter suggests the age range for the books to be for children aged 9 or 10 up through adults to enjoy the stories. I think that is probably a good range as well, especially if your child gets engrossed in books.
For a read aloud, you could probably go a little bit younger. My daughter did note that in the first book, some people pretended to throw a baby over a cliff, so there is a minor amount of content that might be disturbing to some kids, but overall would work for the whole family with a little bit of discussion about the content.
In the first book, Hamelin Stoop’s parents were kidnapped. He was supposed to be, but he was not and was put in a children’s home. He had an encounter with a big eagle who told him to cross a footbridge when he was 8. He was too scared to do it at the time, but three years later, he was approached again and was brave enough and ready to do it. The eagle told him to cross the footbridge to rescue some people, which Hamelin felt would also include his parents. (Spoiler alert: It did!)
My daughter has just now gotten into the second book, but it continues where the first one left off. It takes place after he has crossed the footbridge. She has read to the part where Hamelin Stoop goes through the Waters of Death and Life with the eagle. She is looking forward to his other adventures in the book! According to the back of the book, he will have many quests, will need to help some friends find a kidnapped princess, must recover a stolen jewel, and more.
My daughter chose to Hamelin Stoop during her personal reading time that I assign each of my kids each school day. Grace thought these would also make good selections as a literature book, which is another type of reading I assign the kids each day. To be considered as a literature selection, it has to be well-written and not fluff, so that’s high praise from her about the quality of Sloan’s series.
My daughter said that the books are a fairly easy read (without a lot of difficult-to-understand words). It is fun to follow along with the story. This is a genre she doesn’t often pick on her own, but fantasy fiction seems to be growing on her! She says that the series is a good one for boys and girls alike.
If your young reader enjoys fantasy books with quests and challenges with a lead character who is similar in age to themselves, grab a copy of the books from The Hamelin Stoop Series for them! They would be perfect for summer reading. You can buy them individually, or you can save a little bit of money by buying the two available books as a bundle.
If you’d like to use these as a book club or co-op selection, you can contact the publisher about purchasing larger quantities as well.
A third book is coming, and I know we’ll be purchasing it when it does! My oldest son is next in line to read these, so we’ll have to keep up as the newest books get published.
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