(Perhaps he’s hidden a clue in his name.  Clever people often do that.)

I finished The Dark Hills Divide, book one of the Land of Elyon series by Patrick Carman, over the weekend.

I recommend it (middle reader fantasy), and I don’t want to talk about it too much because I don’t want to give any spoilers, but I do want to say that it’s an example of what I was talking about last week: the novelist creates a world that is broken.  Carman’s world has divided families, cities on the brink of war, a mystery at its foundation, and a builder of walls who might have made a terrible mistake.

Along comes our protagonist, who crosses into the fairy realm to find the elixir to heal the realm (a metaphor but, in this case, not so far from a literal description).

Read and enjoy and always be analyzing!

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