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.
I was pleasantly surprised by this book. I went into it, not expecting to become so engaged with the story and the characters. I read this all in one sitting and look forward to sharing it with my daughter. This will be our next read-a-chapter-a-night-before-bed book!
The story starts out with a girl that travels a lot with her musician father. She is lonely and not thrilled with having to go through the whole first day at school thing again. It doesn't help that this is one of those schools that have the snotty bunch of girls that like to make life miserable for everyone. To make matters worse, there is a strange old lady living on the same floor as them that intimidates both her and her dad, the building seems to be alive at times, and were those eyes peeking at her through the vent cover? The next thing you know, she is on an adventure involving basement brownies, witches, gorgons, and much more!
I enjoyed this story from the first page to the last. The ending was slightly abrupt with a little bit of a surprise. It nicely leads to another book in the series. I will look forward to reading more about Emma, her father, and her new friends, the basement brownies! The characters are all fun, the story has nice action to it, and the descriptions are wonderful.
I recommend this to anyone that enjoys a fun story with some magic, some action, some humor, and a lot of good writing. It is great for just about any age, though it is for middle graders or around that age.
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.
The story starts out with a girl that travels a lot with her musician father. She is lonely and not thrilled with having to go through the whole first day at school thing again. It doesn't help that this is one of those schools that have the snotty bunch of girls that like to make life miserable for everyone. To make matters worse, there is a strange old lady living on the same floor as them that intimidates both her and her dad, the building seems to be alive at times, and were those eyes peeking at her through the vent cover? The next thing you know, she is on an adventure involving basement brownies, witches, gorgons, and much more!
I enjoyed this story from the first page to the last. The ending was slightly abrupt with a little bit of a surprise. It nicely leads to another book in the series. I will look forward to reading more about Emma, her father, and her new friends, the basement brownies! The characters are all fun, the story has nice action to it, and the descriptions are wonderful.
I recommend this to anyone that enjoys a fun story with some magic, some action, some humor, and a lot of good writing. It is great for just about any age, though it is for middle graders or around that age.
About the Author:
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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Read terms and conditions before entering giveaway.
This tour was organized by CBB Book Promotions
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Disclosure: I received a free copy of the ebook in exchange for my honest, unbiased review. All opinions are my own and were in no way influenced. I was not required to leave a positive review.
I'm so glad you enjoyed this one too! Thanks so much for hosting a tour stop and sharing your thoughts!
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