Wild about The League of Seven

One of the best experiences as a book loving mom is to watch your child go absolutely crazy for a new book. There have been many books that J has devoured in the past – Harry Potter, Land of Stories, and The School for Good and Evil to name just a few. But we have typically stayed in the same general genres. When we first got the Battle of the Books list for the upcoming year, we decided to purchase a few of the titles that sounded exceptionally good. One of books was The League of Seven, by Alan Gratz.

This book is the start of a Science-Fiction trilogy set in an alternate 1875 American reality. As the summary explains, “electricity is forbidden, Native Americans and Yankees are united, and eldritch evil lurks in the shadows. Young Archie Dent knows there really are monsters in the world. His parents are members of the Septemberist Society, whose job it is to protect humanity from hideous giants called the Mangleborn. Trapped in underground prisons for a thousand years, the giant monsters have been all but forgotten―but now they are rising again as the steam-driven America of 1875 rediscovers electricity, the lifeblood of the Mangleborn. When his parents and the rest of the Septemberists are brainwashed by one of the evil creatures, Archie must assemble a team of seven young heroes to save the world.”

I read the book first when we were on vacation at the end of March. I enjoyed it, didn’t swoon over it, and was actually a tad concerned how J was going to respond to it. I shouldn’t have worried. She inhaled it! I think this was her first real taste of science-fiction and she fully enjoyed it. The book takes real characters like Thomas Edison and makes him into the evil genius who is trying to restore electricity to the world in order to bring back the Mangleborn. I think what truly enticed her were three young heroes with various strengths and weaknesses coming together to save the world. She was especially drawn to the main character of Archie Dent and went crazy when he disappeared for two chapters. While I was good only reading one book, she immediately wanted us to purchase book 2.

There were lots of pieces that went over her head, but that made it even more appealing for the grownups reading along. I especially laughed at the whole scene of people physically hacking the pneumatic mail tubes (p-mail) and talking about the fact that people seemed to really respond to silly requests for money from made up princes in foreign lands. It was also great to see how the three saviors grew into their roles and learned large amounts by finally having friends and a purpose that was bigger than themselves.

The Battle of the Books competition has some issues in terms of the types of questions they ask and how schools choose to approach the process, but the fact that it gives a list of books that challenge young readers to test out different styles of writing is outstanding. This is a book I highly doubt J would have ever picked up, and now she has been shown a whole new genre that she can consider.