This young adult book is aimed at those who enjoy fantasy and
online gaming. Fall through a hole and emerge in an
alternate world, full of monsters, forest dwelling people
and magic treasure...
Charlie Blake is a troubled orphan living in an orphanage
in London. Finally he thinks he has a real chance when
Jacob, a funeral director, takes him on and brings him to
quiet Sussex. However Charlie's nightmares keep occurring
and the only good thing about the new school he attends is
that he makes a friend, a girl called Alex. Charlie can't
resist exploring and first he finds a stash of jewels
around Jacob's house, then he finds that his sinister
guardian is not coming by his wealth honestly.
Alex is unconvinced by Charlie's tales so he takes her out
by night and shows her the woods where a homeless boy is
living in a shack. Richmond, the resourceful boy, is irate
to discover that a strange man is now hiding in the shack
too. This man, Derkin, appears to age very quickly and
gives the youngsters a jeweled talisman which enables them
to find the alternate world of Arcadia. They fall through a
hole to a world of caverns, forests, lakes - and fearsome
creatures like dinosaurs and werewolves.
Fighting off predators and running for their lives, the
adventurers then get tangled in traps set by the local
forest dwellers, the Arcadians. The talisman is very
important to these people and the young adventurers take on
a new responsibility. Just as importantly, Charlie
discovers that for weeks now he has not been sunk in
depressing thoughts about his dead parents, he has been so
busy thinking of his new friends and survival.
THE TALISMAN OF EL is a good lesson that friendship will
help young
people to survive better than loneliness. Some of the
sequences are very exciting but others are not
suitable for the nervous as they tend to horror. The
woodlands of both worlds are well described and the peril
feels very real at times. Alecia Stone has put a great deal
of work into bringing her world to life and making us care
about her young characters, who grow individually and as a
team during the book.
WHAT IF YOUR WHOLE LIFE WAS A LIE?
One Planet.
Two Worlds.
Population: Human ... 7 billion.
Others ... unknown.
When 14-year-old Charlie Blake wakes up sweating and
gasping for air in the middle of the night, he knows it is
happening again. This time he witnesses a brutal
murder. He's afraid to tell anyone. No one would believe
him ... because it was a dream. Just like the one he had
four years ago - the day before his dad died.
Charlie doesn't know why this is happening. He would give
anything to have an ordinary life. The problem: he
doesn't belong in the world he knows as home.
He belongs with the others.
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