Tag: Jasmine Richards

Review: Secrets of Valhalla

“Looking back, Buzz probably should have just owned up to the fact that he hadn’t written the blasted thing. Couldn’t be bothered to write it, because mythology was such a momentous waste of time.” page 14

Secrets of Valhalla by Jasmine Richards.
Harper, HarperCollins, New York, 2016.
MG fantasy, 312 pages + excerpt.
Lexile: 690L .
AR Level: 4.9 (worth 10.0 points) .

It’s yet another unpleasant Friday the 13th for Buzz, getting bullied by Theo, trying to hang out with his best friend Sam, and meeting a new kid, American Mary, thanks to his sister. But when Buzz and Mary find a famous missing weatherwoman magically tied to a tree in the woods, they tumble in to a Norse god adventure with portals and time loops, talking squirrels and ancient runes. Oh, and the end of their world as they know it, of course.

Secrets of Valhalla by Jasmine Richards.

There are some diverse MG fantasy books that have been on my radar for a while, but are just too new or old, either too far out of print for me to easily get, or so recently released that they are only available in hardcover and have a long list of library holds. If there’s one I haven’t even heard of, usually it’s not a good fit because neither the main characters nor the author are diverse or if they are, the book isn’t that great and I don’t feel comfortable recommending it.

So, when I discover a new-to-me series by a Black British author of diverse MG fantasy and get the first book and it’s perfectly written, I am beyond excited! Not only do I get to recommend Jasmine Richards to all of you, I also have two more books by her to read (and hopefully more if she continues to write).

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