Badgers Book

2.0 stars. Now I admit upfront that YA fantasy is somewhat starting to lose its appeal to me, making me a harsher critic of what I think are weak efforts. At the same time, I still really enjoy the compelling, higher end stuff. Unfortunately, THIS A'INT IT!! YA is one thing, but I found this to be the "Y" est of YA fantasy books that I have read in quite a while. It was just too young.

Despite the fact that the book is fairly well written and decently paced, I found the plot itself to just be completely and unbelievably BORING:


Nothing new or fresh happened at all. This is your VERY standard, cookie-cutter "coming of age" heroic quest fantasy tale BUT with the amazingly original and novel twist of....are you ready for this....rather than human characters, the story is populated by MICE and other cute, mostly furry animals that just think and act human. WOW, what do you possibly say when confronted by such a mind-blowingly pedestrian concept? All I could think of was.....


It just lacked any sense of originality beyond trying to be a sweeter, kid-friendly adventure verson of "Animal Farm."

Now on the positive side, it is a fairly short book and I think that young children (or heavily medicated adults) may still enjoy it. Unfortunately, I am no longer able to be the former and did not have the foresight to be the latter as I read this book. Thus, I am left having to say that I do not think this is a story that will have you dancing in the streets.