Happy Booker

As soon as I opened this package and saw this fantastic cover, I knew that Blood Guard was a book for my 12 year old son, Damian. And I was right, he LOVED it! So much so that he’s already loaned it to his friend to read and he's recommended it to his middle school librarian as something he’d like to see on the NC Battle of the Books list next year. He was a little unsure about how to put together a review so I made him a kind of worksheet or template with questions for him to answer. He did a great job! 

Goodreads Summary:

When thirteen-year-old Ronan Truelove's seemingly ordinary mom snatches him from school, then sets off on a high speed car chase, Ronan is shocked. His quiet, nerdy dad has been kidnapped? And the kidnappers are after him, too? His mom, he quickly learns, is anything but ordinary. In fact, she's a member of an ancient order of knights, the Blood Guard, a sword-wielding secret society sworn to protect the Pure—thirty-six noble souls whose safety is crucial if the world as we know it is to survive. Now all those after-school activities—gymnastics, judo, survival training—she made him take, make sense. For suddenly Ronan is swept up in a sometimes funny, sometimes scary, but always thrilling adventure—dashing from one danger to the next, using his wits to escape the Bend Sinister, a posse of evil doers with strange powers. Falling in with two unlikely companions, Greta, a scrappy, strong-willed girl he's never much liked and Jack, a devil-may-care teenage pickpocket, Ronan is left with only his wits and his mom's last words of advice: Trust no one. That's a lot for an ordinary kid to deal with. But then again, maybe Ronan's not ordinary at all

Damian’s review:

Blood Guard was wicked cool! It was full of action and adventure and plenty of surprises. The main characters were Ronan, Greta, and Dawkins. My favorite character was Dawkins because if you killed him, he would come back to life! How awesome is that? Ronan wants to become a Blood Guard so that he can help to protect the Pures but he has a hard time becoming part of that society. The Pures were special people who were super important to the world or could trigger major events.

The bad guys were trying to get rid of the Pures. They had this thing they could look through and tell if someone was Pure. The Blood Guards had something like that too so they knew who to protect. I was so mad at the bad guys but I can’t say why because it would be a spoiler.

I can’t think of any other books, TV shows, or movies that was anything like this. That’s one of the reasons I loved it so much, it wasn’t like anything else! The fantasy world is pretty much like our world but with a lot of things that our world don’t have. I wouldn’t want to live there but I wish I could have been there when the Blood Guard infiltrated the enemy base! I would have fought right beside them to protect the Pures!

I would definitely recommend Blood Guard to other people. This book was so good, I couldn’t put it down! I read it EVERYWHERE. I read it at home. I read it at school. I read it between classes while walking through the halls (and even ran into people or walls once or twice). I read it on the school bus, at breakfast and at lunch. I took this book with me everywhere I went until I finally finished it.

If I could say one thing to the author, I would say send me the next book already!! If I could say one thing to a parent thinking about buying this book I would say to get it. If your kid likes adventure and excitement, your kid will love Blood Guard! I keep trying to tell my mom to read it because I think she would like it too.