Forest Born

Reader: Megan W
Age: 16
Title: Forest Born
Author: Shannon Hale
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Pub Date: 09/15/09
Galley: Yes
Nominate for Teens' Top10: Yes
Did the cover reflect the contents: The cover, with its beautiful hues of purple, caught my eye right away, and when I saw that it was another Shannon Hale novel, I greedily snatched it up. Unfortunatley, I was a bit upset with the cover. I myself am a huge fan of the original covers of her previous books in the series, such as Goose Girl, or Enna Burning. Those covers were so pretty with their old china-looking pictures. While this cover is beautiful too, I couldn't help but be a bit disappointed that it was in a different style.
Recommend: Yes. This book is technically the fourth in the Books of Bayern, but you don't need to read the first 3 to understand this book. It follows the story of Rin, the little sister of a previous character in the third book. She has a very hard time finding herself and who she is, and she's always been known as her Ma's shadow. She goes to the big city with her brother hoping to find the missing part of herself. Along the way she runs into previous characters and together, they try to put down a resistance from a neighboring country.
Compelling Aspect of the Book: For me, my favorite part was how Shannon Hale incorporated previous characters into this book as well. Forest Born really starts when there is rumor of war in a neighboring country. Feeling she can help, Rin tags along with Isi, Dasha and Enna (all characters from books past) It was compelling and addicting and I couldn't put it down. Did you finish: Yes
Comments: Even with my end-of-the-year homework, I managed to gobble this book up in 2 days. I couldn't put it down. I even jokingly (Well, mostly jokingly) told my friends that I wouldn't do my homework until the book was done because I
wouldn't be able to concentrate otherwise. Throughout the entire book I was entertained with the beautiful world that Shannon Hale has created. She's done it again; this book was simply fantastic.
Age Range 3: 14-15
Quality: 5Q Hard to imagine a better book
Popularity: 5P Everyone wants to read it
Annotation: "This is a heart-warming tale of friendship,
love, war, and, most importantly, finding who you are inside yourself."