Amulet Book Two: The Stonekeeper’s Curse
Author: Kazi Kibuishi
Published September 1, 2009
Page Count: 224
Emily and Navin’s mother is still in dire trouble as the siblings and their Robot friends travel to the city of Kanalis to find a cure to her poison. The city is oppressed by the Elves and home to animal like inhabitants who have been cursed. While in Kanalis Emily and Navin team up with a new ally, join the Resistance, and stay on the run from the Elves who want them dead.
Reading Audience:
Middle School, possibly upper Elementary school. My nine and eleven year old are really enjoying it. Amazon has posted7 ages 8-11.
Stuff to be aware of:
This is a graphic novel so everything is not only read, it is also seen in photos. There is plenty of fighting and explosions. The Elves return, and one morphs into a larger version of itself which looks a bit creepy. One Elf beats up another one pretty bad, but no blood is shown. The pendant tries to get Emily to go too far (kind of like joining the Dark Side to do something that would be good) and kill her enemies, similar to how it spoke to her and tried to tempt her in the first book.
There is a field of humanoid skeletons. Some are Elves with pointy teeth. There are hundreds of skeletons because they all died poisonous trying to find a treasure (in this case a magic fruit). The Elves burn down a forest of sentient tree beings. Also, a bad guy falls off a cliff to his death.
No cursing or sexual stuff. One character does say, “how the heck we got here.”
Overall:
With the “origin story” out of the way the story the author wants to tell really starts to shine. I enjoyed this one more than the first book. There are several new characters introduced that I liked and they aren’t just randomly thrown into the story. They come into the story in a natural way and with purpose. Gone were some of the cliches and the world building continues in fun and interesting directions. The themes of family and teamwork are two aspects that really shine through in this one and make for good talking points with kids.
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