The Hamelin Stoop Series (first two books) -- my REVIEW

Do you enjoy reading? Do your childen? My teenagers often enjoy reading books within the fantasy genre, so we were interested to check out this new series for middle schoolers/high schoolers called The Hamelin Stoop Series.  We had the opportunity to read the first two books in this series by Robert B. Sloan, entitled The Eagle, The Cave, and the Footbridge (book 1) and The Lost Princess and the Jewel of Periluna  (book 2).  These are published by a company called 12 Gates Publishing.

The books are definitely a fantasy series (as you can guess by the front cover view!), focusing on a boy, Hamelin, who was abandoned shortly after birth (the story behind that is also explained) and who grows up in a children's home.  He does not know about his parentage, but the reader does!  Throughout the first two books he grows up to seven years old  and then to the age of eleven.  He has a fairly normal seeming childhood until he encounters a large eagle who speaks to him and takes him on a journey.  He is frightened and kind of fails at the challenge that the eagle presents him.  He struggles with his failures and feels a pull to right them.  He tries to on his own, but is told that the time is not right.  He is given another chance and -- (I'm not going to tell you, okay??) :) :) 

I really struggle with book reviews--wanting to tell you the plot and what happens--but that would spoil the story!!  So suffice it to say that the books are full of details, struggles, successes, growth, friendship, betrayal, magical things, creatures, and more!  

The books are nicely-written--they hold the reader's attention, though for me they were not the type of book to make me stay up late at night to just finish the next chapter.  They are clean in the sense that they do not contain profanity (well, there was an Oh my God) but they are also clean as far as topics that might be considered inappropriate by some parents for their preteens/teens.  

The writing is easy to follow, chronological. It is a little confusing/mixed up because it is set in a real-life year and a real-life location (in Texas) -- though some of the times are not real and some of the locations are completely fantastical.  I think that the reader should just focus on the fantasy aspect and not try to pinpoint the setting in time or place.  

I will admit that I am not usually a fan of fantasy, but I did not mind reading these books.  

I think that my biggest issues with these books are things like the first half (at least) of the first book is basically background information.  Book one ends without really feeling like an ending--it just is a huge cliffhanger, I guess--but really has no resolution. Book two jumps right in (I think it would be hard to read book two without having read book one) and, like book one, has no real resolution (there are two mini-resolutions, but not the "big" one).  I imagine that the author is writing a third book which will perhaps clean all of this up.  I tend to not like this type of writing--I'd rather they just be bound together in one large book.  Just my preference, that's all :) 

So...to sum up...it's a fantasy series for preteens/teens--a little intense in the beginning, cliffhangers at the end...but good writing, interesting, non-offensive.

If you would like to read what others have written about the first two books in The Hamelin Stoop Series, please click on the link below!