Land of Elyon Review

I recently came across a Trilogy of books written for young adults by Patrick Carmen about a place called the Land of Elyon. Now I know that Elyon is one of the names of God, so I did some research on the author to see if he was considered a Christian author. I was curious as to whether these would be good books for me to read to my children and/or for them to read as they get older.

Based on what I could find about the author, I was not able to confirm that he is considered a Christian youg adult ficition writer or that he had/has any intention of tying God into these books. However, not long after I heard about them a neighbor was giving away some books and I noticed the first one in the series, so I grabbed it.

Book one is called - The Dark Hills Divide. I'm not going to give much away except to say that these books are worth taking a look at, and I would consider them along the lines of the Narnia series. Fantasy fiction. I decided they have some parts that might be a bit dark for my 7 year old daughter but I would be willing to read them to her and have her read them as she gets older. They would definitely be good conversation starters for us and Patrick Carmen is a very talented writer.

Whether he intends these to be books to teach our children about God or not, there are definitely underlying themes that as a parent you can use to talk to your children about the truths of God. The author definitely has some kind of religious Christian background and has drawn on that for these books.

After I read the first book I borrowed the next two from the library (Beyond the Valley of Thorns and The Tenth City). These had even more underlying themes that encouraged me. While looking for a picture to include with this post I noticed two more books regarding the Land of Elyon which Mr Carman has now written. One tells the tale of two of the characters in the other books, it is basically a prequel. The other is futher adventures of Alexa, the main character in the books.

So if you are looking for some good books that would be a quick read for you and/or a good read for your children, I recommend taking a look at these books.