Courage in the Forest

You kids are not allowed to go into the woods under any circumstances.

When I moved to Connecticut, I had no idea the mysterious and exciting things that had happened just an hour’s drive away from my new home.

Well...in this case when I say “happened” I’m referring to the things you experience when opening up a novel and traveling inside. You feel like you’ve been there - that you’ve lived the things you’ve read as though they really happened.

And so, in this way, reading the fiction novel Fablehaven for the first time years ago took me deep into the forests of Connecticut...long before I ever met my husband who actually grew up there! And it wasn't until reading it again after moving to Connecticut that I realized the author had set the whole story near Lyme - just an hour's drive from what I now called home.

Some books are best read at certain times, and summer has turned out to be the best time to re-read Fablehaven (for the third time in my life)!

This magical experience of Fablehaven by Brandon Mull takes place in the forests of Connecticut during the summer vacation of Kendra and Seth, a brother and sister duo from New York. Young Kendra and Seth are reluctantly taken on as visitors (without their parents) by their grandparents whom they barely know (and aren’t even sure that they like).

Their arrival at their grandparents’ home in the middle of a forest is just as strange and mysterious as you might imagine it to be. It’s isolated and there are warning signs (literally) the whole way there.

When they arrive, there is a short drop-off by their parents and a welcome from their grandpa that is anything but welcoming...not to mention the strange fact that their grandma is nowhere to be found, and discussions about her are quickly dismissed.

What seems to be a long, boring stay ends up taking a strange and mysterious turn. This home and the surrounding forest is shrouded in secrets...and has much more going on than meets-the-eye.

Rules are established. 

Rules are broken. 

Mayhem and fantastical beings are awakened as ancient treaties are broken. As a battle between good, evil, and everything in between becomes a frightening reality, Kendra and Seth are forced to put aside petty sibling rivalries in order to simply survive.

Things become increasingly dangerous, desperate, and ultimately hopeless as their worst fears are about to be realized.

And then, courage and hope arise from an unexpected place. 

And it doesn't matter whether I've read it once or three times. The climax of this story culminates in a picture of such beautiful, divine empathy that it moves me to tears every time.

Fablehaven is a world of magic, and it will make you look at your own world with different eyes. It turns out that our own world has just as much magic in it as the magical forests in the pages of Fablehaven - if only you have the eyes to see it.

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Don't miss adding this amazing summer read to your book list! Fablehaven by Brandon Mull can be found here:

Fablehaven (Book One)
Fablehaven Complete Boxed Set (Yes, there are more in the series! But the first one is my favorite.)

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