Harper and the Night Forest

My granddaughter lived this book so very pleased with the purchase.

Can't recommend this series enough - especially for little girls. An original story, wonderful characters and lots of magic and music.

Great

6 yr old loved this series of books

I averaged my scores for this book to achieve four stars. During the first third, I thought this would be a 2- to 3-star review. From there until the final plot point, it was a solid 5 stars. The ending was 3 stars.I'll start by saying that this is the third in a series, and it really throws readers into the deep end with its characters, plot, and unique laws of nature. Nothing made sense for a while for that reason. Although it's meant to be read after the first two, a truly excellent middle-grade book will make each book a little more accessible to new readers than this was.During the first third, my 8-year-old son and I found the book far too fanciful to enjoy--and we love science fiction, fantasy, and creative middle-grade books. It all felt like the author had asked children for ideas and then woven them all into one scattered story, to be honest. But then the book found its core as Harper and her friends got into the night forest. The flights of fancy made sense within the world Burnell constructed. We stopped noticing the strangeness of its approach to nature's laws and my son stopped asking how to make sense of the plot twists. We fell into the story and looked forward to reading it every night. We felt like we understood who the characters were, how they operated, and how they interacted with the book's world. In the final twist, however, it again felt like it had flown off into something too far from our reality and its own.This felt different to us than how a story can start confusing and then come together. The book lacked an anchor until it suddenly had one.All of that said, we may get other Harper books because it's so hard to find books for my son's age/emotional level that are gripping enough and do justice to his level of maturity without being too much for him.