This book is a perfect fit for young readers who are dabbling into chapter books.

I’m just going to come right out and say it. Habils: The Aura Seed is probably the ‘The Hobbit’ of this generation. That is, if enough kids get a chance to read it. As a massive Tolkien fan, I feel that Lord of the Rings is cemented into the minds of every adult male with a beating heart. The one downside to such a perfect series is that it’s not really designed for children.

I tried reading The Hobbit to my son and daughter when they were 11 and 8 respectively, and they would fall asleep after just a few minutes. It’s just not set up to be good reading for children and that’s not to say it’s a problem. It certain isn’t. But if you love the message and feeling of the Tolkien universe, then this new book from E. K. Mikulski is the perfect match for your kids.

My family received a free copy of the book through Good Reads and straight away, it was an interesting experience. In the package, there was an envelop with a cryptic message on it, and a small burlap bag with a white lava rock inside. The tag on the bag says ‘Keep it safe’. Anyone getting the Tolkien vibes yet?

Since we knew we would probably be doing a review, I handed to book to my daughter and asked her to read it. It took maybe a week to finally get her to sit down and read it, but she read plopped down onto the couch and consumed it all in one sitting. Her exact expression after finishing was “You need to read this to [my sons name] tonight”.

So that’s just what I did. It took a few days of night-time reading, but the cliffhangers in some of these chapters kept us reading well-past his bedtime.

Both of my kids loved this book, and you know what, I love it too. It clearly takes a fair amount of inspiration from Tolkien, but not excessively. In fact, it feels like a blend of Lord of the Rings and the Fantastic Beasts series. The writing beautifully draws you into the characters and makes you feel like you are on a journey with them. Most importantly, you can tell this book was designed for younger readers, and there was very little confusion from my 8-year-old.

We very much look forward to the next book in the series.

The book is available on the authors website and on Amazon starting on March 1st. However, if you send them an email, you can probably get an advanced copy.