The Wingfeather Saga Book Review

If this post seem familiar, or you’re curious as to why the video says “welcome to Kenna’s World,” it’s because I am switching my blog from kennahartian.com, to goodcleanreads.com. The first several posts are all going to be copied from there. 🙂

I choose to review this series because It seemed like it wasn’t as well known. I had read it when I was younger and was hesitant to read through it again. But I did, and oh man. This series has so much to it, which I didn’t notice when I was younger. It’s deep, and it’s rich. I highly recommend it. 

The Wingfeather Saga is a slightly whimsical fantasy written from a Christian worldview. As you read it, you can tell the author did a lot of world-building. He did a very good job with character-building, as well. 

The first book in this series is On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness, the second North! Or Be Eaten…, the third, The Monster in the Hollows, and the forth, The Warden and the Wolf King. Their author is Andrew Peterson. If the name sounds familiar, it might be because Peterson is a musician and has written several songs. 

The story centers around the Igby children: Janner, Kalmar (Tink), and Leeli. I can’t tell you much more than that for fear of spoiling the story! 

Content Concerns:

Content-wise, it’s fairly clean, but here are a few things to note: there are a couple of jokes about passing gas and things like that. There is some boy-girl stuff and a couple mentions of pipe-smoking. Also, there is some violence and some parts are creepy. The villain in the story has figured out how to meld humans with creatures to create his minions, the Fangs of Dang. That part was disturbing. It also talks about two kinds of magic, one is the Makers magic, and the other is evil (at least that’s how I understood it). There is also one use of the d-word as “***ming,” or, to mean condemning. 

The last book is where you really notice a difference – the characters are more mature and the story takes a dark twist before spilling back into the light. In this book, you learn the backstory of the villains. One of them is kind of disturbing and without spoiling too much, the villain fell in love with the same girl as one of his friends. His friend got her, and this villain never let on that he still loved her, but he did his best to always be near her. One day the queen had a baby and he was pacing outside of the room when he heard a cry, so he rushed in. The story ends with him kidnapping one of her children It’s a sickening story, and, I feel, out of place in this series. It also mentions that there was a lot of blood surrounding the queen. 

Finally:

The Wingfeather Saga is a delightful series, and if you want to get the most out of reading it, read it when you are in High-school or above. I first read the series when I was in middle school, and I didn’t notice much of what I noted in the content section. My little brother just read through the series (he is in 5th grade) and he thoroughly enjoyed it (and most of the stuff flew right over his head). 

The series is humorous, suspenseful, and delightful, with colorful characters and amusing creatures (toothy cows! Bomnubles! Woe!) and I think it would make a great read-aloud for families. 

Let me know if you read it!

Affiliate Book Links:

On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness,
North! Or Be Eaten…,
The Monster in the Hollows,
The Warden and the Wolf King

Andrew Peterson also sell: 

The Wingfeather Saga Short Film,
Wingfeather Tales (which is written by authors of the Rabbit Room and edited by Andrew Peterson) 
Pembrick’s Creaturepedia