I’d even say that students as young as fourth or fifth grade could enjoy this series. Give it to fans of Game of Thrones or Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings–it’s practically guaranteed they will return for the next book. I talked to a ninth grade boy at school about it this week, and he said he has read the entire series FOUR TIMES. It also seems that students who read the first book in this series ultimately go on to read them all. It’s clean (no profanity), it’s action-packed, it’s relatively short, and it’s got a great front cover (well, several different covers). What I love about this series is that I can recommend it to just about anybody. Though I recommend it frequently to my students, I had never actually read it myself.

The Ranger’s Apprentice series has been a popular choice in my libraries – particularly among boys – for nearly my entire career as a school librarian. My husband read the entire Ranger’s Apprentice series several years ago, and he still says this is his favorite YA fantasy series. Instead, Will is chosen to be apprentice to the mysterious Ranger Holt. On his Choosing Day, Will hopes to be accepted into Battleschool, where he will train to be a knight like his father once was. SETTING: medieval time period, Kingdom of Araluenġ5-year old Will is a ward of the castle, an orphan raised with four other orphans as protected wards of Baron Arald, Lord of Redmont Fief. So now, after many years of listing The Ranger’s Apprentice series on my lengthy TBR list, I have finally, finally carved out some time on a rare Shanghai snow day to read it myself. She then mentioned it to my sister, whose 10-year old son–my boys’ cousin–is now also reading it.

She also loved the book and inhaled the audiobook in just a day. Yep, my 66-year old mother, an avid reader, also likes to read what her grandsons are reading. My husband read the entire Ranger’s Apprentice series several years ago, and excited that our son wants to read The Ruins of Gorlan, he’s just started reading it again. He’s reading this book at his own pace and is currently about halfway through. Until recently, however, he has mainly read Dog-Man, Big Nate, and Captain Underpants books over and over and over. Despite his struggles with reading, he’s really grown to love it. He’s dyslexic, but he’s had some miracle-worker teachers and school interventions in the past three years. It started with our 10-year old son, who brought it home from the school library after I challenged him to try reading some books that are not graphic novels. Reading The Ruins of Gorlan has become a bit of a family affair for me this week.

The ruins of gorlan series