But even as a middle grade novel, I was underwhelmed. Plot seemed had-waved and rushed in places.I know, this book isn't FOR ME. I did like the emphasis that each of the kids has different strengths, but they all feel less-than and tend to focus on the things that they DON'T do as well. There are interesting bits to the characters. But really the entire thing felt like a setup for the series more than a complete book on its own.The central concept of being able to connect psychically to a magical animal is certainly most of what got my son interested in this book. Spirit, Animal, Brandon, Mull, Wild, Born, Animals, Spirt Animals, Wild Born, Brandon Mull, Book 1. There was one incident with Native-Americans-who-werent-Native-Americans-but-clearly-were that was a little eye-rally, but mostly it was fine. Spirit Animals: Wild Born by Brandon Mull. (Set on a non-Earth planet with unique continents, but of the four main characters, one is clearly Chinese, one African, one British, one American). Not seeing any good reason to refuse, I agreed.It was fine? I mean, it used some lazy stereotyping to set up the characters, but there was a lot of world-building and characterization to set-up in a short space, so I guess I can see why it would be easy to use some shortcuts. My ten-year-old came downstairs all on fire about this book and insisted that I read it.
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