{"id":43975,"date":"2024-09-07T22:16:26","date_gmt":"2024-09-08T02:16:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/?p=43975"},"modified":"2024-09-07T22:16:26","modified_gmt":"2024-09-08T02:16:26","slug":"review-of-splinter-and-ash-by-marieke-nijkamp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/?p=43975","title":{"rendered":"Review of Splinter and Ash, by Marieke Nijkamp"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Splinter & Ash<\/em><\/p>\n

by Marieke Nijkamp<\/p>\n

Greenwillow Books, September 2024. 345 pages.
\nReview written July 7, 2024, from an Advance Reader Copy.
\nStarred Review<\/p>\n

Oh, this book is a delightful start to a middle grade fantasy trilogy. The title characters are both twelve years old. Princess Ash has just come back to her kingdom after years learning with her aunt. And the court doesn’t seem to think that she measures up. She has joints that always want to pop out, her health is fragile, and she walks with a cane and wears braces. In our world, I think we’d say she has Ehler-Danlos syndrome, but in her world she’s called a cripple, and not good enough to be a princess by the unkind. Even her own brother is disappointed in her.<\/p>\n

Splinter wants to be a squire more than anything. But everyone says that girls can’t be squires. Splinter doesn’t feel like a girl, and the word “boy” isn’t quite right for them either – but Splinter does know that being a squire feels absolutely right and they want to protect the princess.<\/p>\n

There is a war going on, and some nobles may be taking the side of the empire against the queen. When Ash becomes a pawn in intrigues against the crown, both Ash and Splinter get a chance to prove themselves – but it’s not going to be easy.<\/p>\n

Not only did this book give us a great story about characters we’re rooting for, it also set up situations for the rest of the trilogy with the kingdom possibly in the balance.<\/p>\n

The only trouble with starting a trilogy with an Advance Reader Copy is I’m going to have to wait far too long to hear more about these characters.<\/p>\n

mariekenijkamp.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Buy from Amazon.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Find this review on Sonderbooks<\/a> at: www.sonderbooks.com\/Childrens_Fiction\/splinter_and_ash.html<\/a><\/p>\n

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.<\/p>\n

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.<\/p>\n

What did you think of this book?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Splinter & Ash by Marieke Nijkamp Greenwillow Books, September 2024. 345 pages. Review written July 7, 2024, from an Advance Reader Copy. Starred Review Oh, this book is a delightful start to a middle grade fantasy trilogy. The title characters are both twelve years old. Princess Ash has just come back to her kingdom after […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,9,42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43975","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-childrens-fiction-review","category-fantasy","category-starred-review"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43975","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=43975"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43975\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44267,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43975\/revisions\/44267"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=43975"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=43975"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=43975"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}