By J.K. Rowling
4RBooks: 3.5/6, grades 6-8
Amazon rating: 4.7/5, grade level 3+
Good Reads: 3.93/5
Common Sense Media: 4/5, age 9+
274 pages
Synopsis:
The Kingdom of Cornucopia was once a pleasant and happy place to live. The different cities were each famous for a culinary delight. Chouxville was known for its pastries, Kurdsburg for its cheeses, Baronstown for its pork products, and Jeroboam for its wines. The people were led by King Fred the Fearless.
On the outskirts of the land was an area known as the Marshlands. Life was harder there, people were poorer, and there was a local myth about the Ickabog, a dangerous monster who would kill anyone who came near. The king, trying to prove how fearless he was, decided to take some soldiers to the marshlands to find and kill the Ickabog.
Instead, an accident occurred, and a soldier was shot. The King’s advisors decided to use this accident to instill more fear in the people and to gain money and power for themselves. The convinced the king to let them impose harsh taxes and rules on the people who suffered greatly.
Circumstances bring four young children together to learn the truth and set the kingdom free. Bert (whose father was the shooting victim), Daisy (whose father was imprisoned for treason), Roderick (whose family was killed by the advisors), and Martha (an orphan who had never known her family), went to the Marshlands to discover the truth about the Ickabog and to bring that truth to Cornucopia to bring hope and justice to the kingdom.
Parental Guidance: medium-high
A woman is worked to death.
A man is shot, and his death is covered up and lied about.
Another man is stabbed with a sword and killed.
To keep the people scared of the Ickabog, anybody who has doubts and speaks
out is imprisoned and or killed.
The country is forced into poverty and people are starving, losing their businesses,
and children turned over to orphanages.
In one of the orphanages children are beaten, starved, and denied their
individuality.
There is party drinking, and the city known for its wine.
Recommendation:
I’ve had this book on my shelf for a few years before finally reading it. Maybe, instinctively, I knew that I would be disappointed. I have read all the Harry Potter books and thought they were great. I’ve reviewed Rowling’s The Christmas Pig and thought it was excellent. This book, for me, was the epitome of a “meh” book. There were parts that were interesting, and the writing is always good, but the story was slow developing and more about palace intrigue and power dynamics then about the Ickabog.
While presented as a children’s book, the adults make up the majority of the plot line. It’s also very dark through most of the book, similar to the way the Harry Potter books turned darker the farther one read in the series. The deaths are not graphically detailed, but it seemed like every few chapters someone else was getting jailed or murdered. As such, sensitive children might face difficulties with this story. There is a satisfying and “happy ever after” ending to the story, but it’s rough slog to get there.
The theme of the book seems to be the old adage, “Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely.” It makes you wonder what historical, or modern day, political realities she was writing about.
One fun thing about the book, it was originally written as an internet novel and Rowling invited children to draw the illustrations she needed for the book. There are 34 illustrations, color, and each was drawn by a different child.
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