Once upon a time, not so very long ago, children grew up on books about fairies, and smiling mushrooms, detective dogs and five children, faraway lands and enchanted forests. Today’s children are privy to battles larger than themselves, larger than life. Between prophesied heroes and worlds torn apart by evil—children learn the larger binary of life early in life. The reluctant heroes of these two novels, Joshua Mowll’s Operation Red Jericho and Jan Mark’s Voyager follow the footsteps of iconic heroes like Harry and Frodo facing demons and death albeit without the classic burden of being prophesied chosen ones.
November 2006, volume 30, No 11