Blood Ties

September 1, 2014

Gr 3-7-This third book in the series (after Maggie Stiefvater's Hunted) jumps right into the action. Meilin and her spirit panda, Jhi, are trapped and starving in a bamboo maze while her erstwhile companions Conor (Spirit wolf Briggan), Abeke (Spirit leopard Uraza), and Rollan (Spirit falcon Essix) are sailing into enemy territory. Determined to defeat the Destroyer and his army of Conquerors, the team reunites to survive leeches, spiders, stinging ants, poisoned arrows shot by rhino riders, giant crocodiles, and even the Sunset Death to acquire the talisman of Dinesh the Elephant. Our heroes win the battle, but there's more to come in this war of good against evil in the four titles planned through 2015. Nicola Butler relates the story in a variety of expressive British accents, with each character differentiated by tone. The nonstop action, ever-present danger, and narrow escapes will appeal to fantasy lovers, especially veterans of" The "39 Clues" and "Infinity Ring" series.-Toby Rajput, National Louis University, Skokie, IL

Copyright 2014 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

eledoggy - Spirit Animals Blood Ties (book 3) is an amazing book of courage, especially shown by Meilin because she went through the whole bamboo maze with only the help Jhi and xue, to help her father in war, only later to see him die right before her eyes. The definition of Blood Ties is that Meilin wants to see her long lost father and help him in war and the "four fallen" (almost "three fallen" for the whole book) try to seek Dinesh's talisman with Meilin, Rollan, Connor, Abeke, Tarik and Lishay who had some horrible losses, and they still seem to end up with the slate elephant talisman. Sorry for some spoilers I might have given.