Training Happy Hearts: Find Clean, Middle-Grade Fantasy Fiction with Hamelin Stoop {A Review}

Wednesday, May 1, 2019

Find Clean, Middle-Grade Fantasy Fiction with Hamelin Stoop {A Review}

If you are looking for clean adventure / fantasy fiction aimed at middle-grade readers on up, check out The Hamelin Stoop Series published by 12 Gates Publishing.

Since my children have been getting more and more into fantasy fiction, I was excited to check out this series which is said to follow in the tradition of stories written by C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien in that it invites readers into a saga about the true nature of good and evil and how our choices - even choices made by children - have consequences.

What Are the Books About?

In my 8-year-old's words, Hamelin Stoop: The Eagle, The Cave, and the Footbridge (Book 1)'s storyline goes like this:

At the beginning of the story, Hamelin Stoop's mother and father are being chased by trackers, and they don't want their baby to get caught, so they put him in a tomato box on the stoop of a children's home.Then, they get caught, go through a cave, and are sent to an evil man's kingdom in a fantasy world.

We find out that Hamelin's mother is from that world and his father is from the real world and the evil man wants them to have a baby, so he can follow his father's evil plan. (We don't know what that is.)

Meanwhile, Hamelin gets found, has his name given to him, is raised up in the children's home, makes friends, and his friends leave.

When Hamelin is eight, everyone forgets his birthday, except his friends who had left whose birthday card comes to him. So, Hamelin runs away and finds a cave with an eagle.

Hamelin follows the eagle, goes to a footbridge, but is too afraid to cross, so he goes back. He continues to grow up, facing some hard times, some good times, more loss, but then more kind people who become children's home parents.

Eventually, he goes back to the cave and the eagle says, "No, you are not summoned. Go back until you are summoned." He ends up telling his two older friends about everything and they go to find the cave, but cannot find a way in until one of his friends thinks of something and they notice dirt covering the way in.

After that, there is more, but I don't want to tell anyone about it. You have to read it yourself!

So basically Book One spends about half the story setting up the backstory of the series, introducing us to characters, and helping us see Hamelin grow, while the other half gets into the action, mystery, fantasy, and message of the story.

You can see the book trailer here:

Themes include :

sacrifice (as in a parent's sacrifice to protect a child and a husband's to protect his wife)
what it means to "belong" (Hamelin often feels like he doesn't quite belongs to anyone, but, rather, belongs to everyone.)
what loyalty is and how important it is to put trust in those who can properly guide us (Hamelin trusts his two good, older friends.)
vanity vs. humility (This comes up, in part, with a princess character who is introduced in this book and plays a larger role in the next.)
questioning why bad things happen (Hamelin and other characters do this.)
failure and its consequences
the importance of hope

Of course, good versus evil is a theme, too!

From what I have gathered about Hamelin Stoop: The Lost Princess and the Jewel of Periluna (Book 2), it jumps in right where Book 1 leaves off.

In it, the Great Eagle leads Hamelin through dangerous Waters of Death and Life into the Land of Gloaming where Hamelin finds himself in the middle of war that is being waged between the mysterious Ancient One and the evil Chimera (Ren'dal's father).

There, Hamelin - a child of two worlds - must overcome fear in order to help his two new friends Lars and Eraina find a kidnapped princess, recover a stolen jewel, and use special gifts in a proper way - all the while trying to restore peace to different worlds while not falling prey to Chimera's evil plan to use him to capture more worlds than one.

Themes include:

the difference between being nice and being kind
if it is better to be young yet, foolish, or to grow older and wiser
the difference between evil and cruelty
how vanity and pride can affect us
forgiveness
learning to work with and trust others

Like Book 1, Book 2 focuses us on good vs. evil, and, together with the first book, makes us think about fear and courage, choices and their consequences, free will and destiny - being a part of a larger plan.

There are also definite connections that can be made to Christianity for those with a Christian worldview, yet nothing is overtly Christian - more good vs. evil with readers wondering if, say, the Great Eagle character might be symbolic of God or an angel, if Ren'dal (the evil one who has Hamelin's parents) is symbolic of a demon and his father Chimera of Satan himself, if Hamelin might be like Jesus in some way, and if the series will unfold with clear allegories of Christian thought...

Considering there are meant to be 4-5 more books to follow in the series, I would guess its author, Robert. B. Sloan, does, indeed, plan to make all the pieces come together.

Who Here Has Been Reading the Series? When we received Hamelin Stoop: The Eagle, The Cave, and the Footbridge (Book 1) and Hamelin Stoop: The Lost Princess and the Jewel of Periluna (Book 2), I thought my 13-year-old might pick the books up and plow right through them, my 11-year-old would want me to read them to her, and my 8-year-old would either want me to read them together or would read them on his own.
I was right on the mark in two out of three cases: After seeing the length of the books - 323 and 295 pages respectively, my 8-year-old decided that he would like to read The Hamelin Stoop Series together instead of reading them independently. My 11-year-old quickly joined in our read together times, while my 13-year-old sometimes listened in, but, as of yet, has not run off with the books to read them on his own (likely because he is currently immersed in another series.)

How Are We Finding Hamelin Stoop?

Hamelin Stoop: The Eagle, The Cave, and the Footbridge and Hamelin Stoop: The Lost Princess and the Jewel of Periluna have captured our attention, but, because life has been overloaded lately and our bedtimes have been super late, we have yet to finish both books as read togethers. Rather, my children and I have read the first book a chapter to four in a sitting, and I've also looked ahead at the second book on my own, dipping in to read parts of it here and other parts there. In doing so, I have concluded that the series is definitely a clean, interesting read that families can enjoy. My 8-year-old says:

I like it! There are cliff hangars and I can visualize it well. Sometimes I ask Mommy to keep reading. I wonder how Hamelin will get his parents back! I can't wait to read the second story. Also, I think it is for all ages, because it keeps changes how old Hamelin is - 8, 10, and older. (I like when he's eight, because I'm eight!)

My 11-year-old says:

I enjoy this series and wanted to keep reading it - but not as much as my brother, who would beg my mom to keep reading it. I like how you can feel for Hamelin. He had failures and did not succeed every tie. A lot of times in books the main character is just awesome and always successful with big things.

I also like the cover illustrations because they help me picture what Hamelin look like and what some of the story might be like.

The only thing we did not appreciate in the books was the occasional use of God's name in vain in the phrase "Oh my G_ __." We know this is a common phrase, but we avoid it. Thus, I just changed the phrase when reading aloud.

What Ages Will Enjoy This Series?

The Hamelin Stoop Series is aimed at a reading level of sixth grade on up and, if it were a movie, might be considered PG for the hard life situations included in the book and some mild violence. My children, ages 8+, and I had no qualms with the content and found it to be quite a clean and interesting fantasy series. We would recommend it to others who like a blend of reality and fantasy with Christian-inspired allegory included.