Beyond Mulberry Glen by Millie Florence

Lydia Green loves her life in Mulberry Glen. She doesn’t want anything to change. However, when a mysterious force called the Darkness starts to spread across her land, she gets pulled into a daring rescue against odds she can’t imagine. Will she save her family, Mulberry Glen, and everything she loves?

Reading Level: Ages 9-12
Read Aloud: Ages 7 and up

This middle-grade fantasy has adventure, charm, and characters you will adore. The writing is truly lovely, making this an excellent choice for a read aloud. What’s even more delightful is that there is hardly anything to report for language, questionable behaviors, and my usual categories. What sets the story in motion is two siblings heading out to conquer the Darkness on their own. The protagonist, Lydia, decides she must go after them. To do this, she has to sneak away but is immediately found out by one of her parent figures. Lydia’s family consists of Pit, a fairy, and Garder, a philosopher. These are not her parents; in fact, we never hear of Lydia’s parents.

As a parent, I appreciate that almost every time a character does something they shouldn’t, it’s acknowledged by the character. As a reader, this sometimes came across in an obvious fashion, making a few instances feel a bit heavy handed. There are obvious themes of light and darkness, and it’s very clear between good and evil. I chuckled a few times as there were several elements that screamed, “A homeschooler wrote this book,” (which isn’t a bad thing). Overall, this is a beautifully written, character driven novel that would be “safe” to hand to a child to read independently.

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