Review – Dormia by Jake Halpern,‎ Peter Kujawinski (4/5 stars)

Reading Level: Middle Grade
Genre: Adventure/Fantasy
Length: 528 pages
Publisher: HMH Books for Young Readers
Release Date: May 24, 2010
ISBN-13: 978-0547328874
Stand Alone or Series: 1st book in the Dormia trilogy
Source: Swapped through Paperbackswap.com
Rating: 4/5 stars

“Alfonso Perplexon is an unusual sleeper. He climbs trees, raises falcons, even shoots deadly accurate arrows, all in his sleep. No one can figure out why.

Then one evening a man arrives at Alfonso’s door, claiming to be Alfonso’s long-lost uncle Hill. This uncle tells a fantastical tale: Alfonso’s ancestors hail from Dormia—an ancient kingdom of gifted sleepers—which is hidden in the snowy peaks of the Ural Mountains. According to Hill, Dormia exists thanks to a tree known as the Founding Tree, with roots that pump life into the frozen valley. But the Founding Tree is now dying, and in a matter of days, Dormia faces an icy apocalypse.

Dormia’s salvation lies with the Great Sleeper, who possesses the special powers to enter a sleep trance and grow a new Founding Tree. Hill suspects that Alfonso is just such a person. In fact, Alfonso’s sleeping-self has already hatched this tree. Now the question is: Can Alfonso and his uncle deliver it in time? They must hurry, but they also must be careful not to be followed by Dormia’s age-old enemy, the
Dragoonya, who are always hunting for one of the secret entryways into Dormia.

Alfonso agrees to take the tree to Dormia, and thus begins one of the greatest adventures a twelve-year-old boy could ever wish for.”

I read this book out loud to my 10 year old son. This was a creative and engaging adventure fantasy. The style that it was written in made it incredibly easy to read out loud; I didn’t find myself stumbling over strange speech patterns or awkward dialogue.

The story is based on the creative premise of a society that performs exceptional activities while they sleep; for them wakefulness is a state of laziness. It was interesting and full of a ton of adventure and excellent action scenes.

There are quite a few plot holes and inconsistencies throughout the story. However, those didn’t bother my son. So this is probably one of those reads that kids will really love but adults will only feel so-so about.

The story is a bit drawn out and at times it felt like there was too much detail. However, the whole family enjoyed this and my son would like to continue with the series.

Overall this was a fun middle grade adventure read. My whole family ended up enjoying it. There are some plot holes and inconsistencies throughout the story but these didn’t bother my son. Only other complaint would be that at points the story gets a bit long because there is too much detail. Generally this was a good read and I might continue on with the series if my son wants to.

This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
– Goodreads Reading Challenge
– Mount TBR Reading Challenge