Middle Grade Fantasy

I am so glad that more Own Voices fantasy has been coming out. This middle grade story was cute and fun and I think middle school kids will enjoy it overall. I have to say that Kenyan is a main character I struggled to like. He is defiant and even when he changes his mind he still has to break every rule or guidance form anyone including his friends. I like some rebellion but he was excessive. I thought the world building was interesting and I understand that the history was being kept from our main character but I could have used more of an info dump sooner in the story. I didn’t love the ending at all, i don’t think you need a dramatic cliffhanger to lead you to a second book and it’s a fairly cheap trick. The supporting characters were ok but none of the characters were developed as much as they could or should have been. Overall this was a cute start to a new fantasy series.