While it only comes up in a few spread out points across the book, as you may expect from a book of this type, there is a bit of violent content to be aware of. In fact, the teaser section at the very start of the book shows one of these, when right up front the young reader sees of a “sword sliced off the sanddragon head” and of an “arrow slicing into its chest”. We are told the wicked beings “devoured every living thing they could catch”. In battle there are multiple occurrences of slicing off the heads of these creatures. A girl recounts how her brother fell over 400 feet to his death. An evil man takes an arrow to the head and we are told it is “protruding from his eye”.
The wicked creatures, one of which is shown on the cover, may be a bit frightening to some readers. It is described as a blood goat, a sanddragon and a lion “merged together in a terrible, dark binding magic”.
There is a bit of potentially confusing pseudo-spiritual content. When thinking of her deceased father, she makes the misguided comment, “she liked to imagine that part of his spirit had lingered among the trees he’d loved so”. It says, “Kie prayed to the Messenger and the patron god of sky carriers” and “Kie found herself praying to the Messenger”. We read comments like “I’ll pray to the gods”, “thank the gods”, “may the gods bless and protect you”, and “May all the gods of (their nation) protect you”. A myth is told with gods and goddesses. Kie hopes clouds are not “an omen”. She prays to “whatever god might be listening” (great opportunity with this line for a teaching moment. How thankful we are to not be left with this, but instead to have a direct line to the Creator of the Universe!). Near the end it begins to talk about magic and it “guiding your path”.
Other things to know about:
While she has some good qualities, Kie, the main character, leaves a good bit to be desired from some of her behavior throughout. Early on she trades insults with a girl who is rude to her. She “swears under her breath”. There is a decent amount of content like this.
A very respected grandmother also introduces a bit of unfortunate behavior. She says a few things like, “I didn’t see you two here and you didn’t see me”.
There is a pretty major part of the storyline that revolves around telepathy. Certain people can communicate with their skysteeds through their minds.
Success is attributed to being lucky.
Someone comments, “then she is a very stupid, selfish girl” and again later we hear, “We all hate him”. The term idiots is also used.
A princess affectionately tells of times sneaking out with her brother. Later they sneak out during the story after being grounded.
An odd story is told of a couple who married despite coming from very different stations in life. When they moved to the main city the main’s family seemed ashamed of her. Unfortunately, the story surprisingly concludes with the woman up and leaving her husband, with no implied regret or remorse.