Concerning & Potentially Concerning Content

Overall, this is a really solid book that is very ‘clean’. That said, there are a few things to consider when deciding if it is a good fit for your younger / less mature readers: The biggest thing to know from a Christian parent perspective is that there are perilous moments and statements that are likely more intense/mature than you may expect from the illustrations (a potential exception is the cover, which if you look closely you will see a relatively intense bad guy’s image in the sky, but we certainly think this is accurate for the rest of the books drawings). At least to us, the illustrations led us to think that this book was for a bit of a younger crowd than something like, for instance, this author’s Raising Dragons series. While that is true for much of the book, there are a few things that may cause a bit of hesitation for parents for the youngest / least mature of their readers. We will list those here: “Mephisto gang would skin you alive and eat your kidneys. He’s a mass murderer.” “Your stomach will explode and all your guts will spill out” “If the building collapses on you, I’ll help drag your dirty, bloody corpses out for your grieving mother” “I probably looked like a zombie kid, with an unconscious victim ready to feast on her brains” “And you and your partner would be nothing but a steaming pile of torn flesh and broken bones” Bad guys threaten to “I’ll kill you all”, “Kill as many people as possible”, and to bury a couple people alive. We find out the father of the family has died in a car wreck where brakes were cut where he ran off the road an plunged into water, specifically saying he drowned (a potentially scary idea for a young reader) Bad guys threaten kidnapping. Sam (little sister) claws a bad guy in the face “digging deep gouges” Same bad guy punches Eddie (a young boy) in the face. Bad guy is shot (shoulder). Little sister Sam is slapped. Both young kids are put in electrocution handcuffs. The city has an area called the “Dead Zone”. We read that it is a “haunt for drug dealers, black-market traders and undead beings”. On this last item zombies and ghosts are mentioned, but then Eddie (the main character) says that he believes that is just something parents say to scare their kids and keep them away (reinforced by nothing like this being seen in the multiple times the kids have to go there). We do see the kids being jumped and attacked by shady characters multiple times here, often with weapons. We also hear things like, “Word is 9 people have been murdered there since the quakes started” and “What’s your name?... I’ll need to know when we find your mutilated bodies in the Dead Zone” (trying to discourage them from going). Other items to be aware of: As the story begins to unfold, we see the main character sneak out at night (to fight crime). He uses a gadget to project an image of himself still sleeping to prevent his mother from knowing. Early in the book there is a bit of sibling back & forth (but overall, the relationship is great and improving as the book goes along, see below). One example is when he calls his sister’s voice annoying (while she is waking him up). We hear of “the essence” of someone who has died being transferred somewhere. At one point we hear one the kids tell a shady landlord that they will call the cops and “tell them what’s growing in your window planter”. The following terms are used: stupid, butt-crack, moron