Dragons, Giants, Dwarfs, Battles, a Leviathan, and Many Narrow Escapes

We received the Foundlings, book one of The Peleg Chronicles, from Zoe and Sozo Publishing to review as part of the TOS Crew. I want to confess something. My sons and I love Historical Fiction but I have a hard time reviewing fiction books. It is difficult to give you enough information so that you might be interested in purchasing this book, but not to much so that you know the whole story. I will do my best as always... just know... it is a struggle.  hmmm... what to write...what to write???

The author of the book is Matthew Christian Harding. He is now a homeschooling father of 4 and his stories were first told to his children at bedtime. You must read his story... WOW! What a testimony. Get to know Matthew Here.

In Foundlings we encountered all the things my title suggests and even more. {A note from Mathew about the dwarfs: "dwarfs are depicted as human beings, who just happen to be short, and who were driven into slavery"} Foundlings is not Fiction because all those things existed. But it is not Non-Fiction. The story is made up and I must say extremely well written. Foundlings, is Historical Fiction, set at the time of Peleg from the Bible, soon after the tower of Babel. Genesis 10:25 "And unto Eber were born two sons: the name of one was Peleg; for in his days was the earth divided; and his brother's name was Joktan." The story line and characters are fictional. No people from the Bible are characters in the story but some are mentioned. People like Noah, Job, and  Peleg. The writer states,

"There will never be any people or events portrayed in my books which are mentioned in the Bible because I am personally fearful of adding to God's Word."

Foundlings is an action packed adventure, fantasy, historical fiction. In its pages we meet many memorable characters. There does not seem to be one central figure like in most books... there are a number of "main" characters. Lord McDougal is certainly one of them. He's such a curious man, rather eccentric, but lovable, honorable, God-loving, and noble of character. Someone you would like your children to know and look up to as a "hero." At first I thought he was much older than he turns out to be.

Accompanied by his faithful side kick, Fergus Leatherhead, they fall into one adventure after another. Unable to resist the call to aid those who are in distress, he plunges into many escapades, collecting a band of followers who have thrown their stakes in with his. In chapters 2-3 he rescues a dwarf from some dragons and the idol worshiping priests as well as from getting swallowed by the muck in a swamp and the dwarf then joins their party. I was hooked then!

The author suggests it for ages 10 and up. I would recommend not giving it to kids under 12 without reading the book yourself first. There are scary elements and human sacrifice although the human sacrifice is not detailed and never actually happens because they are thwarted every time. There are large animals (much larger than animals grow these days), some which are "pets" as well as large people (giants). There are witches and evil priests, but not any magic. All these things are also in the Bible. There was idol worship, human sacrifice and witches in the past and it is discussed and frowned upon in the Bible. There is also a mention of the priest, during the scene when a girl is to be sacrificed, being drugged. To quote from the book for this section,

"The priest stared blankly, drool foamed at his lips. To quench his own conscience, and to open the way to the spirit world, he had partaken of some drug."

That is the only mention of it and as I said the priests look foolish and the damsel in distress gets rescued.   It was not a deterant for us in reading the book but I wanted you to be aware so you could make your own judgments.

The one true God of the Bible is mentioned throughout and helps the heroes get out of a number of "sticky" situations. Bible verses are also quoted throughout. It is easy to see that the heroes honor and follow the God of Noah and that the priests and those who follow them do so out of fear and ignorance. The Heroes praise God, pray to him and speak scripture that leads others to follow the one true God. The final seven pages even have Scriptures that present the Gospel to readers.

Here is a link to one page on the Zoe and Sozo Publishing site: Foundlings and Commonly Asked Questions There are other pages there that will give you more information about the book also.

Out of five stars we give Foundlings:

My son read the whole book in less than one day. He could not put it down. He wants the next book because the author had a cliffhanger at the end... making the reader crave the next book. Very cleaver Matthew! I have not finished the book but plan to because I am enjoying it thoroughly. We have had a few family issues that prevented me from finishing.

Foundlings is the first book in this series, book 2, Paladins is already available too. I hope to buy book 2 for us, maybe for Christmas. A third in the series, is planned for May 2011. Each of the first two can be purchased for $11.95 in a number of ways. See the order page for details. Foundlings is a softcover book, with 239 pages.  Mr. Harding offers a Good Read Guarantee: if you, or your child, don't love the book, keep your copy and still receive a full refund.

To see what my other crew members have to say about the Salem Ridge Press books check out the TOS Homeschool Crew Blog.

***Zoe and Sozo Publishing provided me with the book above so that I could do my review. Though I received these products for free I have given an honest review of them here in this post.


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