Hero

By Alethea Kontis

Rough-and-tumble Saturday Woodcutter thinks she’s the only one of her sister without any magic—until the day she accidentally conjures an ocean in the backyard. With her sword in tow, Saturday sets sail on a pirate ship, only to find herself kidnapped and whisked off to the top of the world. Is Saturday powerful enough to kill the mountain witch who holds her captive and save the world from sure destruction? And, as she wonders grumpily, “Did romance have to part of the adventure?”

This is the sequel to Enchanted, the story of Sunday Woodcutter. Now it’s Saturday’s story we get to see. Saturday is a tomboy and has always been frustrated that she was the only one in her amazing family who seemed to not have some magic powers. It turned out that Saturday’s birth gift, an axe, turns into a sword and that Saturday’s destiny is even more than she bargained for, and she was hoping for quite a lot. Brash and impulsive, Saturday sets in motion a terrible curse, and only she can set things right with the help of her pirate sister Thursday. Saturday is in the middle of a save-the-world quest, and with her is the strangest boy she could’ve met in Peregrine. The two very opposite characters have to rely on each other if they’re going to survive this adventure, and like Saturday laments, “Did romance have to be part of the adventure?” It’s cute and fun and has a tighter plot than the first book did, while still bringing the fun of fairy tales into the plot line. My only issue is the embarrassing lack of restraint that Saturday shows with modesty. She has no problem stripping in front of Peregrine to dive into a pool to take a bath. Peregrine is a lot more sensitive than Saturday, and it makes a few scenes awkward and a little ridiculous.  

I give it a 3.5 out of 5