The book I read was The Peddlers Road The Secrets of the Pied Piper by Matthew Cody. This book is the first of the series The Peddlers Road. The main characters in my book are Carter, Max, and their new friends, Lucas, Paul, and Emily, but the story is mostly about Max and Carter. Carter, Max, and their friends set of on an adventure, because of a map given to Lucas by the Peddler. The map had a prophecy on it. The prophecy said, “Only when the last son of Hamelin appears and the Black Tower found will The Piper’s prison open and the children return safe and sound.” Everyone believes Carter is the last son of Hamelin, the town that was mentioned in the prophecy, and that he can save Hamelin. My book takes place in 2 different dimensions – New Hamelin and the Summer Isle. It is called the Summer Isle because it is summer all year round except for one night called the Winter’s Moon. The sun never goes down and the moon never goes up on the Summer Isle, except on the Winter’s Moon. When the dark covers the Summer Isle, all of your fears will come alive. I thought it was interesting that in the dark anything that frightens you will appear on the Winter’s Moon, also called a true night.

Max is a 13 year old girl and her younger brother Carter is 10. They were stolen by a magician called The Piper who was locked away in a black tower. He brought Carter and Max to the Summer Isle so that Carter could set The Piper free like the prophecy says. When Max and Carter arrived at the Summer Isle, they found a village where all of the kids The Piper had stolen were being kept. Max and Carter met Lucas, Paul, and Emily. Lucas realized that the Black Tower appeared on that night. That is a big part in the story because that is the beginning of their big adventure. I think an important detail in this book is that the hero, Carter, is a boy who has had a brace on his leg for his whole life. Carter has disabilities in his leg that he was born with it and it doesn’t work and I think it’s really unique that he is the hero. He is different than other heroes; he can’t run or jump or climb, all things that a hero usually does. The author showed that knowledge can be just as important as strength. On their way to the Black Tower, the kids find a village built only for dreamers and ghosts called Shades Harbor, where anything you dream will come to the village. The ghosts in Shades Harbor did whatever they did when they were alive because they didn’t realize they were dead yet. For example, one ghost was a butcher, which is what he did when he was alive

One adjective I would use to describe Carter is brave. He was very brave when he was kidnapped on his way to the Black Tower by Grannie Yaga. Grannie Yaga is a cannibal and a witch. “If you are a nice young boy, I won’t eat you,” Grannie Yaga told Carter. Carter is also very smart. He fought the giant rats on the troll bridge which was an actual troll sleeping and being used as a bridge. The rats were winning the fight but then Carter won the fight, not by fighting but by thinking. Carter is an optimist, and if he has a problem, he solves it with a smile on his face. A quote that helped me understand Carter better was when he said, “Words only hurt if you let them, but sometimes things people say are sharp enough to cut, no matter how thick you think your skin is.”

I really enjoyed this book. It had so much action and adventure. It also had friendship and care. I recommend this book, but it had a big cliffhanger at the end. I have to read the second book to find out what happens next. It’s a really exciting ending and it is an amazing story. I can’t wait to read the next one. Matthew Cody was also the author of Powerless, which I haven’t read, but I hear a lot of people like it, so if you like Matthew Cody’s books you should definitely read this one. From a rating of 1 to 5 stars, I would give this book 5 stars.