A Book Review and Interview about The Wingfeather Saga

Intro to the Book

Hello Readers,

 Today, we're going to do something a little different than normal. I'll be putting my parental conversation and facilitation skills to the test by having discussion with my daughter about a series she read. I believe I resorted to bribery for this one too. You know, my whole position as a parent is being put to the test, and it may turn out that I fail. Hopefully not, but you'll have to listen to find out

The series we're discussing is the Wingfeather Saga by Andrew Peterson. Now I have to warn you, there may be spoilers in this episode. The part that I'm going to be doing with my daughter will not be scripted, but the rest of it will, though, I do have questions for her if they are upright so we get stuck at it before we get to the interview.

Summary

 I just want to summarize the series of little to get you familiar with the story. No spoilers in this part. Just the summary of the story revolves around the Igiby family who live in a little town called Glenwood, in the country of screen, in almost the entire world, including Scree are under the captivity of the fangs of Dang, who are monstrous lizard-like creatures doing the bidding of nag the nameless who lives across the dark sea of darkness. It is dark times. But still there are good things to look forward to. Pretty soon in the story. It gets really bleak as the egg abhi children Janner. Tink and Lili get mixed up in some trouble with the fangs. Their woes soon began and it sets in motion a chain of events that turn the egg of bees world upside down. Nia Igiby is the mom to Janner, Tink, and Lili and raises them with her father Podo. He's an old sea pirate who seems to have settled down after knee his husband died in the Great War nine years before the current setting. Jana is the oldest and an avid reader. I honestly can't get away from the avid reader characters. I would argue that mostly these stories are told from janisch perspective, not first person, but he's the character we stick with most often throughout the series. This is Janner story of the events of the it could be life. He is the responsible one. But he doesn't like his responsibilities, which often include babysitting, Tink and Layli. Tink, also known as Kalamar, is the second oldest and Janner’s younger brother. He's impulsive and ambitious, almost the complete opposite to the reserved Janner. He likes art and drawing, and does not like books like his brother. Then there's Lili the sweet younger sister to the boys. She has a limp and a crutch that podocarpus for her, really practices music and loves animals, especially dogs. Of course, there are many other characters, and so much story behind each one to Andrew Peterson makes the whole thing believable, despite it being a completely fantastic world with that small summary, and yet, not nearly enough backstory. Now you have some context to the interview that Addie and I will have. Let's begin shall we?

Interview

Randy: Alright, so we're starting, we're doing a podcast together. Are you a little bit nervous? Ready to be on the podcast? 

Addie: Lil’ bit.

Randy: Well, that's it's good. I was nervous. My first time. I'm still nervous now. So we're gonna start with some questions about the Wingfeather series. And we'll start with easy questions first, and then it might get harder as they go on. Does that sound good? Yep. Okay. All right. Who is your favorite character in the story and why?

Addie: Probably Leeli. 

Randy: Leeli, really? And why? Her music or music? What about her music made you enjoy it so much?

Addie: I don't know. She sounded like a brave kid. 

Randy: Who's your least favorite character and why?

Addie: Fangs are just oh, why? Why are they there?

Randy: Well, I mean, you have to read the story. People will have to read the story to figure out exactly why. 

Addie: Yeah. They were pretty bad.

Randy: And what made you dislike them?

Addie:  They were just mean to everybody. 

Randy: But good. Good answer. Which book of the whole series did you enjoy the most? 

Addie: I think the fourth one. It was definitely more daring.

Randy: More daring? What do you mean by that? 

Addie: Like crazy and more adventurous, definitely better than the first.

Randy: It was a bit longer too.

Addie: Yeah.

Randy: So did you like the fact that they went all over the place? So they weren't just in one city? Like in the first book? Yeah, they kind of traveled a little bit more. 

Addie: Yeah. 

Randy: Is that what you mean by daring? Is there anything else that you liked about the fourth book?

Addie:  Really, there's just there's definitely a lot of parts of it that make it. I almost cried. It was that sad? 

Randy: Yeah. It was a it was a little bit scarier than the first book too, right? 

Addie: Yeah, for sure.

Randy:  How long do you think you would you would say it took you to read the whole series?

Addie: Maybe two months?

Randy: Two months? That's about two of them. You read in like a week, though? Or two weeks? Wow. How long was that?

Addie: I think it was like, Yeah, two weeks.

Randy: You got like a reader achievement at school. And how many words did they say you read?

Addie: And it was like 200,000 in a week.

Randy: That's, that's crazy. So you really enjoyed it?

Addie: I thought it was really good.

Randy: Were the scary parts of the book, Were they were they too scary? And what made them so scary?

Addie: I don't, they were all that scary. But I think the fact that they were just sad and bad things were happening to the people.

Randy: What was the scariest part? I mean, this is a spoiler. I don't like to put spoilers on my show. But this is an interview about your opinion on the book. So what was the scariest part?

Addie: Probably at the end of the book? The older brother dies, but he saved his life. He saved his little brother's life.

Randy: Yeah, that's a that was a pretty big one. Who was the most wicked character in your opinion?

Addie: Definitely. Gnag the Nameless or Bonifer Squoon.

Randy: Who both two pretty terrible people. I think I would argue for Bonifer Squoon myself. What makes them so wicked?

Addie: Well, I think that they were wicked, because well, Navin endless was hurt and bar for screws law school and lied to him. So he didn't know. Like, he thought that he was being good and doing all this good stuff. So he could have what he wanted. But he, he could only just ask someone who would have gotten it. He just used evil to get something.

Randy: That's that's a good point. I think you're you hit a nail on the head there with he was hurt. I think Bonifer Squoon was also hurt. And he never talked to anybody about his hurt either. 

Addie: Yeah. 

Randy: Were there any perfect characters in the story?

Addie: No, I wouldn’t say they were perfect.

Randy: Who's the best character then? Would you say? Your favorite was Leeli, because she was the, she liked songs and you like songs. But who was the… Was she also the best character? Was there a better character?

Addie: I think Nia was probably better. 

Randy: Nia was probably better?

Addie: Yeah. 

Randy: And she is who? 

Addie: A mom, their mom. 

Randy: So why would you say that she was the best?

Addie: I think definitely because she was super brave. And she led her kids to get to this magical wonderful place even through all the darkness.

Randy: That's good. Moms can often be that this was a bleak story and a lot of sad parts and a lot of dark parts that happened in the book. Who was the character that brought the most joy to the book? Who would you say?

Addie: I would definitely say Leeli again.

Randy: Really? I mean, her songs brought a lot of people joy. 

Addie: Yeah. 

Randy: Would you say there was any other character that all the hope of Aerwiar are rested on? I think who is also known as Kalmar the the second brother, he was always joyful and energetic. That's for sure. Does anything else represent hope in the book do you think? 

Addie: Well, they had kind of they push on needn't stop going until they got to the one place that they needed to be and that was the green hollow so they could be safe.

Randy: So to the green hollows represent hope that they were the only free people after the Fangs that Dang took over the world Hmm. So the Fangs of Dang since we’re on them. They're the bad guys in control of the world. Who do you think they best represent in our world?

Addie: I think definitely like Satan, or people doing bad things to other people who are innocent. 

Randy: Okay, so like very dark figures. People that don't know who Jesus is. 

Addie: Yeah. 

Randy: And who do bad things. 

Addie: Yeah. 

Randy: Okay. And the Shining Isle on that same vein of thought is the area that all the kids in people are from. And it's a mythological city to most other characters in the book. What do you think the shining aisle represents to the people in Aerwiar?

Addie: I think it's kind of like heaven, like, it's their heaven.

Randy: Their heaven? I think it also kind of represents that hope we were talking about. 

Addie: Yeah, 

Randy: They look to it as their hope at one point, and then that was lost. And they're hoping to find it again. Forgiveness is a big theme in the book. Who would you say was the most forgiving character?

Addie: I think definitely Tink.

Randy: Tinkwas the most forgiving?

Addie: Yeah

. 

Randy: Why would you say that? Why would it be Tink?

Addie: Because he was really mischievious. And he had his brother had to give Him forgiveness. He had to give his brother forgiveness. 

Randy: Yeah. Who would you say was the biggest Forgiver of the people?

Addie: Janner.

Randy: Janner? The older brother?

Addie: Yeah, 

Randy: He…he did a lot to forgive a lot of people. Why would you say that? What? What were some of the things that he did to show his forgiveness?

Addie: His little brother ran away. And the older brother had to come get him even though he was in danger. But once he got him, they both were happy. And they didn't care if they were in trouble or not. They're just happy to be together.

Randy: Is there anyone else that he showed forgiveness to? 

Addie: Podo. 

Randy: Podo? The grandfather? 

Addie: Yes. 

Randy: Yeah. All right. So this is a bigger question. There's a lot of lore, or history and mythology that's in the books. Did you find it hard to track along with all that mythology? Or was it fine?

Addie: No, I thought it was pretty easy. 

Randy: And sometimes it included descriptions to help you understand it better? There's maps in the book as well. Is there anything else that helped you to keep a hold of it and keep it in your mind?

Addie: There's a lot of pictures. A few pictures too, that can help you visualize it a little bit.

Randy:  Yeah. Andrew Peterson drew a lot of pictures, or I don't know who was the artist, but they drew a lot of pictures and put them in the books of all the creatures and everything else right? Would they creaturepedia? We don't have that. But with the creaturepedia also be something that might be helpful.

Addie: Yeah.

Randy: ???. So this is again, getting into some of the bigger questions. I told you we’d get into the harder questions as we got later in this. Are there any parts of this book that you can relate back to the Bible?

Addie: ???. I think so they use the people like these people like to make the maker that represents God, but their world or the first people on Earth, or the water from the first Well, that was about a forest that nobody knows where or how to get into. 

Randy: And what do you think those represent in the Bible? Was the maker you said was God? Yeah.

Addie: But like the first people were Adam and Eve. And the garden of Eve was like the forest that they had the first wall in. 

Randy: So there's a lot of relations back to the Bible that Andrew Peterson put it in there probably on purpose. Yeah. Who best represents Christ in the story? In your opinion?

Addie: Yeah, I think it was definitely there. They said the maker a lot and like prayed to him when they were in trouble. And he definitely helped that make less decision.

Randy: And Christ is the person that took the wrath of God, right. He's, he's God, but he came down he took the wrath. Who took the wrath in this story? 

Addie: Janner. 

Randy: So it's a little bit of both right? Janner, not God.

Addie: But like represent kinda.

Randy: He’s representing the thing, the same thing that Jesus did, and even somewhat washing people free of their sins. 

Addie: Yeah. 

Randy: And even there's some hope that he will not just have gotten hurt from that. Right at the end of the book, although Andrew Peterson hasn't really started writing any more of the series of that. So the first book was made into a show and is available to watch on the Angel studios app. We we've watched it. Which would you say you prefer? Do you prefer the show? Or do you prefer the book? And why?

Addie: I think definitely the book. It definitely has a lot more details in the show. Because the show they could never get to exactly right. The book is always a little bit better.

Randy: I agree. I always like books better. There's only a couple instances where I don't like the book better. You still like the show, though. 

Addie: Yeah, I still love the show a lot.

Randy: You're still excited for the next series? 

Addie: Yeah.

Randy: It comes out. I mean, they already have part of it out, but…

Addie: …it costs money.

Randy: It does cost money to be a part of their subscription. But we are looking forward to the day that is free. Okay, last question. Addison. If Andrew Peterson was listening to this podcast, I don't think he is. I haven't sent it to him. And I don't know him personally. But what is one thing you'd like to tell him that you appreciated most about the books and even the show? 

Addie: I really liked that included Christian themes in the book. And that it wasn't exactly like, super. It was scary, but not scary. It was like, I liked that. He put some danger into it. But wasn’t a lot of it. It was nice mixture of both.

Randy: I like it. Well, there you guys have it. Overall, Addie, what would you give it a score out of one out of 10? What's your top score? 

Addie: Eight and a half.

Randy: eight and a half out of 10? You would read the series again? 

Addie: For sure. 

Randy: Okay. So there you have it guys. Out of the mouth of my daughter. Who? How much how much did I bribe you? To actually read this book?

Addie: Was it $10?

Randy: I don't remember. I was hoping you would.

Addie: I don't I think it was like $5 or something.

Randy: Okay, and you didn't regret it. Now, bad parenting, for sure. We shouldn't bribe our children to do things. But do you trust me a little bit more about the things they recommend or now? Some of the things? Some of the things? Not all the time? 

Addie: Not all the time.

Randy: Yeah. All right. Well, thank you for being on the show. I will be glad to have you back when you read another book that I recommend.

Analysis

Alright, so we've had our interview. I hope you guys enjoyed it. I want to go over some analysis for you, like we normally do with our books. So major things Andrew has intentionally put themes of light and darkness good and evil, and the gray area in between into his books. He also deals heavily with forgiveness, wrong choices, consequences of those choices. He does not shy away from the fact that choices have significant consequences. Many of his characters suffer from their poor choices, and he lets the story go where he naturally should, with no supernatural intervention to save them. I wished for it for the sake of the characters I had become attached to. But so glad he wrote it in the way that he did.

 The age is recommended for eight to 12 but I think I would push this higher. my eight year old son is reading this and I encouraged him to but I do think he'll struggle with it more than my daughter did. It is complex and full of deep emotional issues, personal turmoils and downright crazy situations that can get dark. Andrew Peterson also created a bunch of creatures specifically for the book and use difficult to read words. I put this book in the upper middle grade to young adult age group and think that the writing style follows suit. He is funny in his writing, and many times, especially in the first book has footnotes about the different things he is mentioning, which are also funny. I think the plot is more of the eight year old ready age. It's not hard to follow. The law of the world might throw a young reader off a bit, but it doesn't push the story along it just informs the context of some things. They may also get lost in the footnotes. But there are pictures periodically throughout the book. To keep the younger readers attention too. 

As for gospel connections and social impacts, I think we covered those in the interview. But if you have a specific question, I'd love to connect with you and answer it if I am able to. 

Final thoughts. As you can tell, we thoroughly enjoyed the series, and he was able to read it fairly quickly and was absorbed into the story. Once I picked it up, I was able to breeze through it and enjoy the series myself. Andrew Peterson brought his story to life through his writing and now through the animated series. At his younger brother Brett has now started the book series in anticipation of the second season of the show. You or your young reader will certainly enjoy this series, so be sure to pick it up. Until next time, have a great read.