Review
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Title: Forest Born (Books of Bayern)
Author: Shannon Hale
Publisher: Bloomsbury USA Children's Books
Genre: YA Fantasy
Year Published: 2009
Number of Pages: 400
Binding: Hardcover
ISBN10: 1599901676
ISBN13: 978-1599901671
Price: $17.99

Reviewed by Beth Roach

This is the fourth book in the Books of Bayern, a series which began with The Goose Girl. In this story, Razo's little sister, Rina, at fifteen, wants to leave her home and family in the forest and seek ways to solve the problems that are starting to trouble her. She travels with Razo to the city and meets the rest of the cast of characters that have populated the previous three books. She becomes a companion to three other gifted and confident young women: Isi, who has a wind-speaking gift and is the queen of Bayern, Enna, who has a fire-speaking gift, and Dasha, who has a water-speaking gift and is Razo's love interest as they set out on an adventure to discover and stop the sinister influences which are endangering the residents of outlying Bayern villages. Rinna must face conflicts from the inside and the outside as she struggles to define who she is and how she can take her place in her world.

I was very interested to see this new addition to the Books of Bayern series. If the author had not been Shannon Hale, I would have been concerned that a fourth book in a series would be disappointing and just reworked material tied together with thin threads of plot. But Shannon Hale comes through victoriously again! She tells the stories of how completely different people face the challenges that come with growing up into mature confident adults. Just like her other books, this one has wonderful original characters, an interesting plot line, moments of humor, mystery, plot twists, and lyrical descriptions and metaphors. I especially like that the main female characters are solid, moral, caring, supportive, and competent. They are all distinct personalities who have to face various struggles in this book and they choose to support each other through them. The first half of the book seemed to be slower than the second half of the book and seemed to drag on for a bit, but once the story got going, it was hard to put the book down until the very last page. The ending leaves you wondering if Shannon Hale could possibly pull off her magic one more time and write Book Number Five.

You can read this book as a stand alone story without reading the other books first if you wish. If I did not know the series, I would probably start with the first book and add this one as another layer as I learned more about Bayern and its people. I would recommend this volume for 'tweens, young adults and book clubs.