Excerpts From An Unknown Guidebook: Book 1 Phases of The Moon by Josef Bastian

I’m so happy to have read this book!  Although it is written with middle-grade and early young adult readers in mind, I truly believe that like the Harry Potter series, adults everywhere will enjoy this book, too.  I’m also happy to report that this is the first in a series.  I know, that’s unusual, coming from me, but it’s true.

This book is about all the things I love in the literary world… books, storytelling, the magic of words, and strong relationships between characters.  Somehow, this author has found a way to write an engaging, fictional tale so similar to my Philosophy of Sacred Text, and he’s improved upon my thoughts… even though we came to these ideas quite independently.  Writing a story around this concept is something I’ve dreamed of doing for quite some time, and now I don’t have to, because it has already been done extraordinarily well.

The story speaks to the wonderment of storytelling, and how it can be a formidable opponent in the war against shadows and doubt.  This book is not just a bunch of pages, it is a reading experience that draws you in and engages you in the adventure… which is extremely interesting, because it does the same thing for the characters in the book.  Mr. Bastian drops clues and hints along the way, and although I picked up some of them.  I am sure there are other clues I missed.  I’m not worried, though.  Surely, I’ll learn more as the series continues.  This is exactly what is supposed to happen when you discover the first book in a series.  I am now compelled to buy the next book, and the next…

If that’s not enough to get you hooked, the artwork in this book is stunning.  It begins with a cover that immediately calls to the reader.  Then, with each chapter, more fantastic art is woven in between the pages of beautifully crafted paragraphs… which describe the scenes, people, settings and “other things” with such finesse that I could easily imagine it all.  This author has mastered the art of giving the reader enough information to put themselves inside the story, but not so much that there is nothing left to the imagination.  Mr. Bastian does an extraordinary job of allowing the reader to add padding to the story while leading us on a magical journey.
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I’m sending a copy of this book to my eight-year-old niece for her birthday.  I’m also sending along a note that encourages her to read it aloud to her younger sister because it was just that good!  I am hoping that they both get hooked on the story, as I have, and at some point, we can have lunch and talk all about it!  This is a series I will most certainly collect, and probably re-read, too.

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