FernFolio

Fifteen year-old Will anxiously awaits Choosing Day, when he and his four ward mates will learn to which craft master they will apprenticed. Told that his nameless father was a war hero, Will dreams of being a knight, but, with his small, wiry body, fears that he will be rejected by the head of the Battle school. Other than his agility in climbing trees and his ability to slip about the castle bent upon one prank or another, Will has no real talents. If he fails to be chosen by a Craft house, he will be sent to the farms to work as a labourer.
Will’s anxiety mounts when the cloaked figure of Halt steps into Baron Arald’s chamber. As Ranger for Baron Arald’s fife, Halt is part warrior and part spy, travelling in secret throughout the kingdom, constantly alert to rumours that the otherworldly armies of King Duncan’s mortal enemy, Morgarath, are on the move. Halt calmly states that there is something thing the knight ought to know about Will. The folded sheet he hands the Baron has Will confused and increasingly consumed with curiosity. What information has Halt about Will’s unknown past, and how has he come by it?
When Baron Arald defers his decision about Will’s future to ponder the information Halt has brought to him, the boy decides he needs to find and read the Ranger’s note. Though he knows he risks discovery, Will scales the outside wall of the castle keep and creeps into the Baron’s room. What Will learns shocks and dismays him, and offers the boy an opportunity to serve his kingdom in ways he could never have imagined.
John Flanagan’s Ranger’s Apprentice Book One: The Ruins of Gorlan is instantly gripping and will have you riveted right to the final page. You will want to read Will’s continuing adventures in The Burning Bridge, The Icebound Lake, and The Oakleaf Bearers!
Thank you to Rodrigo, Grade 6, who recommended this book!
FernFolio Editor