“Ember Falls” by S.D. Smith

The rabbits are back.

If you’d told me I would be enjoying a children’s book series about rabbits, I might have laughed out loud. But I am enjoying one, and I’m not laughing – I’m smiling.

Ember Falls is the second installment of The Green Ember series by S.D. Smith and illustrated by Zach Franzen (there’s also a prequel – The Black Star of Kingston). And what rabbits can do is rather amazing.

Following the great victory over the wolves at Jupiter’s Crossing (where we left our rabbit friends in The Green Ember), brother and sister Picket and Heather Longtreader have settled into a kind of normal daily living. Heather is learning the arts of medicine from Dr. Emma, who will turn out to be something more than a doctor. Picket is training with the elite military unit called the Fowlers, while mourning the taking of his parents and little brother by the wolves. He’s in training because the rabbits know war is coming.

Trouble lurks at every corner – wolves attacking in unexpected forays into the rabbit compound of Halfwind, eagles screaming and pouncing, the arrival of a new and suspect rabbit army, and traitors lurking in their midst. Heather and Picket have much to learn, and much to be wary about.

It’s a delightful story, and it can be read aloud to a children’s audience (or an adult one, for that matter). It’s action-packed, full of near misses and near hits, acts of courage in the face of overwhelming odds, and riveting scenes of anguish and confrontation. An additional story is being developed as well – the plight of a girl rabbit enslaved by the wolves and forced to serve them.

Ember Falls is the second of at least three in the rabbit series. It’s a self-contained one but not a completed one.

Yes, I’m glad the rabbits are back.

Related:

My review of The Green Ember.

My review of The Black Star of Kingston.

S.D. Smith’s “The Black Star of Kingston”

Amazon made a mistake.

S.D. Smith’s new children’s book, The Black Star of Kingston, is scheduled to publish July 13. But Amazon shipped some pre-orders early.

I was one of the beneficiaries of the mistake.

And what a rollicking good story this is. Yes, it’s a children’s story, but it stirs the blood and makes you want to take sword in had to fight alongside the characters in the story.

The Black Star of Kingston is a kind of prequel to Smith’s first children’s book, The Green Ember, with the story taking place about 100 years before (I reviewed The Green Ember here in February). A prequel, yes, but it provides context for the story of the green ember and the critical role it plays it the history of the rabbits.

S.D. Smith

Yes, rabbits, rabbits with names like Fleck the miner, and Galt, Gavin, King Whitson and Queen Lillie, Prince Lander, Massie and so many more. Some years prior, they had fled the destruction of their home and many members of their families, founding the town of Seddleton on the shores of Lake Ayman.

The settlement needs fuel, however, and to cut down too many trees is to make the rabbits vulnerable. They look across the lake at the brooding, dark mountains beyond – which Fleck believes are a likely source of coal. Eventually, the king outfits an expedition. The rabbits do find coal, and something else, something evil, something that will seek to destroy them, their families and their town.

Zach Franzen

It’s a heroic story, demonstrating what happens when an ordinary individual (Like Fleck the miner) follows his convictions and rises to what can only be called heroism.

Like The Green Ember, this story is illustrated by Zach Franzen, who gets the rabbits exactly right. A sequel to The Green Ember is scheduled for publication in 2016.

The Black Star of Kingston is not only a children’s book; it is a book to be read by adults to children – for the benefit of both.

Top photograph: Cover illustration of The Black Star of Kingston by Zach Franzen.

S.D. Smith’s “The Green Ember”

It’s a story about rabbits. Then again, it’s about more than rabbits. A lot more.

Heather and Pickett live with their mother, father and baby brother Jacks in Nick Hollow, not far from the East Woods. It’s an almost idyllic existence. They play and ramble in the fields and meadows, and love to listen to their father tell stories of the old days.

One day, while playing, they hear a scream, and then another. They run for home, only to find wolves attacking it. They’re chased into the woods themselves, and Heather takes a stand against the wolf pack to allow her brother to escape. Through a combination of skillful foot attacks and almost flying through a line of trees (marvelously described in the story) she escapes, and barely makes the cave refuge where her brother awaits. They are saved by a rabbit who tells them he’s their uncle, and a smaller companion rabbit whom their uncle maintains a careful watch over. They make their way through a cave system, and eventually find refuge with a small rabbit city hidden within Cloud Mountain.

Welcome to the world of The Green Ember by S.D. Smith and illustrated by Zach Franzen.

S.D. Smith

And what a world it is – filled with heroes and traitors, villains and forces of evil, a world once overthrown that the rabbits are seeking to rebuild. Heather and Pickett find themselves befriended, and they find themselves shunned – their family is held responsible for the betrayal, overthrow and death of the good King Jupiter.

And now war is upon them again. Pickett must deal with a massive chip on his shoulder, and he and Heather together must overcome the loss of her family. Gradually they come to understand the roles they have to play, reaching within themselves to fight a battle they may not survive.

Zach Franzen

S.D. Smith is one of the writers and administrators of Story Warren, a site which exists “to serve you as you foster holy imagination in the children you love.” It includes stories, songs and poems for children, as well as resources and articles for parents.

The Green Ember is filled with familiar themes – grace, redemption, courage, and even anger and selfishness – but told in a fresh, exciting way. It may be a story aimed at children, but it is also a story this adult thoroughly enjoyed.

Illustration by Zach Franzen – from the cover of The Green Ember.