Review: Sona and the Golden Beasts

By Rajani LaRocca

New York: Quill Tree Books, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers, 2024. Fiction. 385 pages.

Sona lives in a magical land called Devia with her father and brothers. In this land the Malech are the ruling class that conquered Devia, and the Malech don’t want any of the Devan ways to survive —the Malech rulers just want to mine all the jewels from the land to take back to their home country. When Sona discovers a wolf pup that she believes is related to one of the five sacred beasts of Devia, Sona must leave on an adventure to try to save the wolf pup, a loved one, and her country.

This is a story full of magic, adventure, self-discovery, and figuring out who to trust and how to decide what is right in the face of all that is hard. Kids who love good adventures with magic and friendship and animal camaraderie thrown in will love this novel.

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