The Green Ember: Book Review for CM Free-Read
When we first started using the Charlotte Mason method, I relied a lot on booklists prepared by other, more “seasoned” CM homeschoolers. Most of these lists typically included primarily time-tested classics, so that also became my “safety ground” when trying to find living books to add to our library.
Once in a while, there would be books recommended that weren’t old enough to be in the public domain, but most of these still tended to be published in the last century at least. (For someone born in the 1980s, it’s hard to believe that the 1900s are actually already in the last century!)
But, honestly, I’ve always been skeptical of books published after 2000. Maybe it’s a personal bias, or maybe it’s also because of a lack of trust for books that haven’t been tested over generations. I think this was the reason that, even if I’ve already seen The Green Ember series by S.D. Smith recommended somewhere years ago, and even downloaded the free Kindle book when it went on promotion, I never really got around to reading it—until recently, when I saw the website offered a free audiobook in exchange of signing up!
We have three boys in our family. The oldest took to enjoying reading from an early age. Our second is dyslexic, so although he loves stories, he usually enjoys them on audio, so the free audiobook was a perfect thing to add to his library of audiobooks. I was floored that he finished the entire thing in about two days! Meanwhile, I also dug up the Kindle version and started reading through it myself, just to see what all the hype was about.
That was about a month ago. I’m now on Book 4; my hubby is nearing the end of Book 1, and my oldest has already finished the entire series! So that’s probably a spoiler for what this book review is about.
My Thoughts on The Green Ember Series:
Here are my thoughts, as organized as I can make the plethora of them. (Remember I’m writing from the perspective of the homeschooling parent, not of the kids.)
1. The Green Ember is an epic journey.
Why do I start with this? I think I was surprised by the length of the book. Having read it first on Kindle (before buying a hard copy) I couldn’t visualize how thick it was, but I read some author interviews with S.D. Smith where he describes it as a 70,000-word book. Being somewhat of a writer myself, that gave me a picture of a book that’s about twice the usual length of regular children’s chapter books.
Why is this important to know? I think for me, understanding that it’s designed as an epic story explains why it has to be told over a series of four books. You can’t just think of reading Book 1 and stopping at that, because the story is really not complete by the end of Book 1. Sure, it wraps up neatly, but personally, I appreciated more of the character development the farther along I went into the books. (I remember noticing this important element in other book series that we’ve loved, too, like The Chronicles of Prydain by Lloyd Alexander.)
2. The Green Ember is not a “safe” story.
The Green Ember is not for the faint of heart. S.D. Smith himself talks extensively about The Green Ember not being a “safe” story. A common hashtag they use for the series is #rabbitswithswords, and although it sounds innocent and cutesy, it’s anything but! But that’s not necessarily a bad thing. In fact, I loved how clearly S.D. Smith portrays evil and wickedness, making it clearly something that the main characters are striving to fight against and win over. It draws us in to be just as invested in seeing the main characters win!
3. Heather and Picket are very relatable but also very inspiring characters.
And speaking of the main characters: the main characters for The Green Ember series are a rabbit brother-and-sister pair, Heather and Picket. Consciously not giving away any spoilers, we loved how they grew in many different ways throughout the story, with a clear depiction of the kind of rabbits they were at first—timid, with hardly any experience of the pain in the world—and the kind of hero/heroine they eventually became.
Note, their growth happened not magically, but realistically, through actual experience and training. Yes, they go through a lot of pain, and I personally loved how they responded to or processed those experiences, and especially how they were trnasformed through these.
4. I personally struggled with the fight scenes.
Nothing personal against the series, I’ve always been bored with fight scenes, so these scenes tended to take me longer to get through. But I acknowledge that the author did these well, with all the detail to make them seem real. My family (except me) all love the fight scenes, and it’s not on any theological or belief-based reason that I tended to skim over them; it’s just my personal disinterest, haha.
But when it comes to the whole concept of fighting against evil, I’m all for it. Yes, some scenes can be considered almost gory, but based on what I’ve read from author interviews, I’m confident that S.D. Smith doesn’t do it just for controversy’s sake, but with the goal of portraying wickedness as clearly as possible. So I feel like this also explains why he goes into such detail.
5. The series allows for a deeper “immersion” into the Green Ember world.
The author is very vocal about wanting to be “allies in [our kids’] imagination,” and I feel like The Green Ember very successfully does this by being a relatively long—but clearly engaging—book where our kids can linger.
In the Charlotte Mason method, Miss Mason recommends reading through a school book slowly so that the child can linger, contemplate, and ruminate on the stories. I think this is what happens with The Green Ember, too. And I believe this makes for a lot of potential imaginative play.
At one point, our two older boys have read the books, but our youngest hasn’t yet; but because we printed out the free coloring pages offered on SDSmith.com, the youngest has also started getting to know the characters. Since then, he has started listening to the audiobook, too, and I’m actually expecting that pretty soon we would have full sword fights and other adventures on our hands!
6. The story is very engaging.
I can’t deny this. The story unfolds in a way that just sweeps you into it. Again, for me, I tend to labor through the fight scenes, but even with that, there’s always some stuff that I keep wanting to find out.
I saw this happening too with my dyslexic son—remember, he usually reads through audiobook? With The Green Ember, we had the free audiobook but didn’t buy the audio version for Book 2. I was pleasantly surprised when he started asking to borrow my Kindle to read it on Kindle—and he was engrossed over it for hours on end, a first for him! Which is why I can confidently say it’s definitely engaging.
And I’m happy to say that it’s engaging in an inspiring way, and not just for some shallow entertainment—because I see the important themes that the story deals with. And wholeheartedly deals with these, to!
7. The author and his family are genuinely for families.
Now this may not be wholly about the story in The Green Ember. But I especially loved learning about S.D. Smith and his family’s quest to help other families with stories centered around truth, beauty, and goodness.
One of my favorite thoughts from S.D. Smith is something he keeps repeating in various interviews, that his goal for writing (and recommends it for any other writer, for that matter) is not fame and self-expression, but love and service. Always, it’s about being generous and hospitable to the people they serve. I find this inspiring on a personal level, and I can also feel it in The Green Ember books.
The Green Ember Books: Highly Recommended!
So, the verdict? We highly recommend The Green Ember books. You can purchase your copies through their website, SDSmith.com, or through Amazon. (We highly recommend heading on over to their website because you’ll get a whole lot of other stuff, too, including being able to sign up for their newsletter for updates, free coloring pages, and more!)
