Del Toro Moon, written by Darby Karchut, opens up fast and is a great balance between action and details (by which I mean explanation.) This novel follows the Del Toros’ and their War Horses, some talking horses, as they hunt the skinners.
I do not normally read middle-grade novels, but this one was just fantastical enough that I wanted to give it a shot. I wasn’t disappointed. Well written, I think this is a novel that is good for kids to get a feel for how novels written for older folks are laid out while still balancing vocabulary usage and descriptions. I wish there were more adult novels with talking horses, and these felt a lot like cartoon talking horses, likely because of the audience they were written for.
One word of caution for parents: this is a bit gore-y. Okay, a lot of gore. If your child gets scared easily or you just don’t want them reading that yet, hold off on this book.
I received this book in exchange for an honest review.
Thank you for your spot-on review of my book, DEL TORO MOON. And I appreciated what you said about talking horses. It’s a trope that can morph into silly pretty fast. LOL!