Flying ships, weird creatures, and crazy plants. You will find all this in the book Beyond the Deep Woods by Paul Stewart. This story is about a boy named twig. The genre of this book is fantasy and adventure. Beyond the Deep Woods will keep you at the edge of your seat.
The setting of this story is on a land that has an edge, and in that case it was called The Edge. The Edge has and end to it so there is nothing over it. Below the edge is nothing but blackness. The inhabitance of the edge is gruesome and has the most disgusting creatures alive. The Edge is utterly the wildest place. The authors words will help you picture The Edge so well that you would be able to smell, taste, and see the world of The Edge in all its glory.
The main character Beyond the Deep Woods is a teen named Twig. He has pointed peach ears and a human like look to the rest of him. Twig is looking for something during the story. His father and mother left him when he was a baby and then was adopted by wood trolls.
Survival of the fittest is the theme of this book. Every day Twig faces more dangers as he travels. He has to scavenge for food. Will Twig survive if he's attacked? He also has to walk for miles and miles until he can't walk any more.
I would recommend this book this book for anyone that likes fantasy and adventure books. If you also like mystery you would like this book. During the story there are parts with fighting and killing. This book follows Twig throughout the book. This book is on a scale of one being the lowest, to ten being the highest, it's a six. Please read this book and you decide the number it is on the scale.

"get off! get away!" Twigg cried as he slapped at the voracious insects. "if it's not one thing, it's...YOUCH!" Slap. "...another!" Slap. Slap. (p. 170)

the above quotation is from Chapter Ten of Beyond the Deepwoods, and it pretty much sums up the entire book. here's the plot: twig finds out he's adopted, then leaves for his aunt's house. then he gets lost. then he saves someone from a "hover worm." then a caterbird saves him from a skullpelt. then a tree tries to eat him, but it chokes on him and belches him out - straight into a colony of goblins, whose Grossmother throws him down the garbage shoot...

and so on and so forth, going from one danger to another, and never getting anywhere. if you cut out everything irrelevant to the plot (finding out who he is and his destiny), the book would be about ten pages long. but as it is we have to trudge through a bunch of random creatures trying to attack twig before we (thank god!) get to the last part where he fnally found out his history. which was far from worth it - we get treated to quotes like: His choking sobs filled the air. "why, my father, why?" he cried. "Why have you abandoned me?" Though there is a rather sweet moment when Twig accepts his identity. but that's just about the only part that i could call particularly good, and it in no way justfies the rest of the book.

some may be more tolerant, but i was incredibly bored. twig's adventures contributed nothing to the story but a bunch of wierd names. he doesn't even grow by them - most of the time he saved by someone else or by luck, without doing anything himself. and twig's thoughts are discussed, oh, maybe once or twice. so we don't even get an idea of his character.

so, a waste of time. i've heard the second book is better, so i'll try it, but it better be much better than this one.

I have often seen The Edge Chronicles at the top of "What to read between Harry Potter books" lists. I love the Harry Potter series and with its inevitable demise, I too have found myself looking for alternatives. After only one book, I would probably suggest the Edge Chronicles for a younger reading-audience than the Harry Potter series, but that is not to say that I, as a 25 year old (child), could not have fun with them. Again, with only one book done, I am already looking forward to the second book.

For the first installment of the series, poor Twig (the main character) has a very rough go at it. He is basically pushed out of the proverbial nest and finds himself in a situation where he must find his own way. Beyond the Deepwoods follows Twig as he continuously finds himself face-to-face with danger. At every turn he encounters creatures, many animal...some vegetable, that try to do him great harm. Twig spends more time in trouble than he does getting out of it. From my "adult" perspective, I would have liked to see a little more development in the escape, but I cannot imagine that it would be an issue for a younger reader.

The story is wildly imaginative and fun to read. A huge bonus to these books is the artwork by Chris Riddell. He is a wonderfully talented artist and his beautiful drawings bring the story to life. What I liked most was how the text was wrapped around the pictures. The pictures are not separate from the text; they are just as important as the words and the two are presented together.

If Beyond the Deepwoods is representative of the series, the books are short and simple, quick reads. And if you are sucker for a gimmick like I am, these books all come in a fun, hard-cover binding that will look great on my bookshelf as I add them to my collection.

I bought this for my 11 yr. old daughter and she loved it. She now wants all the books in the series.

I think this book is a good starting for the series and interduces the charecters very well though I would have given it a five star if it had more story. It seemed a little like a the series of unfortunate events how he goes from one danger to another then another then another from the Bloodoak to the Gyle Goblins, from the Forest Fire to the Edgelands. But very well written otherwise.