SuitabookBronte Tempestra and the Lightning Steeds
Bex Hogan
- Reading
- Reading together could make the creatures and school dynamics easy to discuss. Pause after moments when Bronte acts despite doubt, asking what choice she faces and whether the outcome feels earned.
- Themes
- Challenging gendered expectations: Bronte wants to become a knight, and the school has only recently opened to girls. She is frustrated by being treated as a ‘pointless princess’. The premise and author’s stated intention clearly question stories in which women exist only to be rescued, though the wider treatment of every character is not established.
- Bravery and responsibility: Bronte investigates unusual events, persists when her concerns are dismissed and confronts threats affecting the kingdom. The book presents this favourably.
- Fantasy danger and comic invention: The story includes Lightning Steeds, Thunder Trolls, horror flies, zombits, griffin lords and cloud-stealing gnomes during a kingdom-threatening quest. The creatures and threats are presented as imaginative fantasy, with comic elements alongside danger; the full emotional tone and resolution are not established.
- Worth knowing
- Some readers may find the threats, dangerous creatures and kingdom-wide peril exciting; others may want support with spooky imagery.