SuitabookLastman
Balak
- Reading
- You could read together and pause after the contest scenes to check how your child is finding the action, then talk about what remains mysterious about Aldana.
- Themes
- Outsiderhood and belonging: Aldana’s modern-seeming clothes and habits puzzle people in a spell-casting medieval town. The book’s stance on this remains unclear.
- Protection and responsibility: Aldana befriends and protects a small boy, for reasons that remain mysterious. The relationship suggests a protective role for Aldana, but the boy’s circumstances and the story’s treatment of that responsibility are unclear.
- Worth knowing
- The Games are described as a gruelling gladiatorial contest, and the story includes martial arts action. Aldana is also described as smoking cigarettes; how prominently these appear is unclear.