Fire and Ice (Spirit Animals Book 4) by Shannon Hale

Fire and Ice (Spirit Animals Book 4) by Shannon Hale. 185 p. Scholastic Inc., June, 2014. 9780545522465. (Finished copy courtesy of publisher for review)

Confession time: I must own up to reacting with a bit of yawn upon receiving an arc of Wild Born, book one of this new multi-platform, multi-author series from Scholastic. I did not rush to read it. I found the 39 Clues series to be a bit over-the-top and never read any of its spin-offs as my patrons (middle school) really never asked for them. I read and enjoyed the first book or two of the Infinity Ring series, but they don't circulate either. For some reason, my kids don't find time travel books appealing. I have a few faves that are a really hard sell. When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead seems to be the lone exception.

It wasn't until the second and third books came my way for review about the same time a fifth grader came into the library looking for the series that I settled in to read book one. Click here for my review of books 1 - 3.

In Fire and Ice, the four young heroes and their adult companions journey to Arctica in the frozen north in search of the talisman of Suka, the polar bear. I mentioned in my review of the earlier installments that the action got a bit repetitive. 
Not so in Fire and Ice. This one's the best one yet. It's layered, a bit more introspective and, um, obscure. There's a fair amount of description of the seemingly barren, frigid land and the people who inhabit it are rather unique, a bit unfriendly and very difficult to read. Rollin, whose strength is reading people and situations has difficulty sussing out these folks. Some young readers may miss the violent clashes between the Greencloaks and the Devourers but I kind of enjoyed the break. In each book, one of the four seems to confront difficult choices and it's Rollin's turn to keep some secrets here.

If readers up till this point are wondering, as I was, how the Devourers seem to know or anticipate their every move, answers might be due in book five, Against the Tide by Tui T. Sutherland, due out September 30. It seems there is a traitor in the midst. I also discovered that a "special edition," Tales of the Great Beast by Brandon Mull and others is due out in October.