The Lost Years of Merlin Series by T.A. Barron

I must apologize, I again don't have a new review for you this week! But, not wanting to be a total slacker, I started looking through my book shelf for something I've read in the past that I could share. The Lost Years of Merlin series caught my eye. I read these in high school, I may have started the series in the 8th grade even...I can't remember. But what I do remember is that these books were amazing - I still can vividly remember portions of the stories, years after reading them. That, my friends, is a sign of a good book. They are sort of a mix between The Lord of the Ring, Star Wars, and a little Harry Potter too. As the title suggests, these books chronicle the years of Merlin's youth...how Merlin became the Merlin we know from Camelot. It's a fun series, it really transports you, and it's a great new take on the Merlin story. They are supposedly making these into movies...so you may want to get started on the books now so you don't need to scramble to finish them before you see them on the big screen;)

I'd recommend T.A. Barron's other novels too, I've read The Great Tree of Avalon series as well. I read that in college, in case you may be thinking these might be too juvenile for you. T.A. Barron puts a lot of research in to his books and that really adds a nice depth to the stories he tells. It is young adult reading, so I'm not promising you anything too philosophical or anything, but it's enjoyable and definitely worth picking up. I tend to gravitate to young adult authors in the fantasy genre because they are more likely to be clean - and these hold true to that assumption. My overall rating for T.A. Barron and The Lost Years of Merlin (and The Great Tree of Avalon too!) is a 5 out of 5, I love them. And they are clean! I think a PG rating fits these well.