'Ehtaria: A land of their own'

★★★★

Realistic dialogue and characters

​Felicia the feline and Zeus the dog go on an adventure to a place called Ehtaria.

​They make new friends along the way and deal with some not so friendly animals as well. Originally published under the name Freepetopia in Oct 2012, it was revamped with a new cover and title in 2018 and looks better than ever!

The plot was simple enough for my children to understand what was going on throughout the book but the writing wasn’t so elementary that they weren’t challenged when reading. There were a few mechanical mistakes throughout the book, but mainly just typos, like an extra word or a missing letter. Very simple mistakes that every writer makes that can easily be fixed if they so choose once pointed out, but not enough to lose stars over. 

My absolute favorite aspects of this book were the realistic dialogue and character depth and interactions. Each animal in this story had their own personalities and things that made them unique. For example, one pet had a stutter and another was afraid of the dark, and they took care of each other in spite of their differences. I also loved how it shows that characters can still be friends, even if they are sarcastic with one another and ‘teasing/picking on each other.’ It also showed you aren’t always going to immediately become fast friends with other people you meet, but that doesn’t mean it can’t happen.
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I personally gave this book 4 stars because it is a child’s book and I am not as emotionally invested in the characters as my children would be. Having said that, my children definitely were invested. They were shocked by certain scenes we read, asked to read the book with me and absolutely hated when I finished a chapter and it had ended on a ‘cliff hanger,’ their actual words. So, even though I personally didn’t get attached, though the book was very well done, in my kids eyes this was a 5-star book.