The Guardian Test (Legends of Lotus Island #1)

by Christina Soontornvat, Kevin Hong (Illustrator)

Overview

Notes From Your Bookseller

Fans of Skyborn and Wings of Fire won’t want to miss The Guardian Test, the first installment in the epic Legends of Lotus Island series where children transform into Guardians, magical protectors of the natural world. Fantastical creatures and non-stop action abound in this adventure for the ages.

From three-time Newbery honor recipient Christina Soontornvat comes a thrilling fantasy series about kids who can transform into amazing animals!

Young Plum is shocked to discover that she’s been accepted to the Guardian Academy on Lotus Island, an elite school where kids learn how to transform into Guardians, magical creatures who are sworn to protect the natural world. The Guardian masters teach Plum and her friends how to communicate with animals and how to use meditation to strengthen their minds and bodies. All the kids also learn to fight, so they can protect the defenseless if needed.

To her dismay, Plum struggles at school. While her classmates begin to transform into amazing creatures, Plum can’t even seem to magic up a single feather! If she can’t embrace her inner animal form soon, she’ll have to leave school ― and lose the first group of real friends she’s ever known.

Perfect for reluctant readers:

• Under 200 pages
• Interior illustrations
• Magic and adventure

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781338759150
Publisher:	Scholastic, Inc.
Publication date:	03/07/2023
Series:	Legends of Lotus Island , #1
Pages:	160
Sales rank:	172,272
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.30(h) x 0.80(d)
Age Range:	8 - 12 Years

About the Author

Christina Soontornvat is a three-time Newbery Honoree, a Sibert Honoree, and a Kirkus Prize winner. Her highly acclaimed backlist includes the middle grade books The Tryout, The Last Mapmaker, A Wish in the Dark, and All Thirteen; the picture book To Change a Planet; and the chapter book series Diary of an Ice Princess and Legends of Lotus Island. Christina lives in Austin, Texas, with her family. You can learn more about her work at soontornvat.com.

Editorial Reviews

01/23/2023

Soontornvat (The Tryout) deftly combines a Thai-inspired setting, familiar fantasy tropes, and themes of nature conservation to craft a mystical series kickoff. Tween Plum, who’s grown up on her grandparents’ farm in the Santipap Islands, can hardly believe that she has been chosen to become a Guardian, part of a group of magical animalian shape-shifters who protect and nurture the natural world. She’s soon sent to Guardian Academy on Lotus Island to train for her first test: discovering her animal shape. At school, Plum faces bullying based on her rural upbringing, and forges an immediate friendship with knowledgeable, take-charge classmate Cherry. Despite her quickly improving abilities, however, Plum is unsure whether she will be able to unleash her inner power. Plum’s struggles with her self-worth are compassionately wrought, and her unique ability to communicate with animals and plants suitably plays into the narrative’s focus on environmentalism. Descriptive scene setting and humorous dialogue offer a solid foundation for interpersonal conflicts, while Hong’s animated grayscale illustrations elevate Soontornvat’s leisurely unfolding, intriguing Guardian mythos. Ages 8–12. Agent: Stephanie Fretwell-Hill, Red Fox Literary. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly

2022-12-24
Does Plum have what it takes to become a shape-shifting Guardian?

Raised by her grandparents since her parents died in a boating accident, Plum has spent her childhood learning about plants and animals. She hasn’t ventured far from her island home, part of the Santipap Islands, but when she is accepted into the prestigious Guardian Academy, where she will train to become a Guardian along with other children from all walks of life, her grandparents encourage her to go, certain that her future holds more than their little island can provide. At the Academy, Plum’s tendency to talk to plants and animals strikes some of the students as strange, though she also begins to make friends. In the Santipap Islands, Guardians have the power to shift into an animal shape to better protect the land, and Plum’s first test is to find her own animal shape—but will she succeed, or will she be forced to return home a failure? With a Thailand-inspired setting, magic rooted in nature and the environment, and whimsical illustrations, this is a promising beginning to a series ready to introduce readers to both the fantasy genre and a beautiful and mysterious new world. All characters are somewhat loosely implied to be Thai due to character and place names.

Themes of friendship and environmentalism combine in this magical school story. (map) (Fantasy. 7-11)

Kirkus Reviews

Praise for The Guardian Test:

A 2023 Junior Library Guild Selection

An Indie Next Pick

“With a Thailand-inspired setting, magic rooted in nature and the environment, and whimsical illustrations, this is a promising beginning to a series ready to introduce readers to both the fantasy genre and a beautiful and mysterious new world.” —Kirkus Reviews

From the Publisher