The Ranger's Apprentice (novel 1)

The first novel that I read, not counting Harry Potter, was The Ranger's Apprentice a book that has won several awards including "Books of the Year for Older Children, Aurealis Awards, and  Children's Book Council of Australia Notable Book  . This book follows the story of a teenager in a medieval fantasy world and is written by John Flanagan. In the story the main character Will is caught climbing a tower, breaking in, and stealing a cake by a master "ranger" named Halt. Instead of being angry he is impressed with the skills Will displayed and takes him as his apprentice to become a ranger. The rangers are highly skilled stealthy warriors who take on extremely high risk and difficult covert operations for the king. This first book in the series follows Wills training and is full of adventure. I think this is a great read for kids around middle school age. It has a ton of action to keep them interested without being too graphic. The protagonist being a teenager I think also would make the book much more relatable for kids around this age. In the beginning of the story Will and his friends are preparing to meet the masters of different trades to pick their professions. Out of all of his friends Will seems to be the only one who hasn't figured out what he wants to do and doesn't know who will accept him as an apprentice. After being rejected by everyone he attempted to have take him he meets Halt. I think this situation is one that a lot of kids can really relate to. Not knowing where you fit in or who will accept you is something that I think a lot of kids around this age are faced with and I think this book does a great job of showing that even if things don't seem to be working out how you planned, everyone has a place and can achieve something great. This was one of my all time favorite series as a kid and I'm glad that I got to reread it. I highily recommend this book for middle-schoolers and older kids.