Both sides want the talismans, and so the three young protagonists who were co-opted by the Greencloaks set off with their spirit animals, and their Greencloak mentor, to find the Great Ram and procure his talisman. The story is propelled forward into a quest adventure when we learn, about halfway through, that each of the 12 Great Beasts has, or had, a talisman of power. Some tension comes from the fact that Abeke has been co-opted by a group that opposes the dominion of the Greencloaks, and the reader, like Abeke, is not sure what side is Right (clue-people with 'nice' spirit animals are good, people with snakes and bats and crocodiles, not so much). This is primarily an introductory book-we meet the kids and their spirit animals, we get a bit of back story on the past conflict, and we share the protagonists frustration as the Greencloaks withhold information (for no good reason that I can see).

The two defeated Great Beasts from long ago are rising again, and war is engulfing the world. Now Connor, a shepherd boy from the European equivalent, Abeke, from the African, Meilin, from the Chinese, and Rollan, from the colonial North American, must learn to trust their spirit animals so that they can tap into their powers. They are four of the twelve Great Beasts-mythical beings of legend-the Wolf, the Leopard, the Panda, and the Falcon, who died long ago in battle against two of their kind who had turned rogue. But this year, four children summon spirit animals that no child before them ever has. These children become Greencloaks, traveling the world to help others safely bond with spirit animals.

In a fantasy world modeled loosely on our own, with equivalents of Europe, Asia, the Americas and Africa, some children form mystical bonds with spirit animals, who become their companions for life. When this book arrived in the mail, it's kid-appeal was just bursting out of its cover image-brave, multicultural kids with cool spirit animal companions-and my ten-year-old pounced on it. Wild Born, Spirit Animals Book 1, by Brandon Mull (September 2013), is the first book of a new multi-authored series from Scholastic.

Wild born by brandon mull