LitPick Review
Alex Colds's mother has cancer and she and his father must go to a special treatment center in Texas. Alex must go to live with his grandmother in New York City, but she is going on an expedition to the Amazon, so Alex has to stop school and go with her. They travel to the most remote part of the Amazon where only natives live. When they get there Alex makes a friends with a girl whose dad is leading the expedition. Together they must try to uncover criminals on the trip who are trying to wipe out the natives and protect the natives so that they can keep their traditional ways.
Opinion:
The title of this book makes you think it is a fantasy book. Actually the book had less fantasy then I thought it would, so a reluctant fantasy reader would enjoy it. Instead the book is really about the Amazon rainforest and its people. I actually learned a lot about the Amazon rainforest and the challenges that face the indigenous people that live there. At times though it was hard to figure out what were real issues and what was fiction, added to make a good story. I also found some things to be too unreal, such as the name of the sponsor of the trip: "International Geographic." It sounded too much like "National Geographic and for me, made the story less believable. The ending of City of the Beasts leads nicely into the sequel, Kingdom of the Golden Dragon, which I am looking forward to reading soon.
