This is the last day for the CSFF Tour for July and its featured book, The Warden And The Wolf King, by Andrew Peterson, and the last book of the Wingfeather Saga.

A Dastardly Fang of Dang

A note first of all: I participated in the Kickstarter campaign to help fund the publishing. Included in the perks were a high quality map of Aerwiar (The first people created woke up, looked around, and said, “Here we are.” How awesome.) and a Creaturepedia, a fully illustrated creature book used by Janner to identify some of the fearsome creatures in the land. If you can get your paws or hands on these items, there are very nice.

I had wanted to finish the tour by highlighting one or two of the themes of the series. Bravery. Love. Sacrifice. Family. The desire for an identity. Nobility.

For example, in the story world, the firstborn of the kingdom of Anniera was the Throne Warden, responsible for protecting the second born, the King or Queen. This arrangement used the natural responsibility of the oldest for good, and prevented the natural jealousy of the younger brother to resort to trickery to get the throne.

The idea of sacrifice was so powerfully demonstrated in the way Janner had to continually help his impulsive younger brother. But it showed all those other attributes I just listed as well. Attributes of another Firstborn who sacrificed for a family…

Ultimately, I couldn’t make up my mind with so many choices, so I’m taking the time in this blog to say this:

Thank you Andrew Peterson.

Thank you for sharing with us your gift of story.

Thank you for giving my family hours of entertainment. For giving us Podo the pirate, so I could use my pirate voice while reading aloud. For creating the Florid Sword, so I could be dramatic and silly. For envisioning strong male and female characters for the whole family.

Thank you for all the extra footnotes that refer to fictional books that you made up, enriching the book so. Thank you for the designs of creatures and maps that add that extra zing.

Thank you for the songs. Thank you for Armulyn the Bard and for troll poetry. Thank you for the laughs. And even the strange looks when I laughed out loud on a bus reading the series.

Thank you for the heart and soul you poured into these tales. For using story to share how boys and girls can be noble, brave, scared, and make mistakes, but still be used by the Maker.

Thank you for a classic series that deserves a much wider readership than it has. (Even if it sold like a billion copies, it would deserve more.)

Thank you for writing to my boys when they wrote to you. I got an excited phone call at work when Andrew Peterson wrote them back.

Finally, thank you for never giving up. Well done sir. I tip my hat to you, and I would love to buy you a sweetberry treat if one day we meet.

Sincerely,

Jason Joyner

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What more can I say? If you haven’t purchased the books yet, do yourself a favor and go to the Rabbit Room and order the set (it also gives more money back to the author than certain A to Z stores…).

If you want to see what others on the tour are saying, see Becky Miller’s site where she updates all of the participants.