The Green Ember

I read The Green Ember to my kids for the first time 8 years ago when my now-16 year-old was 8. Since my youngest 2 kids at the time were only 2 and 4, this past year I have decided to re-read the series aloud to them and they are loving it just as much as my older kids did all those years ago. It is a clean, wholesome adventure story with relatable characters, despite being rabbits, who you can’t help but root for.

The Green Ember Details

Title: The Green Ember
Author: S.D. Smith
Publication Year: 2014
Website: https://store.storywarren.com/
Age Group: Late Elementary, Middle School
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Honestly, I cannot believe that I never wrote a review for The Green Ember before given how much our family has enjoyed it. I did included it on the Best Book Series for Fifth Grade and I stand by that recommendation. These days, a lot of what my kids want to read has a very modern feel to it, which is not necessarily bad, but it does include a certain amount of potty humor or a bit of gratuitous sensationality. The Green Ember is nothing like that. It feels almost Narnia-esque in it’s wholesomeness. It is an adventure story, pure and simple, with surprisingly complex characters for a children’s book.

The characters are rabbits. That should be stated up front. However, it doesn’t feel baby-ish. My kids have a real sensitivity to anything that they think is too sentimental or unrealistically idealized. For example, personally, I loved The Vanderbeekers of 141st street, but I’ve never reviewed it on this site, because my older children found the way the kids related to each other to be unbelievable in the kindness and sensitivity that they showed to each other. (Of course, it’s always possible that those fictional children just had better parenting than my real-life kids.) Even though The Green Ember has a similar feeling of innocence and goodness to me, my kids did not react to it in the same negative way. They enjoyed this story and the characters.

I think the biggest strength of The Green Ember is the character development. The best example is that one of the main characters, Pickett, starts the series a bit surly. Granted, he’s just lost his family and is still too young to have much agency, but he deals with his issues the way a sullen, sulky teenager would. He automatically dislikes a perfectly likable character simply because he feels less competent and in control. This makes him a very relatable character to an audience of growing kids who feel like they are constantly being told what to do and just want more independence and to be taken seriously.

We are about to start Book 3 soon, and I am loving re-reading this series with my youngest two kids who don’t remember the first time I read it aloud. If have kids between the ages of about 7 and 12, this could be a lovely bonding experience for you. I’ve found that with all the action and sword-fighting, this series appeals particularly to boys, but there are strong female characters in here as well.

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