The Crowfield Demon by Pat Walsh - OPTIONAL

Walsh, Pat  The Crowfield Demon, 368 pgs.  Scholastic, 2012.  $16.99  Content: Language: PG (3 swears); Mature Content: PG-13; Violence: PG-13. 

In this sequel to Crowfield Curse, the main character Will faces a demon at Crowfield Abbey.  Will and his good friends: a forest hob, a warrior fay and Brother Snail, try to warn the monks at the Abbey about the dark magic that is at play at the Abbey, and when the brothers don’t listen to them, their Abbey walls crumble.  Will and his friends implore a local apothecary to help them fight the demon, but they end up unleashing the full power of the demon.  Will and his friends find themselves in a battle for their lives and to return peace to the area around Crowfield Abbey. 

This book is dark.  The suggested age group is upper elementary, but there is no way I would let my elementary child read about demons and witchcraft.  The demon actually crushes one of the priests to death under the church wall and there is talk of blood sacrifices.  At one point the brothers try to pray to remove the demon, and it doesn’t work, so the fay convinces them that the only way to get rid of the demon is to use dark magic-yikes, I don’t know what that teaches kids.  The book is well written and I really like the main character, Will, but the heavy content and darkness make it only optional. 

MS-OPTIONAL.  Reviewer, C. Peterson.