The Outcasts by John Flanagan

Rating: 4/5

I really enjoy Flanagan’s Ranger Apprentice series, but I think I enjoy his Brotherband series even more. They’re entertaining and funny, and the whole premise is about a band of misfits who learn to work together and overcome challenging obstacles by utilizing what makes each of them stand out. It’s a similar format to, say, the very popular Six of Crows (except not a heist novel), except the characters in that book are already talented from the beginning—in this book, all of the characters have to learn and grow as individuals and as a team.

I think one reason why I enjoy this series more than Ranger’s Apprentice is that there are more characters. RA had Will, Halt, and Horace, and that’s about it, with 2 other main characters occasionally showing up. But in this book, there’s 9 characters and somehow Flanagan manages to make them stand out from each other in little ways. Hal, Stig, and Thorn are obviously the main ones, but even the other 6 are fairly well established, with the exception of one, Edvin, who gets more development in later books. Plus, there’s something tremendously heartwarming about the story, about how a group of kids who nobody wanted to pick for their “team” banded together and figured out how they best worked together, and along the way started becoming fast friends. And the best thing is that it takes them a while to get it. It takes them a while to learn to work together and to best utilize people’s strengths. And even at the end of this book there’s still more for them to learn.

I remember this series having a few flaws and things that grated over time, just like with Ranger’s Apprentice, but I also remember how much I enjoyed each book and especially the first three. I absolutely love books about underdogs winning the day through ingenuity, and this series is a celebration of that trope. In addition, this series also is different enough from Ranger’s Apprentice that it could attract totally different readers, as well as those that enjoyed RA. I don’t read a whole lot of books that I think boys would really enjoy, but this is definitely one of those.

Info: John Flanagan; published in 2011 by Philomel

Genre: Middle Grade, Fantasy

Warnings: None.

Recommended Age Range: 10+