Great Middle Grade Reads discussion

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AUTHORS' CORNER > HI I'm looking for a beta reader interested in a middle grade 40,000 word manuscript

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Liisa | 9 comments Hi, I'm lloking for a beta reader that has expereince and interest in reading fantasy,mythological middle grade material. It was professionally edited, so my interest is getting feedback on the content. THe agents keep rejecting me. I've got to solve this mystery!

Here is the synopsis:
Synopsis of the Middle Grade fantasy manuscript: Lifting Katara’s Curse

A bizarre encounter with a barefoot granny− sole captain of a mysterious Greek fishing boat at port in their local swimming hole− leads two siblings, ten-year-old Alex and twelve-year-old Daphne, on an unfathomable adventure. After being sucked through a jar filled with jellybeans used by the lady as fish bait, they both land with a thump under a pomegranate tree on the island of Chios. Greeted by a young island boy, Phoibus, the kids are related their destiny while being led on donkeys to the Oracle of Truth. Tiffly, the Oracle, sends them on three perilous quests meant to test Alex’s mental and spiritual strength as well as fortify the siblings’ loyalty and commitment to each other. Their survival hinges on their strengthened bond, as Katara, the island’s vengeful traitor, is hot on their path.

In a cave of stalactites and stalagmites, Alex battles against his fear of the darkness and successfully escapes with a tear-shaped stalagmite sample for Tiffly, but he doesn’t escape before suffering a piercing bite from an eel His second challenge takes the kids to the island’s Petrified Forest, where he out-riddles the two guarding lions and returns to the Oracle with her requested piece of fossilized tree trunk. The final quest takes Alex, Daphne and their two companions− the Greek Gods, Apollo and Mercury disguised as island brothers− to the holy monastery of New Moni. Alex labors to recreate a ravaged mosaic, which he is told will reveal the location of the island’s stolen icon – “Hope,” hidden in one of Katara’s fortress dungeons.

Once past Katara’s sizzling army of Urks, forged from the bowels of the earth, and the grotesque peacock at the entrance of the fortress, Alex’s first step plunges him into a tenebrous labyrinth. Injured from the fall, he drags himself along a clammy passageway, guided by a line of ants crawling to the chamber with the purloined holy icon. Shortly after, Daphne is lowered down by rope. In this musty, ant-infested dungeon, Alex and Daphne come face to face with Katara in the “Chamber of the Eagle”. After revealing their ancestral bond, Katara beckons Alex to join forces with her. When he refuses, Katara puts him in a trance and locks Daphne in a cage dangling from a precipice. Forced to save his sister’s life, Alex brilliantly outwits Katara with the help of the island’s mastic, crumbling her into dust with the holy icon itself.

Back at the boys’ home on the island, the host family is revealed to be no other than the mythical gods themselves. Alex and Daphne return the icon to Nea Moni, its proper sanctuary, and depart for home in a submarine. They resurface back in the river rapids behind their home, where they fight for their lives in the swirling river currents. Luckily, two town boys pull them out and retell the kids’ accidental fall as they had witnessed it. Dazed and bedraggled, Daphne and Alex ponder whether they have met these boys before. They agree there’s something uncanny and familiar about them. As they struggle home with a new sense of wonder, greater appreciation for home, their family and each other, Alex and Daphne are left with one unanswered question: Was their journey real? The soggy letter from Apollo in her pocket along with a dripping bag of mastic are hard evidence to ignore.


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