The Tasters Guild

Gr 4—7—This second book in the trilogy continues 11-year-old Ivy's quest to fulfill her role as the prophesied "Noble Child" destined to cure her country's rightful king from a strange illness. In The Hollow Bettle (Knopf, 2009), Ivy defeated the evil monarch who usurped control of Caux from good King Verdigris and had a penchant for poisoning the unhappy population. Those with money hired food tasters trained by the secretive Tasters Guild to keep from becoming a victim. Ivy and her friend Rowan, an inept Guild-trained taster, were forced to run away after he failed to detect poison in his employer's food. Now they must save King Verdigris. Many of Verjouce's henchmen pursue them but Ivy's most persistent enemy is Sorrel Flux, her former taster, who keeps trying to kill her. When Ivy's exposed to a deadly weed that can transport its victims to a dark realm, she's not sure she can defeat it. This inventive story is full of strange and mysterious characters with peculiar names and viscerally descriptive locations. Kids are sure to love it.—Sharon Rawlins, New Jersey State Library, Trenton