Tigerpetal Press : Book Review: The Golden Tree

The Guardians of Ga’Hoole Book 12: The Golden Tree by Kathryn Lasky

I really liked it

While I enjoyed the band reading the legends, I’m eager to get back to the present day. What in the world has Nyra been up to in all this time? This is surely not the end of her evil.

Read: May 11 – May 13, 2025

Genre: Fantasy, Fable
Audience: Children, Middle-grade
Book contains: brainwashing, propaganda, holy worship, religious crusade, manipulation, discussion of maiming, battle, death, attempted murder

Purchase a copy from Indigo.ca

A Warning Against Losing Oneself

The band has completed reading the three ancient legends of Hoole and the ember, and now they must face the new challenges arising, not only with the uncertainty of Nyra’s survival, but within the tree itself, which seems to be frozen in an endless golden summer. Is this a blessing, or an unforeseen curse?

I was both eager and unsure about diving into this book, but I can now say I wasn’t disappointed. At first I wasn’t sure how jarring the transition back into the present time would be, what with the last three books not dealing with our current characters or plots much. However, Lasky has done well in maintaining the characters and giving context to the current issues that have followed young King Coryn back to the Great Ga’Hoole Tree with the ember.

This book followed the same pattern as all the rest. Told in third person limited with a shifting focus (even in the same scene), the story mostly follows Coryn, but also shifts back and forth between the band’s tour of the Southern Kingdoms and what’s happening back at the great tree in their absence. Also, I’m thrilled that we once again get a frontispiece depicting a scene within the book.

I got through this book a lot quicker than the last one. Being back at home, I had fewer distractions to keep me from reading.

It’s still so strange to think of Soren as an adult now with chicks of his own. For so long he and the band were the main characters, still young owls, and now it’s Coryn. I’m glad, at least, that Otulissa is back to her usual self, but the evolution of the other owls of the great tree was peculiar and dangerous in this book. Coryn remains noble at heart, a character haunted by his past with a great advisor in his uncle and the other Guardians.

Coryn and his uncle Soren are incredibly close in this book, and a lot of it actually shows Coryn bonding with the original band, becoming part of them. Meanwhile, dissent reigns back at the great tree, where Otulissa is failing to keep order. Owls previously in the background are getting more attention and are thus growing in power, their opinions and actions going unchecked.

There were only a few pieces that drew me out of the reading (for example the mention of Nyra with teeth even though she’s an owl), but overall, the book is well-written for child and middle-grade readers despite the depictions of battle and evil. There were a few words I thought young readers might struggle with, but if they’re reading with a parent or other adult, the word can easily be explained.

It wasn’t as clear in this book as others what the plot was leading to, but I’d say the pacing was still pretty good. It felt like things were just getting worse and worse for the characters both at the great tree and for the band in the kingdoms, so I was expecting a confrontation to solve (or at least amend) both by the end. Both storylines were leading to solutions and took the appropriate steps to get there in an entertaining and logical fashion.

After taking a break from the present to read the past, I’m delighted by where we’ve come back to. This book is definitely worth a read for fans of the series.

The Guardians of Ga’Hoole Book 12: The Golden Tree by Kathryn Lasky

A Warning Against Losing Oneself

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