The Edge of the Word by Drew Callander, Alana Harrison Illustrator: Ryan Andrews
Series: Mightier Than the Sword #2
Also in this series: Mightier Than the Sword
Published by Penguin Workshop on November 5, 2019
Genres: Middle Grade, Fantasy
Pages: 336
Source: The Publisher
My content rating: MG (Some MG-level violence)
My rating:
The exciting follow-up to Mightier Than the Sword, the humorous and fantastical interactive middle-grade novel which needs you, the reader, to get in on the action!
The second book set in Astorya places you back in the driver's seat. You're a real human being (we assume), and in this fictional world, that makes you a superhero. Armed with your trusty pencil, you have the power to create. What you write, draw, or scribble in the book becomes part of the story!
You must journey to Astorya's Other Side, a place of monsters and mayhem, to hide the Original original forever. Surely nothing bad could happen to Astorya's precious document there, right? But when the plan goes awry and digital doppelgangers are unleashed on the world, once again only you can save the day.
Write, draw, and puzzle your way through a hilarious adventure story that is unique to every reader! And, most importantly, prove that the pencil is mightier than the sword.
I dare say that this second book in the series is even more interactive than the first! The book puts you right in the action, since you’re the main character (much like a Choose Your Own Adventure book) as you go on a quest to save Astorya by hiding the Original original in a place no one will ever look for it—on the Other Side (basically the underneath side of the world). This book includes even more fun Mad Libs style fill-in-the blanks and gives you more chances to actually draw your creations (for instance, you design a monster disguise that you wear in order to fool the monsters on the Other Side). And it also includes puzzles that you have to solve in order to complete your quest.
This book is full of surprises (especially since you get to make up some of it yourself), and the quest ends in an unexpected way (something I always appreciate as a reader). Kids will love the battles with Other Side monsters and the goofy humor. These books are incredibly fun, and I highly recommend the series!!
***Disclosure: I received this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. No other compensation was given and all opinions are my own.***
Check out my review of book 1: Mightier Than the Sword!
About the Authors
Drew Callander and Alana Harrison love to crack jokes, talk in funny voices and read aloud. Imagine their delight to discover that they could combine all these “skills” to write books together. In addition to writing books, they’ve worked as actors, improv comedians, filmmakers, animators, and puppeteers. They spent many years reading and performing kids’ original stories, which gave them the idea to invent Astorya, a world where all the wonderful weirdness of kids’ imaginations could live in one place. They hope the Mightier Than the Sword series will inspire readers to harness the power of their own creativity in our world.
At this point in an author biography, you usually find out where the authors live. We’d like to tell you where Drew and Alana live, but they won’t stay put. In the last three years, they’ve lived in three different states and three different countries. And they are still on the go. Who knows? They could be moving to your town next.
Aside from writing books together, they also have made cartoons together and written and performed many a stage show in New York City. Drew also started the theatrical phenomenon, Story Pirates. If you’re interested in name-dropping, between the two of them, they have had the good fortune to work creatively with John Oliver, Jon Stewart, Kristen Schaal, Conan O’Brien, Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Maya Rudolph, David Wain, Michael Showalter, Michael Ian Black, Paul Rudd, and Nick Offerman. Their work has appeared on MSNBC, NBC, Sirius XM Radio and Comedy Central. You can also currently hear Drew on the hit podcast Orbiting Human Circus with Julian Koster of Neutral Milk Hotel (to drop yet another name).
Alana & Drew’s Top Ten Addictions
We can’t stop with the interactive reading. We even made this list interactive! Try to guess whose addiction is whose (the answer key can be found at the bottom).
- Thinking about time travel
Rather than dealing in the here and now, I tend to fantasize about what I would change about the world if I could go back in time. Somehow being able to travel back in time also makes me really persuasive. So persuasive that I can magically change the course of history. Like convincing generations past to develop land in such a way to preserve biodiversity and habitats, so that protecting Mother Nature then could protect us from Mother Nature now.
- Shields and Brooks on PBS Fridays
We had to seriously reduce the amount of political news we consumed in our current climate, which meant distilling it all down into a ten-minute segment once a week. Mark Shields has a great way of putting it all in perspective, and always has some gem about a Senator from fifty to a hundred years ago whom neither of us had ever heard of before.
- Coffee
Everyone says this, so I’ll try to add something original and specific: Imagine my delight to realize that the blender we bought to make smoothies eight months ago has the ability to grind coffee beans!
- Dried fruit
Because we have kids, we don’t have candy in the house. But we still have sugar in the form of dried apricots, pears, peaches, prunes and dates. Not quite out of the toddler’s reach. And more importantly, not quite out of my reach. Which means we don’t have them for very long.
- Sleep
No matter what I do, I seem to want to do it every day. And when I don’t do it, I really wish I had. And no matter how much I get, I always want more. Definition of addiction!
- Reading aloud
Are you an out-of-work voice actor? Reading to children is a great way to fill the void when your agent stops calling. It helps if you have kids of your own, otherwise the parents wonder why you’re in their house and may call the authorities. Recommended titles to be read aloud: The Wind in the Willows, The Thirteen Clocks, and Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats.
- Singing
I don’t realize I’m doing it and I can’t stop. Lite FM hits, TV show themes, commercial jingles from our childhood (“Capture those dinosaurs!”), anything comes out. Either because I can’t remember the right ones or because I never knew them, I usually make up alternative lyrics, like with Thin Lizzy’s “The Boys Are Back in Town”: “Remember that guy who used to dance a lot? I heard he got ripped up by an ocelot. Man, that ocelot was crazy.”
- Moving
After years of living in one tiny apartment in Brooklyn, we’ve moved three times in the last two years (including two international moves to Ireland and the Netherlands) and now we’re looking for a new place (again). It’s not so much that we like moving or are any good at any aspect of it, it’s just what keeps needing to happen. The addiction here is really the search (or the internet scouring) for a new place to live. It’s kind of like a real life quest for Dr. Suess’s Solla Sollew.
- Choose Your Own Adventure books
We have a set of five crumbling original paperbacks from the ‘80s and one copy of The War of the Wizards from the excellent but lesser-known Forgotten Forest series by Carol Gaskin. (If you’re a writer of interactive fiction, you have to have this kind of thing in your house.)
- Asking the internet before making (almost) any decision.
I think a lot of people suffer from this. It’s just too hard to resist the glowing oracle in the room. I even find myself looking up things I already know the answer to. Like how many teaspoons in a tablespoon. Three. I know it’s three. But I’ll look it up. Just to make sure. And just to get batter all over the keyboard.
KEY: 1. ALANA 2. DREW 3. DREW 4. ALANA 5. ALANA 6. TRICK QUESTION! IT’S BOTH! 7. DREW 8. BOTH AGAIN! 9. DREW 10. ALANA
1 winner will receive a finished paperback of MIGHTIER THAN THE SWORD, US Only.
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10 responses to “The Edge of the Word by Drew Callander and Alana Harrison: Review, Giveaway & the Authors’ Top Ten Addictions”
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That sounds good although probably not a book for me. Thanks for the great review of it.
Thanks for reading my review!
thanks for sharing the interview. i do enjoy learning about authors. this isn’t really for me, but i can see how it would be a hit.
I agree that reading these Top Ten lists is so interesting—love learning these little snippets of authors’ lives. 🙂
I still think that an interactive book like this would have been right up my alley when I was a kid! Maybe not as much now, but young me would have loved it.
Yes, I totally agree. I still enjoyed it, but I think I would have LOVED it when I was a kid.
Ohhhh this sounds like a book my two boys would love when they’re a little bit older. Thank you so much for the rec!!
It’s such a unique read!
I would have totally loved this book as a kid. I loved interactive stories and couldn’t find any but the one series. I bet kids love them.
I loved interactive series when I was a kid too!!