“Our Young Guardians: Seven & Two” Talks About Real World Themes Using Fantasy

Our Young Guardians: Seven & Two is the first book in the adventure-fantasy series by author Rodi Szoke. As someone who’s a fan of Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, and more, I found this book made for an enjoyable read.

Our Young Guardians: Seven & Two is meant for middle-grade readers, and I think it does an impressive job of explaining the always present battle between good and evil. In the beginning of the book, Rodi Szoke talks about seven journals chronicling the story of a group of kids that had to leave everything behind to save the world. Two of the journals were destroyed while the remaining five are hidden.

The journals contain the story about the sacrifices that the children made as readers follow their journey to adulthood. The main protagonist is Jonek, who has always longed to become a warrior. Soon he and his friends end up facing an emissary of evil and from there their lives change.

The life he knew the day before was long gone…

Who will protect his mother now?

The future of our civilization has always been in the hands of our children. What you may not know is that many years ago, a few of our young ones fought a quest against evil—an evil unlike anything anyone has ever seen under this sun. They didn’t know it, but their sacrifices allowed our forefathers—and us—to maintain our fragile ownership of this world.

In Seven & Two, the first book of the Our Young Guardians series, we begin the chronicle of one who was brave enough to leave behind what he knew. His faded handwriting not only captures how they struggled through that war, but how they learned to find themselves as they grew up away from their families.

You and I owe them more than we could ever give. And even though there is no word of them ever asking for anything, my heart tells me they would only ask for one thing—to keep them where their friends are.

The least we can do for them is honor their story.

I enjoyed the world building. There are a lot of weird names throughout the book so it might take some time to remember them. However, the story has a lot of magic in it which is always fun to read about. The story also talks about different themes which will help young readers learn some valuable lessons. Our Young Guardians includes themes of friendship, love, trust, betrayal, war, and discrimination. The author wrote this book for his young daughter to help tell her about the good and evil in the real world.

The book also talks about how important the next generation is to ensure humanity’s survival. It reminded me of Naruto, which also talks about protecting the new generation, even if young characters have to make tough decisions.

As for the cover art, I really like it. The whole thing is simple yet maintains a sense of dread and mystery.

I look forward to reading the second book in the Our Young Guardians series and where it takes Jonek and his friends.

Have you read Our Young Guardians: Seven & Two? Let us know.

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Note: I was provided a review copy by Smith Publicity Inc. The opinions are my own.

Author: Farid-ul-Haq

Farid has a Double Masters in Psychology and Biotechnology as well as an M.Phil in Molecular Genetics. He is the author of numerous books including Missing in Somerville, and The Game Master of Somerville. He gives us insight into comics, books, TV shows, anime/manga, video games, and movies.

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