A giant loses his identity but finds himself. This middle-grade prequel to Barron's Merlin series focuses on Shim, a giant with a kind heart. Shim lives on the island of Fincayra in the giant's village of Varigal with his mother, Vonya, spending his days with friends Greeno, Lumpster, and maybe-crush Sister Behemoth. When their village is suddenly and brutally attacked by the evil usurper Stangmar, only Shim and Vonya survive the aftermath. They flee to the Haunted Marsh, where Vonya makes a horrible wager with a treacherous sorceress, leaving Shim shrunken and missing some very important memories. Now diminutive, Shim and his faery friend, Elf, set off to try to save Fincayra from total ruin. Along the way, they encounter ferocious wyverns, an enchanted unicorn, fierce zombie soldiers, and a magical orange crystal, imbuing this story with many fantasy tropes fans know and love. Barron's worldbuilding is rich and nuanced but still accessible even to casual fantasy readers; as a prequel, no knowledge of the Merlin-verse is needed, making this an excellent jumping-in point for new readers as well as pleasurable reading for established fans. Shim is a wonderfully relatable character imparting a message of empathy that should resonate long after the last page turns. Simply delightful. (map) (Fantasy. 8-12) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

This prequel to Barron's Merlin series stars young giant Shim, large even for his kind. He's proud of his size, but his loving mother tells him that "bigness means more than the size of your bones." Tragedy strikes when almost all the giants on the island of Fincayra are slaughtered by malicious King Stangmar's army of undead warriors. Shim and his mother escape the attack; in order to hide him, she strikes a bargain with a powerful sorceress to make him smaller and thus unrecognizable as a giant. The price: she will be the sorceress's servant for life, and Shim will retain no memory of her. Adrift and alone, he meets up with a faery who has also lost her family and embarks on a quest to retrieve a magic treasure stolen by the forces of evil. There is certainly no lack of incident here, as practically every chapter sees fraught encounters with wyverns, gobskens, marsh ghouls, serpents, and more. It's a bit dizzying. But throughout, Shim's personality, his true heart and courage, keeps the novel grounded, as do the pathos of his situation and the deep themes explored. Humor is introduced through Shim's singular vocabulary, which resembles that of Dahl's BFG or Alexander's Gurgi: "'Smallsy!' he wailed, his voice sounding much higher than he remembered. 'I am smallsy and shrunkelled!'" The novel ends with a promise of more adventures and a hint that they might involve fulfilling an ancient prophecy. Martha V. Parravano January/February 2022 p.106(c) Copyright 2022. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

In this highly anticipated prequel to the 12-book Merlin Saga, Shim is a young giant who is shrunk to the height of a human knee right as he is about to leave home on a perilous quest. This begins the story of Merlin's realm in classic style, with plenty of world building lore, fantastical names, and comfortably predictable dialogue, but the hero here is not the long-bearded wizard or handsome knight; Shim is struggling to fit into the world he exists in, whether he's his typical giant proportions or--now--shrunken down to a much smaller height, though he learns along this journey to be true to himself, no matter what his size. Filled with exquisite settings and eloquent language, Shim's adventures are of a type not often seen in modern children's literature, hearkening back to classic high fantasy. This is an accessible introduction to the genre, and middle-grade readers will delight in the danger, emotional depth, and escapism that accompanies this magical world.