Review: Daughter of the Centaurs by Kate Klimo

Daughter of the Centaurs by Kate Klimo. Book One of the Centuriad Series.

Random House Books for Young Readers
Publication Date: January 2012
List Price: $17.99
ISBN-13: 9780375869754

Review: "Sometime in the future. An earth populated with half-animal, half-human creatures. A girl who may be the last human." Malora Thora-Jayke, a lover of horses, wanted to follow her father's path of a master horseman until disaster stuck the small settlement where the last of the human race resort to. In Daughter of the Centaurs, written by Kate Klimo, Malora receives a first-hand account of the thrills, wonders, and perils that wreck havoc beyond of the borders of the settlement that she had once called her home.

In the comforts of the settlement, Malora is comfortable with her living style. While her yearning to become a horseman like her father, Jayke, her mother, Thora, constantly urges her to take up medicine and herbs like herself. Malora resisted, thinking that she had time to persuade her father to teach her how to become a master horseman. She was wrong. While her father was out hunting with the other men in the settlement, they were attacked by the Leatherwings as they were returning from the hunt, but he worst thing was that Malora watched every second of it with widened eyes from the safety of her home. She watched her father, along with the other men and horses get carried off into the distance. All except one horse. Sky. Sky was her father's horse, and the moment that Malora saw the dust clear away and catch sight of Sky, she knew instantly that Sky was for her. She also knew that the Leatherwings would return for more of the People. Sent on a journey away from home, not only to protect herself from the Leatherwings, but also to protect herself from the truth, Malora sets of on her own into the wild, with only the provisions her mother had packed for her, Sky, and her knowledge. From the young age of twelve to fifteen, Malora roamed the wild, building up a herd for her own. When she returned to the settlement to learn the truth, she was shocked. Burdened by grief, she once again galloped through the wild with her "boys and girls", right into the trap of the centaurs.

After finishing up this story for the first time (indicating that I reread Daughter of the Centaurs more than once), I was slightly disappointed. Not of the writing; it was, in fact, beautiful, but of how I only read the first book. I was shocked the intensity in which I had yearned to read more Based on where it said "Book One" and that I still have no idea who the heck Ash even is, I am sure that it will become a trilogy or series at the most. I rate Daughter of the Centaurs five stars, because though I could hardly contain my excitement, Daughter of the Centaurs was still an amazing book. I think that it is quite original that Malora Thora-Jayke became Malora Ironbound. Kate Klimo definitely has plenty of surprises up her sleeves for those like me who want to continue to follow up on her books. The title of Daughter of the Centaurs made me think of a more literal meaning, that the main character was actually the daughter of centaurs, that she was a centaur herself. It made me wonder about what the conflict could have been. Oo! Rebellion, I remember predicting before I even began reading the summery. Eventually, I figured out that it wasn't literally a daughter of centaurs, but rather about how Malora's mother called her "Daughter of the Mountains", how Malora herself preferred to be called "Daughter of the Plains", but eventually became the "Daughter of the Centaurs" despite her various names.

Review written by Tam (6th grade student).

We would like to thank Random House for providing a copy of Daughter of the Centaurs for this review.

Have you read Daughter of the Centaurs? How would you rate it?