Bravelands – Broken Pride

Erin Hunter's Bravelands Broken Pride is a big savannah adventure for 10 year olds about a lion cub who loses everything on the day he gets his name.

What happens

Swiftcub is only a few moons old and he's very sure his dad is the strongest lion there is. Then he swats a scorpion away from his father's paws. Gallant is so proud that he names him Fearless in front of the whole pride.

That same afternoon three strange lions walk onto their land. Their leader, Titan, has come to fight Gallant for the pride. The rules say the two of them fight alone. Titan isn't much interested in rules.

Worth knowing before you hand it over

This one gets very dark, very fast. In the first chapter Titan kills Fearless's father, with his teeth in Gallant's throat and blood soaking into the ground. Then he orders the cubs killed too, and Fearless has to run for his life (this isn't a spoiler, it's all in chapter one).

If your reader finds animals being hurt hard to read about, that opening will probably be too much. If they're happy with a bit of danger and a lot of feeling, it's exactly what pulls them in.

Fearless wakes up alone in an eagle's nest at the top of an enormous tree. He's rescued by Stinger, a baboon who can't stop joking. His troop then has to decide what to do with a lion cub (and not every baboon thinks the answer is keeping him).

Then the story jumps a year and swaps to Thorn, a young baboon with very big plans. He's at the bottom of the troop's ranks and he wants to climb all the way up. To do it he has to pass three tests, and the first means stealing an egg from a buzzard's nest!

You hear everything from inside their heads. Fearless boasts to himself and then feels terrible about running. Thorn grumbles that his damp fur smells of mould. Who hasn't been that cross and that hungry at the same time?

The baboons are loud, nosy and quite funny, which is a relief after the lions. There's a bully called Nut and a clever, scrawny best friend called Mud who you'll want to protect.

It's the first Bravelands book, so this is the place to start.

What to read next

If they love a world where animals have ranks, rules and signs in the stars, try Into the Wild. It's Erin Hunter again, and it starts with a battle between wild cats and a shooting star their medicine cat reads as a message.