A Hat Full of Sky by Terry Pratchett – Review

A Hat Full of Sky: The Continuing Adventures of Tiffany Aching and the Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchett

I think the reason I liked this book so much was that it had a good balance of all of the elements that go into YA fantasy. Before I found the Tiffany Aching books, I’d only read two of Pratchett’s Discworld books, and was somewhat underimpressed – it felt like they were trying too hard to be funny all the time, and that the jokes had all been made before. A Hat Full of Sky, on the other hand, is frequently laugh-out-loud funny, but it balances it with some good adventure, a not-overly-preachy coming of age story, some interesting character development, and a cracking good story. It also doesn’t talk down to its readers – Tiffany’s eleven in this book, so the target audience is probably not much older – with things not always working out easily or perfectly, and the world sometimes being dark and unfair. The humor also helps its cross-over appeal to adult readers – there are plenty of things that young teens would find funny, but also plenty of sharper and more subtle humor for the grown-ups.

via Terry Pratchett – A Hat Full of Sky « Fyrefly’s Book Blog.