Deltora Quest 1: The Forests of Silence by Emily Rodda
It's all to easy to pick up a book from the stacks and laugh. Look at this dorky cover, you say, with its vintage 00's artwork. Its cheesy earnestness. What you're really laughing at is the passage of time; what you're saying is your childhood crap is better than this childhood crap, which is nostalgia and right and the human condition. It's easy to forget the amount of craft that goes into even the hackiest of books (and I'm not saying this book is hack-work.) Deltora Quest is one of an fifteen-part series by Australian Author Emily Rodda. It tells the story of two childhood friends, Endon and Jarred, one of whom goes on to become the King of Deltora. The other, Jerrod, is cast out of the castle after an act of betrayal. In the real world he discovers the truth is not what he had grown up believing. The King is but a pawn to evil forces who bleed the peasants of money and hope. The Belt of Deltora has been locked away, when the King should wear it at all times...