The Land of Mogan

Steve Pitt is a Toronto-based freelance writer and an award-winning journalist. He has written many young adult and children's books, including Day of the Flying Fox: The True Story of World War II Pilot Charley Fox.

Shalikka is a young girl from a small feudal kingdom called Inotia. Her
people live in fear of the Moganites, a race of giants who, according to
ancient legends, once raided Inotia to capture slaves. But Shalikka
often wonders if the Moganites are real. To find out, she and her
sister, Kainee, climb a mountain that separates their kingdom from the
hidden land of Mogan. Shalikka was just beginning to think that the
terrible Moganites are a myth when she hears a scream. She turns to see
Kainee being carried off by a man mounted on a four-legged animal.
Shalikka runs home but when no one in Inotia is brave enough to help
her, she realizes that she must go alone to Mogan to save her sister.

This fantasy adventure by Marianne Jones seems inspired by C.S.
Lewis’s Narnia books, but unlike them, Jones’s story is not overtly
Christian. There are, however, talking animals, people who worship a
false idol, and a king who seeks to set his people back on the path to
“truth.” In the first half of the book, the narrative gets off the
ground well enough, but its conclusion comes rushing up too fast and the
story ends with a crunch. Structural flaws aside, Jones’s characters
have staying power. Because both her heroes and anti-heroes possess good
and bad qualities, the author gives her readers a better-than-average
insight into the complex relationship of good and evil. Recommended.