GRACELING Realm reading levels

Kristin Cashore is a wonderful author. Her world-building skills are top notch, and she has the ability to breath life into even secondary characters. Because of this she has a huge following.

Here are her books and their reading information. Note that as the books of the Graceling Realm progress they become darker and more adult.

Graceling

**Starred Review** Booklist
**Starred Review** SchoolLibraryJournal 
**Starred Review** Kirkus
**Starred Review** PublishersWeekly

Katsa is graced. Which is to say that she is one of the people in the realm who are born with extraordinary skills. Her skill is fighting, which became apparent when she accidentally murdered her uncle when she was only eight years old. In another place and time she might have been allowed to determine her own future, however her uncle, a very nasty king, saw the benefit she could be to him as an enforcer.

Her life becomes one of violence lived as the ultimate bully until she meets Po, another graceling who has different ideas about how their unique martial arts abilities can be used.


Graceling is straight-forward sort of story suitable for most Young Adults. It has mild sexual situations and violence.

Reading Information:
Word Count: 115,109
Page Count: 471
Accelerated Reading level: 5.3 / points: 18.0
AR quiz: 124842
Lexile: 730L
--sample pages available

Graceling (Spanish)
Word Count: 127,823
Accelerated Reading level: 5.2 / points: 19.0
AR quiz: 124842SP


Fire

**Starred Review** Horn
**Starred Review** SchoolLibraryJournal 
**Starred Review** Kirkus

War looms in the Dells. Rebel lords are building armies with the intent of destroying the rule of King Nash. Enter Fire, a human monster in a land where there are monster-mice, monster-birds. And rather than being hideous as you might imagine, she is unbelievable beautiful. But it's a beauty that comes with a cost. The sight of her can make regular folk loose their grasp, drive them crazy with lust, or else the desire to murder her.

To complicate matter, Fire can control people's minds. But unlike her father, who also has this power, she is determined not to use it for evil ends. And to Fire's credit she attempts to hide herself in the countryside. But one day her seclusion ends when Prince Brigan arrives to engage her assistance in saving the kingdom from war.

This is a very imaginative story filled with romance and adventure. This book is a prequel.

I've noted that the readers who love Graceling frequently don't care for Fire as much. Fire is a more adult book to me. It deals more with relationships than Graceling which was more of an action-driven novel. Sexual situations, a darker tone, and violence.

Word Count: 112,634
Page Count: 480
Accelerated Reading level: 6.2 / points: 18.0
AR quiz: 132410
Lexile: 870L 

--sample pages available

Fuego (Fire, Spanish)
no reading information currently


BITTERBLUE

**Starred Review** PublishersWeekly
**Starred Review** SchoolLibraryJournal
 **Starred Review** Kirkus

Bitterblue is now queen now that Leck is dead. But Leck's evil influence persists in this darkly toned book that includes sexual content, sadism, and violence. This is not a book I would suggest for middle-graders. I enjoyed it but it's very dark, and really, a little slowly plotted.

Readers who like Fire are probably more likely to like Bitterblue.

Word Count:147,587
Page Count: 576
Accelerated Reading level: 5.6 / points: 23.0
AR quiz: 153664
Lexile:  HL790L 
--sample pages available

Bitterblue (Spanish)
no reading information currently

compiled by Pam T