Review of The Hidden Worlds by Sandra Ingerman and Katherine Wood

"Inspiring and powerful. The Hidden Worlds is an important, educational, imaginative story that will help all readers walk away with knowledge, caring, empathy, and a sense of purpose that will challenge them to effect a change in the real world." 

-Hannah Rials, author of Ascension -Hannah Rials, author of Ascension 

The primary purpose of reading, apart from enjoyment, is, of course, to learn and expand our world. Sandra Ingerman and Katherine wood's new young adult novel The Hidden Worlds packs a lot of lessons into a short story and explores a world of mysticism--shamanism--that many do not have knowledge of.

Four young students, who are complete opposites, are coincidentally in the same place at the same time and end up being tied together when they discover hundreds of dead birds in the forest just outside of their school, and then notice that all the fish in the pond have died as well.

Later that night, they are joined together in their dreams and discover that they each have their own spirit animals who are meant to guide them through life, especially this transitionary time through puberty and into high school. Once in the dream, they start discussing all of the dead animals they found and decide they have to get to the bottom of the animal murder.

Upon further investigation, the four new friends discover that a building just outside of school bounds has been dumping toxic waste into the pond. The students are enraged that a company could get away with something like this, but they are at a loss of what to do about it.

I really enjoyed the way that Ingerman and Wood worked shamanism into this story by having the students use this form of spirituality and understanding to address problems that they would normally turn to adults for help with. However, they can't do that in this situation since they are in a place they're not supposed to be, messing around with a dangerous company. These four kids have more spiritual understanding than most adults, and are also more moralistically sound--accepting all body types, seeing everyone for what they are good at, dealing with different family issues, puberty, environmental sustainability, saving animals, and shamanism. Really all of the above. These women pack a punch with all of these lessons in just one book.