The Outcasts by John Flanagan (Great)

I read the first book in the semi-new series, The Brotherband Chronicles.  This is a sequeling series to The Ranger's Apprentice and the short story collection: The Lost Stories.  Those were links to my reviews of those books by the way.  The books before have no mention in this new series.  Just the general setting of the series are the same.  Here's the cover:

This book is about a half Skandian, half Aurlen boy.  He is an outcast because of his mixed race and because he is smart in a land that values strength.  The boy, Hal, is old enough for Brotherband training, which is a competition of sorts/ school where boys learn how to sail, navigate, work as a team, etc. Hal's brotherband has to compete with two others in a bunch of risky, interesting contests.  A lot of things happen that "rocks the boat" (and no that is not supposed to be a bad pun) and everything gets complicated...

The book ended on a cliffhanger, which I absolutely hate!  I really enjoyed this book. I would suggest reading it.  My advice: the sailing terminology at the beginning of the book is really unnecessary, so you can skip reading it if you want to.  It just gave me a headache reading it, and I didn't think it helped me a lot.

I hope you decide to read it.  I'll write again once I finish reading the book I'm on: Downsiders by Neal Shusterman.

Happy Reading!