In Oracle’s Omens: Echo Through the Ages, Alana Vitale lives in a group home with her foster brother, Edmond, the only person she truly trusts there. So, when she begins to have strange and frightening nightmares, he is the one she turns to in order to figure out what her scary dreams mean. But he doesn’t have any idea what they might signify either or why Alana is having them.

Then, when visiting a carnival, she meets two familiars, a race of humanoid individuals able to turn into animals who have the ability to do and to teach magic. Suddenly Alana has the chance she never thought she would, the opportunity to learn how to do magic which she hopes will enable her to determine what her dreams mean. She doesn’t hesitate to take the familiars up on their offer.

The familiars take Alana and Edmond to Invictus, a magical world. Alana is excited over all the possibilities that exist there but at the same time she is concerned about whom she should trust, particularly given that even the two familiars are secretive and other familiars seem more like dangerous monsters than friends. It seems that not everyone in Invictus is happy about her learning magic to reveal what her dreams mean.

The book includes important themes that can help children with socioemotional development such as bullying, diversity, coping with fear and anxiety related to the unknown, the difficulties of children who don’t have parents to care for them, the need to deal with the one person you rely on moving away when they reach adulthood. coping with feeling isolated, the struggle of introverts in making friends, and non-traditional families.

These themes are important for helping children develop empathy, compassion and the understanding that differences aren’t a bad thing. As the plot continues to unfold, we see Alana adjusting to a new world, and while in the book this is a magical fantasy world, children who are suddenly uprooted and taken to live somewhere very different from where they are used to will be able to relate.

Although the book is for middle readers, the themes it addresses are more advanced. While the themes may seem a bit heavy, by exploring them with a magical fantasy world as a backdrop and with familiars as guides, the story and themes are set apart from children’s reality which makes the themes less threatening. This means that instead of blocking out the material which may be a bit difficult for younger children to process, because it’s set apart enough from real life, the content is just relatable enough for middle school children to be able process. without it seeming overwhelming.

There are a few limitations that could be addressed to make the book stronger. First, the title is not very engaging and seems unlikely to hook middle school readers looking for a book that really grabs their attention.

Additionally, the book is too long for the age range. A book that is 80,000 words long might be okay for the oldest middle school children around 12 or 13, but even then this length is at the upper limit for that age range. It’s likely too long for most children ages 9 – 11. The book could be shortened quite a bit as in between the action scenes the pace slows significantly and it becomes overly wordy. This might lead to attentional problems for the younger age group, causing them not to finish the book. These are the reasons I was only able to give it 3 stars.

Despite these limitations, the book is still an interesting read for at least upper middle school children. If the excessive length, wordiness and pacing were addressed, this could greatly expand the book’s reach and audience. Then it would be appropriate to recommend it for the entire range of middle school readers.