For Teachers and Parents

The Raven’s Heir is a Danish fantasy novel for young readers, written by Mads Holst Jensen. It can be read for free here on the site, and all 30 chapters of book 1 are out now. This page is for those of you who want to use the book at school or read it together with your children.

Mads wrote the book with help from AI, but he makes every decision and reads and edits everything himself. He tells more about that in the story behind the book.

Age

The book is best suited to readers aged 13 and up, and adults who enjoy fantasy can easily read along. The main character is 15 and tells the story himself, in the first person and the past tense.

A chapter typically takes about fifteen minutes to read, so it fits nicely into a lesson or bedtime.

You don’t need to log in to read. If you want to download the book as an e-book, you need to log in with Google, and you must be at least 13.

Themes

• Truth or protection. The adults around Chris keep things hidden from him, and they do it to look after him. Again and again the book asks whether that is right, and what it costs the person who isn’t told the truth.
• Belonging. Chris, Ahra and Retia are all outsiders, each in their own way, and they find each other. The paths, the families and the very name Godrand are all about where you belong.
• Friendship. What you owe your friends, and what you dare to tell them.
• Proving yourself. Chris feels he has to perform to earn his place.
• Longing. Several of the characters are missing a parent, in different ways.

What the book contains

The book is written for young readers, but it doesn’t shy away from difficult things:

• Fighting and violence. The students fight duels in class, and later a group of students is attacked in a town, where some of them are hurt.
• Death and grief. One character tells how he lost his father when he was young. Several characters miss parents who are dead or gone. In the last part of the book a young person dies, and his family buries him.
• Eeriness. Nightmares, a cold and ancient power in a forest, and a mountain nobody is allowed to climb.
• Sadness. The main character goes through a period where he feels completely flat and can’t bring himself to do anything. It is described with care, and it can be a good opportunity to talk about what it feels like to be really low.
• Romance. Chris notices girls, and there are small, tentative moments. There is no sex.
• Language. There is no strong swearing.

How to read the book in class

• Online and free. All published chapters can be read directly in the browser on a phone, tablet or computer. Start with chapter 1, or see the table of contents.
• No login. Students can start right away. The site remembers how far each student has got, in the browser they read in.
• E-book. If you are 13 or older and logged in with Google, you can download the book as an epub and read it in a reading app.
• Reading view. You can switch between light and dark mode, make the text larger, and choose between scrolling and turning pages.
• Help along the way. The map, the world encyclopedia and the characters help readers keep track of places, words and names, without revealing more than they choose to see.

The book is free to read, but all rights are reserved. If you want to use the text in another way, for example by printing it, please write to Mads at mads@mahoje.dk.

The division into four parts below was made for teaching and doesn’t necessarily follow the book’s own structure. The questions for each part only cover what has happened up to that point, and they are tucked away in closed panels so nobody accidentally reads too far ahead.