By S. D. Smith
Two young rabbits, Heather and Picket, lose their home and family in a night raid and end up among rabbits who still believe a fallen kingdom can be won back. It's a big-hearted adventure with swords and honor and no magic at all.
Heather and Picket are ordinary young rabbits with an ordinary evening behind them, right up until wolves come in the night, burn their home, and carry off their parents and baby brother. The two of them bolt into the dark with nothing and stumble into a hidden citadel of rabbits who haven't given up on a kingdom that has already fallen, rabbits who still talk about a Mended Wood, a place set right again. Those rabbits, it turns out, need this brother and sister more than either one of them guesses.
If magic is a no in your house, this is the big adventure you can hand over without a second thought. There isn't a spell anywhere in it; the courage and the loyalty do all the lifting. You get swords, banners, a kingdom worth fighting for, real danger, and a steady thread of hope running under all of it. And it's the first of a long series, so if your child falls in, you've just bought yourself a good stretch of bedtimes.