One of the themes in The Icebound Land is friendship. Evanlyn showed friendship to Will by caring for him in a freezing mountain. Also, Halt and Horace went through a lot of trouble trying to rescue Evanlyn and Will. A negative element would be that the author doesn't use that wide of a vocabulary. The book was very suspenseful, and kept me on the edge of my seat. I recommend this book to ages 9-11. Nathan L., Grade 6