My older kids loved the story, read them all one summer a few years ago when my boys were 8 and 12. HOWEVER, my 8 year old cat-loving daughter was screaming upset to her very soul when, in book 2, the heroes came upon the goblin camp and found them roasting something on a spit "that looked like a cat"...and then the drawing on the next page shows just that! I pre-read and skimmed over alot of the rest of that chapter, because she loves it otherwise, but i think i'm going to cover the cat on a spit with a well-placed drop of ink (it's a picture of a forest, with cages up in trees, and way down below is the camp of goblins and their fire...small cat but identifiable). she never wants anything to happen to cats, ever, and although it wasn't the cat they knew, it was a cat nonetheless. "Language" refers to many, many instances of name-calling, between siblings, from creatures to humans and each other, etc. funny that you can't recommend it for " x age and OLDER"...only x age and younger. I would say 9 and up...don't know what i'm going to replace tonight's story with, when i "LOSE" the book for a year!