Books like Beyond the Valley of Thorns

Beyond the Valley of Thorns is a children's fantasy novel, the second book in Patrick Carman's series of novels, The Land of Elyon.

Alexa Daley returns in the second book in the series. A year has passed since her fateful adventure with the animals, and her Jocasta is as dull as ever. But then, Yipes returns with a letter from Thomas Warvold. Alexa is instructed to travel out over the Dark Hills, beyond the Valley of Thorns. She does so, and Alexa and Yipes are joined on their journey by Odessa the wolf, Squire the hawk, Murphy the squirrel, and a former convict named John Christopher.

Together they escape a massive black swarm of bats and reveal a secret: Warvold's wife, Renny, was carried off by a man named Victor Grindall and remains, alive, with him as he demands her to reveal the location of the last Jocasta. They also learn that one of a mystical ancient race, called Seraphs, became evil and has infected Grindall and the remaining Seraphs, now simply giants, with evil.