Alliana, Girl of Dragons, by Julie Abe

Alliana, Girl of Dragons, by Julie Abe (August 2, 2022, Little Brown), is a prequel to the utterly delightful Eva Evergreen series.  Though I very much enjoyed Alliana's adventures, I can't quite call it delightful--it's a Japanese-infused Cinderella story, and it was hard for me to read about Alliana being tormented by her stepmother and stepbrother.  They are truly awful to her, and she is trapped by debts she'll never be able to pay off, no matter how hard she works in the family inn.  Her one hope is to be chosen for the Royal Academy, but her stepmother will stop at nothing to keep her from leaving....

Alliana does have one person who loves her--the grandmother who lives up at the top of the inn, sewing tapestries and always ready with stories of myths and legends.  When the grandmother dies, Alliana's life seems even more hopeless, but magic is real in her world, and so are dragons....

Gathering plants as far as she can get from her stepmother, Alliana saves a baby nightdragon, and they form a strong and loving bond, though she can't possibly take it home with her.  And chance also brings her the friendship of a young witch, Nela.  And then chance pushes even harder at Alliana's life, forcing her to confront a magical danger that is threatening even the most powerful witches of the land.  She realizes, with the help of her friends, that she's a person of value, and is instrumental (along with the dragon) in setting things right.

Great for young readers who:

like kids in unhappy circumstances who not only get magical endings (this isn't a Cinderella story where the girl marries the prince, but the beautiful dress problem, which I always appreciated as a kid, is here!) but who also survive trauma and end the book starting to heal with the help of people who love them.

like stories of kids loving and caring for magical creatures

want to be friends with a witch their own age who will give them broomstick rides!

loved Eva Evergreen! (which I now want to reread* possibly then moving on to re-reading this one, which I will enjoy more than the first time around because of not being sad and anxious for Alliana. )

*I'm glad to have a solid tbr pile because there were dark years when I didn't have enough to read, but I also miss the re-reading I did back then.....

Disclaimer: review copy received at ALA

City of Thieves (Battle Dragons #1), by Alex London

 

City of Thieves (Battle Dragons #1), by Alex London (Scholastic, September 2021), is a rip-roaring start to a new middle grade fantasy/sci fi series that is sure to be a hit with young readers (and enjoyed by less young ones too).

Alec's home, and the only place he's ever lived, let alone visited, is Drakoplis, a futuristic city of skyscrappers, tech, and....dragons.  The dragons are an essential part of the city--the many species of dragons have been harnessed to work as transport and in industry.   The dragons are also central to the gang life of the city, and the dragon duels between the gangs are the stuff of legend.  

Alec's family is not doing great--though his big brother Silas is a member of the Dragon Riders (the police/protectors/enforcers of Drakopolis), his father has a chronic debilitating condition (scaly lung) and his mother's job in a dragon food plant doesn't bring much in.  His sister Lina works at a cafe to bring in a little bit for the family.  Alec has failed the entrance exam to the Dragon Rider Academy (to his secret relief--heights aren't his thing) and isn't at all sure what he will do with his life; in the meantime, there's school, and hanging out with his best friend Roa (who's nonbinary) and reading dragon-filled comic books.

But the book starts with none of this background.  Instead, we start with Lina creeping home Ninja style, just before the trash incinerating dragons set the night on fire, with a message that will get Alec into more trouble than he could have ever dreamt of.  Turns out Lina is a member of one of the clans of dragon gangsters, and she has stolen a dragon from a rival clan.  Now she's on the run.  Alec and Roa find the stolen dragon, Karak, a magnificent Sunrise Reaper, and it bonds with him.  Now that he's the one who can ride it, he's thrown into the middle of the dragon underworld and its web of extortion and violence.  His whole family, and his own future, are in danger, and in order to regain some sort of control over his life, he must figure out where his own loyalties lie--family (but who in his family is still loyal to him)? friends (if he can figure out who they are)? city (which the reader increasingly realizes is a dystopia)? or even the dragons themselves (and who knows where their loyalties lie, if they have any)?--while he still has the chance.

There is just tons of action and adventure and layers of danger and intrigue here!  Vivid descriptions and great characterization and a nice dollop of relatable adolescent angst and relatable comic book reading make it tremendously easy to imagine the target audience just eating it up.  

And on top of that, though there no hammering home of a Message, there's lots here that will appeal to social justice conscious Gen Z kids, especially the situation of the dragons.  It becomes clear that the dragons are enslaved, and some of the language used about them in the stories Alec's heard bears a really disquieting resemblance to the language used to justify slavery in our own past--"Dragons must be given purpose, the stories said, so they don't fall to warring again.  They must be given jobs and kept busy serving humanity, the stories said, for their own safety.) (page 112 of the ARC).  And here's one justification offered for the battles, in which the dragons have no choice about fighting each other, and are often badly injured or even killed--"These battles give them a chance to be themselves." (page 128 of the ARC).  The ending/beginning point Alec reaches, in which he rejects this dogma, will lift the hearts of these young readers, and leave them (and again, many older reader) desperately anxious for the next book.

(Younger readers are more likely, though, to snicker a bit about the fact that one of the clans is named the "Wind Breakers"....older readers will probably default to light-weigh jackets....)

disclaimer: review copy received from the publisher

NB-City of Thieves has been nominated already for this year's Cybils Awards in Elementary/Middle Grade speculative fiction, but there are literally hundreds of great books that haven't been!  Here's where you can go to show Cybils love for your favorite books of the past year (Oct 16, 2020-Oct 15, 2021)

A Discovery of Dragons, by Lindsay Galvin

A Discovery of Dragons, by Lindsay Galvin (July 6th 2021 by Chicken House, 2020 in the UK) is a  middle grade speculative fiction book that is tailor-made for kids who love:

--survival stories
--magical animal rescue stories

--dragons

and who ideally have a least a little interest in natural history.

This, apart from the kid part (sigh), would be me (which is how I know that this is true).

Syms, short for Simon, was the cabin boy and ship's fiddler on HMS Beagle when Charles Darwin set forth on his famous voyage of natural history discoveries.  Darwin relied on him more and more as a natural history helper, and so he was right there when Darwin fell overboard, and jumped in to save him.

Nearly drowned, Syms washes ashore on a desolate island.  He has no water, no food, no knife....and there's an active volcano.  There is also a huge golden flying lizard (dragon, says Syms' mind) that keeps grabbing him, and dumping him in the ocean.  Fortunately a large green lizardish creature befriends him, pushing him into the old lava tunnels that will keep him safe from the grabbing flyer, showing him where to find water, and harvesting prickly pears for him....Syms names the clever and charming creature Farthing, and they become firm friends.

Then the volcano erupts.  And Farthing pleads with Syms, with all the non-verbal powers of persuasion possible, to go through the tunnels toward the eruption, to save a clutch of golden eggs from the lava...eggs whose mother is the very same dragon that almost killed him before, who is also trying to save them.  Nor just from the lava but from Syms as well..

So things are very touch and go, but Syms, Farthing, and the eggs end up on HMS Beagle, and Charles Darwin is very interested indeed (although not a dragon believer).  Back in England the eggs hatch into lizards like Farthing, and they are all (including Farthing) sent to live in a pen in the London Zoological Society.  Though Queen Victoria herself takes a keen interest in "her" new "dragons," Syms worries, with good reason, that Victorian London isn't up to recreating the hot volcanic habitat his friends need.  And when one of them dies, he commits treason, breaks them free, and flees to Australia.

25 years later, he goes back to the island in the Galapagos, and he sees his dragons again....now all grown up and flying and flaming....(It is rather sweet.)

There's good solid historical background to the story, and talk of finches and stuff--the ten year old who reads this won't end up learning lots about Darwin from the story (which isn't the point of the book in any event) but will have grasped enough to be comfortable when more Darwin comes their way.  (And there is historical backmatter that offers more information on Darwin and his contribution to science).

My attention was gripped from the beginning, though I did falter a bit when the little dragons are put in the zoo and everything is sad and difficult.  There is a baboon who has also just arrived in the zoo, and she is the object of much interest to the Londoners as well, and she isn't well cared for and dies.  And so I had to quickly flip to the end at this point just to make sure things would be ok.

but that aside, it's really easy to imagine lots of kids loving this lots!

disclaimer: review copy received from the publisher

 

River Magic, by Ellen Booraem

I read a Lot of middle grade fantasy (c 150-200 books a year), to the point where I wonder when I pick up a new book if it will really offer me something that will stick in the crowed part of my mind where I keep all the books I've read.  River Magic, by Ellen Booraem (April 2021 by Dial Books), did not disappoint.  Indeed, since I have enjoyed her previous books lots, I was not at all surprised.

Donna's aunt Annabelle was a fixture of her life--teaching her woodworking, and carving beautiful details around the family home, swimming with her in the river they both loved, and generally being loving and supportive. But then Annabelle drowned in the river. Now Donna's mother is working desperately to pay the bills, her big sister has become a total pill, her best friend Rachel has ditched her for the cool/mean girls on the basketball team, and Donna's in danger of being sent off to rich Cousin Betty to look after her horrible little boys. If only she could make enough money to help her mother somewhere closer to home...

When a strange old woman moves in to the ramshackle house next door, and hires Donna to clean it up, things are (perhaps) looking up. But the old woman is strange and scary, bad tempered and a terrible (and unlicensed) drive. She is, in fact, a thunder mage. And she's paying Donna in gold.

This does not, though, magically solve all Donna's problems. The gold is cursed, and isn't enough to save the her house, her friendship with Rachel crumbles further when Donna becomes friends with a quirky (aka weird) ex-homeschooled boy (unwillingly at first but with growing appreciation), and the mage's temper means the number of her chickens keeps growing. Then Rachel becomes one of the flock (I liked writing that sentence).

This is a lovely middle grade fantasy sort of Ack! pivotal moment, and also in true mg fantasy style, Donna rises to the occasion but doesn't have to be a hero all by herself. (not really a spoiler, because of the cover--there is a dragon on her side. The cool/mean girls and the unpleasant sister also rise to the occasion). And so there was a very satisfactory ending...

I am a visual and emotional reader, not a dispassionate critical reader. I'm not sure that River Magic is "wildly original," whatever that means, but I do know that I can scroll through it in my minds eye with beautiful clarity, and I remember bits that made me laugh, and that made me sorry for Donna. And I know it worked beautifully for the 45 minutes I was waiting in the car for one of my kids to do a thing, and I finished it up quickly once we got home. Though it isn't a book that I personally will love best forever (perhaps because it didn't push my mind anywhere it hadn't already been), it was a good one. The target audience, of course, have more roomy minds, and I bet this one will be popular with them!

From Kirkus, whose reviews are being paid to be more dispassionately critical (and who aren't allowed to say "nice fun mind pictures I liked it" and leave it at that):  "A carefully constructed interweaving of reality and magic that will transport and delight."  

(I have now decided to try to figure out of the next book I read is carefully constructed.  Do you suppose that is the same thing as "everything slots neatly into place?"  Eveything in River Magic slotted just beautifully, so there you go).

Here are my reviews of Ellen Booraem's earlier books--

Small Persons With Wings

Texting the Underworld (with an interview; a very interesting one at that)

I don't seem to have reviewed The Unnamables (so this is the goodreads link)

The Dragon Warrior, by Katie Zhao

For those looking for mythology infused adventure, ala Rick Riordan, there's more out there than just the Rick Riordan Presents books!  One excellent pick is The Dragon Warrior, by Katie Zhao (Bloomsbury, October 2019).

It starts out with a familiar story--a girl who finds herself the Chosen One.  12-year-old Faryn Liu and her little brother Alex have been trained by their grandfather (their father's missing, and their mother is dead) in the warrior tradition of the Jade Society, fighters who protect humans from attacking demons.  But there have been no demon attacks for ages, and Faryn's family is despised by the elite of the society--her mother was not Chinese.  Then one night Faryn finds herself confronting an actual demon, and with the help of  a celestial being, she defeats it.  Maybe she's destined to be a warrior in the Jade Society after all.

Turns out she's more than just a warrior.  She (very unexpectedly) finds that she's been chosen by the gods to be the next Heaven Breaker, fighting demons for the Jade Emperor with a weapon only she can use.  But to assume that mantel, she must overcome a series of challenges and make it to the island of the gods bfore the Lunar New Year. Setting off in a chariot drawn by flying horses, with her brother at her side to put his intellect to work deciphering the riddles of the challenges, and with her former best friend, who had turned against her like all the other Jade Society kids, Faryn takes on demons, and other challenges, to prove herself a hero.

And then there's a twist....because gods (and there are many divinities in the Chinese pantheon, moving in and out of Faryn's story) are tricky, and don't necessarily have the best interests of ordinary people in their hearts, and the story kicks up a gear, leaving readers longing to find out what happens next!

So if you like brave girls, lots of mythological magic, dragons and wonderful weapons, and some solid demon whacking, you'll enjoy this lots! It might not seem like it's breaking new ground at first, but even the "old" ground of questing is made fascinating and fresh by the Chinese immortals and their interventions.   There's perhaps a tad too much stress on how mean the former friend turned, and her change back to an ally is more convenient than convincing, but it furthered the plot just fine.  Many young readers appreciate friend drama more than I do, and it allowed readers to understand where Faryn is coming from in her journey toward self-confidence.

In short, a fun introduction to Chinese mythology (there's a nice guide to demons and deities at the end of the book) that will leave readers hungry for more!

disclaimer: review copy gratefully received for my reading as a Cybils Awards panelist last year, read when I got, and now happily reviewed so  I can pass it on to my local library!

The Dragon Thief, by Zetta Elliott

In Dragons in a Bag (link to my review), Zetta Elliott introduced a  young boy named Jaxon, who was given a job to do by a magical old woman, Ma.  He had to return three baby dragons to the world of magic.  It didn't go as planned, not that Jaxon knew enough about what was going on to really "plan" anything, but he did his best.  It wasn't enough.  One of the babies was stolen by Kavita, the little sister of his best friend, Vik.

The Dragon Thief  (Random House, Oct 22 1019) picks up the story right where we left it.  Jaxon is worried about Ma, who has fallen into a strange sleep, and he's desperate to get the baby dragon to the magical world.  Kavita is worried about the baby dragon, which grows at an alarming rate when it gets fed.  When she realizes she can't keep it safe, her old aunty who lives with her family decides to help her get it home.

So on the one hand we have Jaxon and Vik, racing to find Kavita while figuring out how they can manage to open a door to the other realm, and on the other we have Kavita, an increasingly large dragonet, and her aunty on a journey to the same goal....

Jaxon's well aware he needs help, so when a mysterious man named Blue, covered with tattoos, offers assistance, Jaxon things this might be what he needs.  But the man is a trickster, with an agenda of his own...and the fate of the little dragon hangs (very tensly) in the balance!  (Blue's motivations and actions are ambiguous; I love a nice ambiguous "bad" guy, and I hope we meet him again in a future book so we can see if his point of view is in fact at all valid....)

It's a great story for younger middle grade readers (8-10 year olds).  There's a nice serving of ordinary story, including Jaxon and Vic becoming friends with a boy they'd steered clear of because of being intimidated by his large size, and Kavita finding out about her auntie's past in India (which offers an eye-opening bit of history).  The kids are very real characters, and one can easily imagine hanging out with them.  But the ordinary doesn't stay that way for long, as the boundaries between the magical and the real world collide, with the kids right smack in the middle of it!

It's lots of  fun, and I enjoyed it even more than I did book 1.  The only thing I can think of that would have made it even better would have been more dragon page time!

disclaimer:  the publisher sent review copies for Kidlitcon Providence 2019 last March, which came to my house, so of course I treated myself to one of the copies...and though I didn't get it read in time to pass on to another Kidlitcon attendee, I did find it a good home with a kid who loved it.

Rise of the Dragon Moon, by Gabrielle K. Byrne

Rise of the Dragon Moon, by Gabrielle K. Byrne (Macmillan, August 6, 2019), is a delightfully chilly middle-grade fantasy that's perfect escapist reading for a hot summer day!

Princess Toli is heir to the throne of a queendom of ice.  Her people live a hand to mouth existence, with starvation always a grim possibility, and the cyclical migrations of the dragons a grim certainty.  Toli hates the dragons.  Not only must her people offer a precious tithe of meat to them each year, but in an unprecedented fluke, dragons killed her father.  And Toli blames herself..

Toli's mother, the queen, wants Toli to set aside her dreams of being a great hunter like her father, though Toli has little interest in the minutia of keeping the queendom running smoothly.  But she gets little chance to obey her mother.  When this year's Dragon Moon rises, and the Queen must go out to meet the dragons, they seize her and carry her off.  Toli is convinced she must set out herself over the ice to bring her mother back.

In her first foray out on the ice alone, she finds a baby dragon, and confronts the two dragons that are searching for it, with seemingly malevolent intent.  Toli's hatred of the adult dragons ends up making her want to protect the hatchling, who the queen dragon wants back, from the adults.  The baby dragon proves impossible to hide from her younger sister Petal and her best friend, a boy named Wix, who find it charming, and grudgingly Toli warms to it as well.  And perhaps, she thinks, she can trade the baby for her mother.

Toli plans to set out to find the dragon queen alone, because of her feelings that she must atone for her father's death but her sister and friend won't let her, though she is harsh and dismissive about what they can contribute.  Iti's a good thing they both come, because Toli and the baby dragon would never have made it alone!  And when they reach Dragon Mountain, they find themselves confronted by the beginnings of a dragon civil war.   The stakes of the conflict are high for both humans and dragons--wll they be able to work together, or will they try to destroy each other?

All ends well, with lots of ground laid for new adventures for Toli and the little dragon...

It's a very good read, with the excitements of danger out on the ice and in the sky well-balanced by Toli's internal turmoil and character growth.  She has to learn to put her past actions in perspective, and to let others help her, and she realistically does so, realizing by the end that it's not all about her.  The baby dragon is cute as all get out, and will add tons of appeal for the target audience!

Though there is some grimness to the story, it's not wildly violent, and though there are depths to the story telling, the actual plot is fairly linear, so it's one that would be just fine for the whole range of "middle grade"- 9-12 year olds, and good as well for even younger confident readers.  And good too for us grownups sitting around in the heat wanting to be out in the bitter cold wind blowing across the ice...or flying above it on dragon-back.....

(I have just one very picky, very personal, thing I didn't care for--Toli is short for Anatolia, and her little sister is named Petal.  Neither name worked for me, the first because it's a real world place, and the second because petals have no place in an icy world.)

disclaimer: review copy received from the publisher.

Dragonfell, by Sarah Prineas

I racked up enough Barnes and Nobel credit card rewards points to get my $25 gift card reward this month, and it was with great anticipatory pleasure that I visited my local store yesterday.  And it was also with great anticipatory pleasure that I came home with Dragonfell, by Sarah Prineas (middle grade, HarperCollins, March 2019), as I'm a committed fan of hers!  It did not disappoint.

Rafi has always been odd.  He has a strange, fierce look to him, and hair like flame.  He can't be burned,doesn't feel cold, and can see in the dark.  And he likes to go by himself to the top of the fell that gives his village its name--Dragonfell.  Once it was a lair of a dragon, who hoarded china with blue floral decorations. Rafi's differences have started arousing suspicion in his community, and that is exacerbated when two strangers arrive from the city where an coal-powered industrial revolution is taking hold, and seek to take him away with them.

When he realizes the strangers are a threat, the spark inside Rafi turns to flame....making it clear that he truly is different, and potentially dangerous.  He's forced to leave home, and the only way he can find out more about why the strangers want him is to find dragons.  But they are much fewer than they used to be, and quite possibly dangerous predators...

Then he joins forces with Maud, a girl determined to be a dragon scientist and find out all there is to know about them.  Though they become great, loyal friends, each keeps secrets from the other, though Rafi himself doesn't know the secret at the heart of his strangeness (the reader can guess pretty early on!). The two of them make a formidable team, formidable enough to stop the greedy, power-hungry man who's behind the gradual disappearance of the dragons.

This is one I'll enjoy more on re-reading it, when I can savor the lovely details about all the odd things individual dragons hoard, and Maud's curious mind, and such like.  On this first reading, I was caught up in the tension of it all--exploitive industrialization vs the natural wonder of dragons does not make me a calm and happy reader!  But I will indeed be rereading it--the friendship between Maud and Rafi, founded on mutual respect and trust, with their strengths complimenting each other beautifully, was great reading, and the dragons are lovely!  There are welcome touches of humor, too, which I have come to expect in Sarah Prineas' books.

Though the two kids are on a quest, it's a not a high-fantasy adventure (no swords!).  Instead, the quest is a mystery that needs to be solved, with the help of books, sneaking around places they have no business being, and talking to all the dragons they can find.  So this is a good one for kids who dream of fantasy worlds, but don't want violent action.

nb- though reliance on coal and the exploitation of others and of the natural world (the poor extinct dragon flies...) are clearly marked as bad things, and the works of peoples' hands are marked as good things, this isn't an anti-technology book--there's a hope at the end that a clean energy solution can be found :)

Fire & Heist, by Sarah Beth Durst

Fire & Heist, by Sarah Beth Durst is a great book for the younger YA set that twists dragons, a dangerous heist, and a portal fantasy into a family/friendship/coming of age real-world framework.

Imagine that some people in today's world are actually fire breathing wyverns; not shapeshifting into dragon form like their ancestors, but still busily hoarding gold (and stealing it from each other) and being all wyverny in a somewhat snooty way (but with no scales...).  Sky is a wyvern, and her family used to be very close to the top of the draconic pecking order. But when a heist of her mother's went totally wrong, the family has been shunned by the other wyvern families.  And her mother never came home.

Sky's boyfriend Ryan, and all her high school wyvern pals, have cut her off.  She wants her mother back.  And she wants to know what secrets her father and her three older brothers are keeping from her.  So she sets off to find what her mother was trying to steal from Ryan's father, and steal it herself to redeem her family, and maybe find her mother too and bring her home.  A good heist, especially when there are both magical and technological obstacles in the way, needs a good team, and Sky assembles one--Ryan, who only shunned her to save her from his father (or so he says), a wyvern magician, and a human classmate, Gabrielle, who researches interesting things as a hobby, and who was there to befriend Sky when her wyvern cohort abandoned her (I love Gabrielle!).

But Sky's heist doesn't go as planned....(this is where the portal fantasy part comes in, but I don't want to be too spoilery….).  Dragons are involved, lots of them...

And then there's a happy ending!

Back when I was 13, YA fantasy wasn't really a thing; my local library had maybe 4 fantasy books on the three small shelves labeled "YA."  (The only one I remember being shelved there is The Blue Sword). One went straight from the magical stories in the kids' section to Dragonriders of Pern etc.   Today of course there's lots of YA speculative fiction....and I've read a lot of it, but many of the books don't seem written for readers like 13-year-old me; the concerns are mostly more realistically adult than I would have wanted, since I mostly wanted escapism.  I almost never say about a YA book that I want to give it to young teen Charlotte, but this one is just perfect for the sort of 13 year old I was--not ready to think about growing up, dreaming of dragons and unicorns and kissing cute boys (all equally fantastical).  And grown-up me enjoyed it just fine too!

So if you weren't or aren't that sort of reader, you might find this reads a bit young to you.  But Sarah Beth Durst's writing is lots of fun regardless, Sky is a snappy sort of heroine, and the premise is lovely, so give it a try!

disclaimer: review copy received from the author

24 Hour Readathon--Intro post plus Wings of Fire: the Lost Continent

Hi I'm Charlotte, reading from Rhode Island.  There is no particular book I'm hoping to read: I'm hoping the 24 Hour Readathon this weekend will help me make progress in general; the thought of spending a good chunk of tomorrow eating ice cream and reading is very appealing!  It is horribly muggy here in Eastern Standard Time....

Half an hour into reading, I've finished the book I was on--Wings of Fire: The Lost Continent, by Tui T. Sutherland (Scholastic, middle grade, June 2018).   This is the latest installment in a long-running and very, very popular series of books about young dragons.  There are several series-es, each starring a fresh group of young dragon characters, and The Lost Continent is the start of a new set of adventures.  So it's a reasonable place to start your Wings of Fire reading, if you really don't want to go back to the beginning (The Dragonet Prophecy; here's my review).

The Lost Continent wasn't, of course, lost to the tribes of dragons who already lived there, and young readers who love all the care and attention paid to making each tribe of dragons distinct and special will love meeting three new varieties of dragon.  It wouldn't be much of a story, though, if the three groups of dragons lived in harmony and nothing happened.  So, as it is the case throughout the books, there is bitter and unjust conflict in which bad things happen to good dragons.  There is also genocide and the worst dragon-racial injustice of any of the previous books.  This made it hard reading, especially at first, because until I got invested in the particular dragon characters, I wasn't at all sure I wanted to spend time with the Hivewings and the Silkwings (the Tree Wings weren't on those first few pages, because genocide).

But Blue, the young Silkwing who's the central protagonist, grew on me, and then he teams up with Cricket, a most unconventional Hivewing who is my most favorite dragon of the whole series.  She is smart and sharp and thinks for herself and loves books and questions things, which makes her a great candidate for an important role in the revolution!  It makes her a good balance for Blue, as well--he's an interesting sort of hero, because he doesn't actually want to cause trouble; he wants to cooperate.  When he realizes that cooperation is no longer an option., because of terrible circumstances, he has to practice very hard at not following rules.

And once again I find myself in the position of closing the book, and wanting the next one now!  Especially since, as we knew would happen from reading the ending  reading the previous series, Moon gets to enter this story too!

I just looked back at my review of The Dragonet Prophecy, and see that I said:

But even beyond those details of story, what pleased even cynical me most was that there were themes here that I was happy to have my son think about--loyalty to friends transcending blind loyalty to tribe, the need to empathize with other points of view, the need to try your best to shape your own destiny, and not be someone's tool, and the senselessness of war.

and I continue, with this new adventure, to appreciate the way in which Tui T. Sutherland can make readers think, and care, and want to change, bad and difficult things without being preachy, and to show darkness, but with the hope that it can be lifted.

Tess of the Road, by Rachel Hartman

Tess of the Road, by Rachel Hartman (Random House, YA, Feb. 2018), is the third book about an almost Europe with dragons (Seraphina, 2012, and Shadow Scale, 2015 being the first two). It is my favorite of the series.

Tess has always known she was flawed and bad; her mother made sure of this.  But she didn't mean to be.  Her twin, Jeanne, is the good girl, and her older sister, Seraphina, is the one who was seemingly immune to societal pressures, who managed to escape the limitations of expectations.  Tess is bad, and almost brought scandal to the family when she got pregnant as a young teen (averted by sending her away to distant family).  When the book begins, Tessa and Jeanne, now 17, are handmaidens to a noble lady at the court (thanks to Seraphina's string pulling) and Jeanne has found the perfect rich and lordly husband.  With that out of the way, Tess begins to think of escape from a life she cannot stand, no matter how much she drinks.

And then Seraphina gives her a pair of boots, beautiful, glossy, perfect boots for the adventures little Tess had imagined as a child.  And with nothing to loose, almost despite herself Tess walks out the door.

The voices in head, both the criticisms of others, the harsh scriptures her mother hammered her with, and her own memories of guilt and grief, go with her.  But she keeps going, barely.

"Walking on now," Tess told Mama-in-her-head, kicking dirt on last night's ashes.  "I think I'll live one more day."

(aside--typing that quote I am struck by the lovely metaphor, because kicking dirt, in this case the physical work of walking, and later hard labor, on memory ashes is exactly what Tess is doing.)

Then she meets Pathka, the reptilian Quigutl whose life she saved as a child, and Pathka's quest to find a the giant serpents integral to Quigutl cosmology becomes her own, and Pathka's company and support give her further impetus to keep going, and other stories to play through her head.  (It's fun for the reader, too, to spend time with a Quigutl as a main character...they are fascinating!)

It's not a grand adventure, but the encounters along the road give Tess a chance to rethink and recast both her past decisions and the things that were no fault of her own.   It's not always easy to keep her thoughts company, but if you like being challenged to introspection about culpability, the shaming of girls, horrible parenting, and religious brainwashing (not a slamming of religion qua religion, but repressively sexist scripture is one tool Tess's mother has beaten her horribly with),  it is totally worth it, and in the end, Tess does not have to question if she will keep going.  And as Tess and Pathka get closer to the great serpent of Pathka's dreaming, the canvas expands to let the numinous in, and compassion in, and the possibility that Tess's own dreams of discovery and adventure will come true.

Tess's backstory is told in flashbacks, continuing right to the end, as she faces her worst memories.  One of those memories is rape, a part of her story she is finally able to revisit when she finds a beautifully sex-positive relationship with one of Seraphina's old friends, who does not shame her, manipulate her, or hold her back from following her own path.

If you are looking for Dragons!  Excitement! Magic!  and the stereotypical kick-ass heroine, look elsewhere.   But if you want a thought-provoking, empowering, bittersweet story that will stick with you and leave you wanting the next book very badly that's filled with enough of the strange and fantastical to add considerable wonder,  I recommend this one lots.  Also if you are a fan of Seraphina, who's not a central character but who shows up quite a bit, you'll be interested in what she looks like to her little sister

Kirkus and I are in agreement:  "Like Tess’ journey, surprising, rewarding, and enlightening, both a fantasy adventure and a meta discourse on consent, shame, and female empowerment."

Darkness of Dragons, by Tui T. Sutherland

I have, ever since the first book of Tui T. Sutherland's Wings of Fire series came out back in 2012, been a big fan of these books, pushing them at people right and left, saying that the force of kid appeal is strong in them.  It is true that when I got an ARC of the very first book I looked at it with doubt--"baby dragons of prophecy?" I thought skeptically, and than sat down to read.  When I got up again, having finished the book in a single sitting, I was a fan. Here's a snippet of my review of that first book, which still is a pretty good expression of my feelings for the series:

"I must confess I was doubtful at first, a bit condescending even, but once the dragonets had escaped from their cave, it was a page-turner! It helped that the various dragons were sufficiently characterized to be interesting, and that the world building of all the different kinds of dragons was fascinating. It helped even more so that the fights to the death in the Skywing arena weren't sugar-coated, but deadly serious, and that the Skywings champion was a surprisingly sympathetic character. It also helped that I, in general, am a fan of plucky orphans with interesting skills raised in miserable circumstances but making good, and as these dragonets are de facto orphans, they fit the bill nicely.

But even beyond those details of story, what pleased even cynical me most was that there were themes here that I was happy to have my son think about--loyalty to friends transcending blind loyalty to tribe, the need to empathize with other points of view, the need to try your best to shape your own destiny, and not be someone's tool, and the senselessness of war.

The sensitive young reader might be troubled by some of the violence--dragons really do kill other dragons. But no beloved characters die, so it's not too upsetting."

Now, a mere five years later (thank you Tui for your hard work!) Darkness of Dragons (Scholastic July, 2017) brings to a close the second five book Wings of Fire series.  Darkstalker, legendary magic-wielding evil dragon, has returned to threaten the tenuous new peace of the various dragon kingdom, and it's up to a ferociously smart young dragon, Qibli, to try to foil him.

Qibli feels pretty powerless against the tremendous powers wielded by Darkstalker.  The only magic Qibli has on hand are objects enchanted by his friend Turtle.  But (as readers of the series will expect), Qibli's wits and the help of loyal friends are enough to ensure a happy ending.  I could put in more plot details, but I won't.  Fans of the series will be wanting to read the book for themselves (if they haven't already in the two days since they were released), and those who aren't fans should start with the first book of the first series.

Instead I'll just mention a few things I particularly liked about this book and the series in general.

--There is So Much Story here!  The Wings of Fire world adds interesting new characters and bits of backstory and dragon history with every new book.  Depsite the richness of the details, there are so many small bits in this big world that there's tons of room for the imagination of the reader to play in.

--There are so many characters to care about!  Because each book has a different main point of view character, we see old friends through a fresh lens each time, understanding the dynamics of their relationships afresh with every book.  The dragons get to change, and grow, and their opinions and perspectives shift in a very lovely way.   And we meet new dragons too in every book.

--There's adventure, but not so much of it that the character arcs get overwhelmed.  That being said, Darkstalker is too horrible for my reading comfort, and it's most horrible of all that one can almost sympathize with him.  The end of the book set my mind at ease, though (though I won't say more about that!).

--this world now has LGBTQ dragons in it!  Just a minor touch of romance at the end, but it broadens the possibilities beautifully.

And yay!  Another five book series is on its way...

disclaimer: thank you, Scholastic, for the past five years of review copies!  Best book mail ever.

The Dragon with a Chocolate Heart, by Stephanie Burgis

I feel a little late to the party on this one; everyone I know seems to have already read and loved The Dragon with a Chocolate Heart, by Stephanie Burgis (Bloomsbury, middle grade, May 2017).  It was a book that I put off acquiring because I knew I'd enjoy it, which is a twisted sort of logic that makes sense only to those who have tbr piles of disastrous proportions.  But ignoring the importunings of the piled books, I bravely sought out Dragon, and did indeed like it lots!

A restless young dragon girl, Aventurine, leaves the safety of her home to actually Do something; she thinks she's pretty much invincible with her brave dragon fierceness.  Turns out she isn't, and instead of being easy prey, a puny human transforms her into a human herself with a magicked cup of hot chocolate.  Aventurine is appalled by the transformation, but desperate for more chocolate, she makes her way to the nearest town to find it.

It is not an easy thing to be a dragon transformed into a human, and Aventurine has much to learn.  Fortunately, she soon makes friends with another human girl, who teaches her many valuable lessons (like 'money'), and equally fortunately, she finds a place working at a chocolate house, one of three such chocolate emporiums in the town, though the least economically successful.  The woman who runs it is more interested in the quality of her chocolate than making money, and Aventurine proves to be equally dedicated to the art.  So far, utterly delightful!

The chocolate house is in danger of economic failure, though.  And then the whole town is set on edge when Aventurine's family comes looking for her.  Though these twin difficulties worked well to more the plot along, and give it exciting emphasis, they kept the book from being pure comfort reading; I found it all very tense (I am sensitive).

But happily all ends very well indeed, and subsequent rereadings will doubtless find me less agitated! Aventurine is a delightful heroine, both because of her own strong personality and because of her very interesting conflict between the human world and her draconic nature (which gives rise to many touches of humor).  I found her convincing as both dragon and girl, but most appealing as an apprentice chocolate maker, just because I personally like books in which people learn crafts....The chocolate is also of course delightful, being chocolate.  So I am happy to add my voice to the legions of recommenders!

A Dragon's Guide to Making Perfect Wishes, by Laurence Yep and Joanne Ryder, for Timeslip Tuesday

Such a pleasure (for those of us who are fond of time travel) to read book three of a series one enjoyed, and to find that not only is it a good continuation of characters you've grown fond of but it is a time travel book as well!  Such is the case with A Dragon's Guide to Making Perfect Wishes, by Laurence Yep and Joanne Ryder (Crown Books for Young Readers, middle grade, March 2017), the third book about an ancient dragon and the girl who is her "pet" (the first being A Dragon's Guide to the Care and Feeding of Humans). 

Miss Drake, the dragon, has perhaps grown a little lax with her pet human, Winnie, but it's a laxness born of fondness and indulgence.  Miss Drake has known and loved several generations of Winnie's family, and when an invitation arrives to a time travel excursion back to the San Francisco World's Fair of 1915, which Miss Drake visited with Winnie's great-grandfather, Caleb, the dragon decides to take Winnie to meet her ancestor.  The time-traveling expedition has its own particular purpose--the magical group of travelers hope to solve the mystery of the theft of the legendary jewel know as the Heart of Kubera.  It is no ordinary jewel, as Winnie is about to find out...

The time-travel excursion serves introduce the jewel and its magic, and to simply offer enjoyable time with Miss Drake and Winnie as they explore the Fair.  A highlight is their chance meeting with Laura Ingalls Wilder, who was really there*....And this is very pleasant, peaceful time-travel tourism.  But there are more plot-ish elements going on at the same time.  The Jewel is more than it appears to be (it comes with a wish-granting mongoose component),and there's a villain who wants the jewel and will stop at nothing to get it. The expedition fails to revel the  mystery of the theft, and the theft in turn adds a complication to the time travel, in a nicely time-tangled turn of events. 

When Winnie ends up in possession of the jewel herself back in the present day, she has to learn pretty quickly how to make wishes that won't make things worse...which is hard to do when she has to make a wish that will save Miss Drake and herself from the clutches of the villain.

A new character, a boy named Rowan with a mysterious identity of his own, is introduced, but mostly this is Winnie and Miss Drake's story.  And if  you having a difficult sort of week, and just want a magical story about two very different people, dragon and girl, who are very, very, fond of each other, this will be a pleasantly diverting comfort!

*Joanne Ryder edited West From Home, so if anyone has the right to introduce Laura into a time travel book set at this particular World's Fair it is her!

Miss Ellicott's School for the Magically Minded, by Sage Blackwood

Miss Ellicott's School for the Magically Minded, by Sage Blackwood (Katherine Tegen Books, March 2017), is a book I first heard about from the author herself, when we met in real life in Beautiful Rhode Island (tm) before it was even all the way finished.  So I have been wanting to read it for rather a while (although of course as always happens when I buy a book I really want to read it sits for quite a while unread whilst other books checked out from the library or received for review claim my attention).  But in any event, I read it last week and  there was much to delight me.  A most interesting dragon, who has a lovely library!  Magic!  Orphans!  A city sufficient unto itself, with steps and terraces and bits of garden (I like that sort of city lots...).  And bonus overthrow of the patriarchy and destruction of xenophobic walls (literal walls.  Or more accurately, the one big wall around the city). 

Chantel, the central character, is a student at Miss Ellicott's School for Magical Maidens, where deportment is featured prominently in the curriculum, along with sundry useful spells.  Chantel was always good at the magic part, though the deportment, which basically meant being "shamefast and biddable" never came naturally.  When her familiar, a snake, morphs (rather disturbingly by crawling into her ear) into a dragon, she gives up all together on the biddable part.

This proves to be a Good Thing for the city kingdom of Lightning Pass, when the sorceress who have kept the walls of the city safe from the marauders roiling around outside it (some days more densely than others) disappear. Including Miss Ellicott, leaving Chantel and her fellow students in a pickle.  The council of Patriarchs and the King are not taking any useful actions viz the threat of marauders, which has become more immediate than usual/food shortages among the people of the city/long term plans for economic stability and peace/the state of Miss Ellicott's school. 

Chantel, seeing these problems clearly, and having the wherewithal to do things, thanks to her dragon companion and sundry other old magics, and thanks as well to more mundane, though still powerful young friends (including a marauder boy), she finds herself putting things to rights very satisfyingly indeed.  She is the right person at the right time for the job, and though young, she's smart and capable (and has advice from a long-dead queen who the patriarchs wrote into history as a traitor....).  So it is not difficult for the reader to accept the firmness with which she ends up holding the reigns of the runaway events that have overtaken her city....and it certainly not difficult for the reader to enjoy the rush of alarms and excursions that fill the story.

All in all, a very entertaining and thought-provoking read!

A particular thing I liked--you may have noticed that the school is originally the school for "magical maidens," but in the title of the book is referred to a school for the "magically minded."  Which makes the point that when patriarchal gender divides are smashed, it helps boys too.  In this case, boys who want to do magic.

Defender of the Realm, by Mark Huckerby and Nick Ostler

If  you are looking for fun hero story with interesting twists of magic to offer a handy sixth grader, or for you own light reading pleasure, Defender of the Realm, by Mark Huckerby and Nick Ostler (Scholastic, March 28 2017) might be just the thing!

Alfie is a pretty ordinary boy, overshadowed by the charisma and accomplishments of his younger twin brother, Richard, the golden boy of their form at the English boarding school they attend.  But for all of Richard's gifts, Alfie overshadows him in one very important way--as the older twin, he's the one who's the heir to the throne of Great Britain.  And when his father dies in a most utterly unexpected way, Alfie inherits everything.  Including the unfinished monster slaying business that went so wrong for his father.

For the kings of Britain are magical defenders of the realm, with a hereditary magical flying horse and suite of weapons. Alfie is forced to scramble not just to get his head around being king, but to learn to fight for his country as the current Defender (neither of which appeals.  He has trouble believing he could do a good job of either.  But the monstrous lizard dragon thing that killed his father is still out there....and Alfie must slay it.

An ordinary girl, Hayley, finds her own ordinary life disrupted when she sees the monster for herself, and witnesses Alfie's father's early attempt to defeat it, taking home with her one of the creatures scales.   She believes in the Defender of the Realm, and is happy to help Alfie as best she can....And he needs a friend he can trust, because sadly there are those working to bring him down.  She makes an excellent side-kick for him, with her confidence bolstering his faltering efforts to become the true hero he needs to be.

Many and various excitements ensue, as Alfie races to secure the magical wards of Britain before his adversary seizes them and become invincible.  It's not tremendously Deep, and doesn't dramatically break any new ground, but it is just fine for what it is--a magical, mythical adventure story whose pages turn quickly and pleasingly in fast-paced jaunts around Britain, with some thoughtful elements of character growth.

(Hayley is mixed-race, of Jamaican heritage, adding diversity.  Though primarily a side-kick, she's character enough in her own right and as a point-of-view protagonist to count this in my Diverse MG and YA speculative fiction list.)

disclaimer: review copy received from the publisher.

Heartstone, by Elle Katharine White

Heartstone, by Elle Katharine White (Harper Voyager, January 2017), has an incredibly catchy premise--Pride and Prejudice with dragons!  And if you find that an appealing thought, you should definitely add this one to your pile.  NB--I have read P. and P. more times than I can remember, so I'll be sprinkling this post with references to the original...

Aliza Bentaine lost her little sister to a gryphon attack (Kitty didn't add much to the original so her death doesn't have much affect on the plot, except that here it gives Aliza a backstory of loss and fear that adds to her character arc).  The gryphons are just one of a number of mythological creatures attacking this version of England, but happily there are other creatures who have joined with humankind to fight back.  Some brave men and women fight on foot, others ride on wyverns and dragons...The people of Aliza's community, Merybourne Manor, have scraped together enough money to hire a group of riders to solve their gryphon problem, but get more than they paid for when one of the hired guns turns out to be a dragon rider, the most elite fighter there is.

Alaister Daired is very conscious of just how elite he and his family are, and he turns out to be a most unlikeable individual. Aliza, for good reasons, quickly forms a prejudice against him.  Her older sister, however, quickly forms an attachment to Daired's wyvern-riding best friend, Brysney....(and instead of simple house calls and formal dances, we get gryphon slaying, in which Aliza is forced to take a much more active a role than she wished to, slaying one herself.  Although there is also a dance).

A band of Rangers, foot-soldiers not bounded to fantastical creatures and much lower in the social hierarchy, show up in town too, including the not-unappealing Wydrick, who tells Aliza how Daired wronged him, lowering her opinion of him even more.  Mr. Curdred, the heir to the manor, also arrives, and (in as much as he is playing the part of Mr. Collins), asks Aliza to marry him  (Mr. Curdred has more too him than at first appears, unlike Mr. Collins)....and of course her dear friend ends up doing so (although for somewhat unexpected reasons).

So far, so good with P. and P. retelling; everyone is assembled and recognizable, although there are sufficient twists to the story and setting to make this more than just a rehashing of the original.  I was thrown off by "Mary" being described as an introspective blue-stocking, as both concepts post-date Jane Austen's period, and indeed I was never really convinced I was in a Regency England equivalent,  but the excitements of monster hunting, the introduction of a strange shadowy character only Aliza can see, and other assorted bits of magicalness made the story unique enough so that I was willing to ignore this. 

And then we get to my favorite bits of the story, the real meat of the romance, to which the author is faithful enough to please me while allowing dragons, Daired's dragon in particular, to have speaking parts...and the equivalent of the "Pemberley" scenes was lovely, although Daired's transformation in certain particulars seemed unconvincing if looked at too closely.

Though I would have been happy to stay at Pemberely and enjoy the rising consciousness of love on Aliza's part (and shirtless Daired),  perforce I was whisked to an epic and dramatic monster battle, that gave Leyda's (Lydia) story a much more interesting arc than simply eloping with Wydrick, and also, satisfyingly, gave Mr. Brysney's sister (a monster hunter in her own right) a chance to do more than just hate Aliza for winning Daired's heart.  Though perhaps not as exquisitely intelligent as Elizabeth Bennett (who is?), Aliza is a more active agent in the plot (it helps that there's a more active plot in which to be an active participant), and this turned out to be an appealing part of the story.  I also appreciated that characters who were one dimensional idiots in the original are given more complexity here.

It was a somewhat distracting read, because of knowing the original so well...though I enjoyed it, and a lot of the fun was seeing the familiar transformed, it made it hard to evaluate this reimagining on its own merit.  I am pretty sure it works, though; the dragons and mortal peril add enough of a difference to make it feel like its own, exciting and romantic, story!

disclaimer: review copy received from the publisher

Realm Breaker (Last Dragon Charmer 3), by Laurie McKay

Realm Breaker is the third book in Laurie McKay's Last Dragon Charmer series (Harper Collins, March 7, 2017).  The books tell of a young prince and a young girl who's a magic user, inadvertently exiled from their magical homeland to Asheville, North Carolina. There Caden and Brynne found that Ms. Primrose, the principal of the middle school they were forced to attend by their new foster mother is actually a powerful dragon, of uncertain temper, presiding over a staff consisting of banished villains. 

At the end of the second book, the leader of the villains, a  truly sinister fellow, has overthrown the dragon principal and is setting up a dark magical spell  that will allow him to access the magical realm and take control there too.  Caden is naturally determined to stop this evil plan.  But though he has allies in Asheville, and though he has magical gift of his own for persuasively charming speech, it's not at all clear whether he'll be able to do so.  Especially since the dragon ex-principal is being pushed toward her own dark side....

This series is tremendously fun in general, in its lighthearted use of High Fantasy conventions mixed with the real world of Asheville, where Caden is in foster care.  And this third book, not having to set the stage, spends less time playing with Caden's confusion about life in the real world (though he's still confounded at times), giving McKay room to up the ante of the plot.  There's lots of  suspense and danger, making for truly gripping reading! 

The world building of the fantasy realm and its inhabitants is strengthened here, adding interest, and the relationship between Caden and his older brother (banished to Asheville under a cloud of suspicion) is also given more depth. Though there are lots of great character interactions, it's especially fun to see Caden gingerly negotiating with Ms. Primrose, who is one of the most diverting dragon characters of the current middle grade fantasy scene!

Fans of the series will not be disappointed, and younger middle grader aficionados of magical mayhem (the 9 to 11 year olds not ready for YA) should seek the books out post haste!  Here's my review of the first book, Villain Keeper, and the second book, Quest Maker.  Realm Breaker builds on the strengths of these two, making for very good reading indeed!  This installment ends at a good ending point, but there are lots of questions and unresolved issues left, so hopefully there will be more to come!

final note--  I want to share the link to the Goodreads page for the book, because Ms. Yingling's review there gives a lovely detailed summary, and because she loved it, though she is not naturally drawn to middle grade fantasy, so I think her admiration for the series is about as shining a testimonial as one can get....

disclaimer: review copy received (with great happiness) from the author

Talons of Power, by Tui T. Sutherland

So I have been a fan of Tui T. Sutherland's Wings of Fire books since the first book in the series was just a newly hatched ARC....and it's always a happy day when a new addition to these dragon adventures is released.  Talons of Power is the latest book in the second subseries about the young dragons from all the different dragon kings who attend a draconic boarding school under Jade Mountain.  The previous book in this series ended with the release of legendary evil dragon Darkstalker from his magical imprisonment, and then Tui T. Sutherland took us back in time for Darkstalker's origin story.  If you have read Darkstalker, you will not be at all surprised that Talons of Power is full of scary, dark magic because Darkstalker is an evil, mind-controlling genius who craves absolute power.

The hero of this installment is the young Seawing, Turtle, who has up till now been something of a secondary character.  This was fine with him--he does not see himself as a hero, he does not want to be a hero, and he has no confidence that he might ever be able to think and do the right things at the right time the way a hero might.  He's actually very powerful--he's an animus dragon, like Darkstalker, and can do magic of his own.  But Turtle isn't interested in power. 

When Darkstalker shows up, using his magic right and left on all the other young dragons, Turtle uses his magic almost instinctively in such a way that he becomes basically the only hope of foiling him.  But his path is not clear to him, and he spends much of the book sort of in a lonely fumble of figuring out what to do, trailing along as Darkstalker sets out to rebuild the Kingdom of the Nightwings.  It's lonely for Turtle because his friends aren't protected against Darkstalker; only bright, vivid, impulsive Kinkajou, who doesn't join the story till around the middle of it, still has an unclouded mind (and though there are reasons why Turtle just can be using his magic right and left, I wish he'd been able to keep a few more friends from being brainwashed.. I kept getting distracted by thoughts of what magic I would do in Turtle's place....). 

So it's a somewhat uncheerful book, without the group camaraderie that made the previous books such a joy to read.  And the "holdout against tyrannical oppression and mental manipulation" story is kind of close to home for some of us right now, so not cheerful reading, though timely.  As the story reaches its end (which does not equal conclusion....), things get a bit more lively, and throughout, Turtle is certainly a sympathetic character. 

And now we wait for the next book--will Turtle's sister Anemone, who has magic of her own, step up to the plate?  Will Kinkajou become a hero in her own right? and will Quibli (one of my favorite young dragons) whose keen, super-smart mind seems to be resistant to magic and who stayed at Jade Mountain, save the day? 

The Secrets of Hexbridge Castle, by Gabrielle Kent, for Timeslip Tuesday

The Secrets of Hexbridge Castle, by Gabrielle Kent (Scholastic, October 25 2016), is one I very much want to send back in time to eight-year old me.  That me was an avid reader of fantasy, and I loved the stories where magic intruded into the tedium of everyday life and exploded it.  That's the sort of story this one is, and it has the added benefit of having time travel bits, although not so much as to say that this is a Time Travel story. 

Alfie's life is horribly mundane and not much fun; his mom is dead, and he lives in a basement apartment with his loving but not the best at parenting father (the sort of father who's always tinkering with inventions, and can't cook).  And Alfie isn't looking forward to the summer stretching ahead with his one good friend, Amy, away for most of it.  But just a few pages into the story, the tedium ends abruptly when Alfie slips through time to escape some bullies.  And that's the start of his introduction to magic, setting in motion the steps in plan begun centuries earlier.

Alfie learns, from a shapeshifting raven lawyer, that  he's inherited Hexbridge Castle, and that he and his father must live in it.  Not that they are reluctant to leave their basement, especially when the Castle comes with enough funds to keep it up, and lots of (quirky) renovations in place, and a butler with divine cooking skills.  Alfie and his cousins have a grand time exploring the vast and wonderful place, and it really is almost too good to be true. 

There's something of a catch, though, as there so often is.  Alfie's parents inadvertently travelled back in time the day his was born, allowing the last of the druids to imbue Alfie with his magic.  And now Alfie has lots to learn.  Magic is more than just flying off to London on a talking polar bear rug.  Because where there is great magic, there are greedy ones who want to take it for themselves.

The greedy ones here are sufficiently well developed in their nastiness that they counter the almost cotton-candy (delightfully tasty in moderation, not so much by the time you've eaten the whole thing) wonder of the castle, and as Alfie and his cousins begin to unravel the truth of what's been terrorizing the farms around the castle, things become very exciting reading indeed (and another, somewhat more substantial, time travel episode takes place too; just to make it clear this is a valid Timeslip Tuesday book).  Attentive blog readers will note that I have tagged the post with "dragons."  There are reasons for this, that I don't to spoil, but if you like dragons, there's that bit of incentive for you.

Some of the situations are scary, but they aren't Scary scary.  Just enough to be exciting.  So you can comfortably give this one to an 8 or 9 year old who wants nice juicy fantasy fun and for whom magical castles are the be all and end all.  And then you can give them Edward Eager, and then E. Nesbit. 

Extra points from me for the Enigmatic Butler with mysterious powers and a mysterious past, who I don't think child me would have appreciate as much as adult me does!

Extra points also for not making the magic easy; instead, its seductive lure give Archie convincing pause.

This came out last summer in the UK as Alfie Bloom and the Secrets of Hexbridge Castle, and the sequel, Alfie Bloom and the Talisman Thief, came out there this June.  But the first book stands just fine on its own, so don't worry on that score!

disclaimer: review copy received from the publisher