A charming, smartly crafted fantasy world that readers will want to linger in.
The fates of a girl and a dragon intertwine in this middle-grade fantasy.
In the kingdom of Morganshire, 12-year-old Eliana Fallond longs for adventure while helping her family tend the farm. She’s the dependable child between her sister, 14-year-old Alethia, and their 7-year-old twin brothers, Sage and Rowan. As Eliana feeds the chickens one morning, she spies a “flash of vivid turquoise” in the nearby forest. When she enters the dense wood, she encounters a dragon “about as big as a draft horse.” Drawn by his beautiful colors and shy nature, she touches one of the creatures who she’d been taught were hunted to extinction. In doing so, she understands his rumbling speech. Winston is his name, and he’s a young dragon of only “thirty springs.” When Eliana’s mother, Glenna, calls her home, she and Winston agree to meet in the same spot the next day. Meanwhile, at Morgan Castle, someone has stolen the kingdom’s treasure. King Halwyn cannot pay the annual tribute to the Overking of Canting Castle. Counselor Margred suggests that Halwyn use a dragon to locate the missing treasure, as it’s the beasts’ “special talent.” And so Doryu the Dragon Speaker must once more lend his gift to the kingdom to find one of the rare, grand creatures. In this series opener, Evans parcels out the drama among her cast in perfect measure. Winston isn’t merely a fantastic beast to enable Eliana’s growth, but a creature with yearnings similar to her own. Morganshire’s backstory is epic yet contained, revealing a generational conflict between humans and dragons. Gorgeous prose highlights some sinister aspects of the tale, as when the “long, pale hand” of Margred “emerged with a sigh from her silken midnight blue robes and swept like a white moth in an arc.” Alethia’s mentor, Bedwyr, is a master mapmaker, and his enthusiasm for his work will enchant young readers. One key depiction is that of Halwyn’s father, Chares, who aged prematurely because he “suffered from the hatred that burned inside him.” As the narrative’s mystery wraps up, the characters are on excellent footing to face greater dangers in subsequent volumes.
A charming, smartly crafted fantasy world that readers will want to linger in.Pub Date: Dec. 2, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-952112-74-4
Page Count: 370
Publisher: Acorn Publishing
Review Posted Online: Sept. 17, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
An absorbing fantasy centered on a resilient female protagonist facing growth, change, and self-empowerment.
In Florence’s middle-grade fantasy novel, a young girl’s heart is tested in the face of an evil, spreading Darkness.
Eleven-year-old Lydia, “freckle-cheeked and round-eyed, with hair the color of pine bark and fair skin,” is struggling with the knowledge that she has reached the age to apprentice as an herbalist. Lydia is reluctant to leave her beloved, magical Mulberry Glen and her cozy Housetree in the woods—she’ll miss Garder, the Glen’s respected philosopher; her fairy guardian Pit; her human friend Livy; and even the mischievous part-elf, part-imp, part-human twins Zale and Zamilla. But the twins go missing after hearing of a soul-sapping Darkness that has swallowed a forest and is creeping into minds and engulfing entire towns. They have secretly left to find a rare fruit that, it is said, will stop the Darkness if thrown into the heart of the mountain that rises out of the lethal forest. Lydia follows, determined to find the twins before they, too, fall victim to the Darkness. During her journey, accompanied by new friends, she gradually realizes that she herself has a dangerous role to play in the quest to stop the Darkness. In this well-crafted fantasy, Florence skillfully equates the physical manifestation of Darkness with the feelings of insecurity and powerlessness that Lydia first struggles with when thinking of leaving the Glen. Such negative thoughts grow more intrusive the closer she and her friends come to the Darkness—and to Lydia’s ultimate, powerfully rendered test of character, which leads to a satisfyingly realistic, not quite happily-ever-after ending. Highlights include a delightfully haunting, reality-shifting library and a deft sprinkling of Latin throughout the text; Pit’s pet name for Lydia is mea flosculus (“my little flower”). Fine-lined ink drawings introducing each chapter add a pleasing visual element to this well-grounded fairy tale.
An absorbing fantasy centered on a resilient female protagonist facing growth, change, and self-empowerment.Pub Date: Jan. 7, 2025
ISBN: 9781956393095
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Waxwing Books
Review Posted Online: Oct. 14, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
An engaging, puzzle-centered page-turner.
A tween enters into a high-stakes and high-rewards hunt for a life-changing treasure.
After years of financial instability, and moving from place to place with her mother, Everly “Benny” Benedict, 12, is poised to come into a large inheritance from her great-great-great-great-great-grandmother, Evelyn “Sparrow” Terry of Greenport, Long Island—but only if Benny can solve Evelyn’s riddles and find a mysterious island within the deadline, less than two weeks away. If she fails, Benny will lose the entire estate. As the pressure mounts, Benny and her newly acquired Greenport friends, Zara and Ryan, unravel clues tied to a rare Blood Orange Moon, a deadly 1825 Yellow Fever epidemic, and family connections spanning generations; in addition, events from Evelyn’s timeline shed light on the present day. Incorporating text messages, the young detectives’ notes, and 19th-century newspaper articles, journal entries, and letters, Calonita deftly transitions between the past and the present. Greenport is rich in magical elements that gradually play a larger and larger role in the plot, setting this book apart from other inheritance treasure-hunt stories and creating an added layer of interest. Severe weather phenomena and other challenges contribute to the building tension. The worldbuilding contains several unexplained developments, and the book ends on a frustratingly major cliffhanger, but this series opener is clearly setting up for a sequel in which more answers will hopefully be forthcoming. Main characters are cued white.
An engaging, puzzle-centered page-turner. (Fantasy adventure. 8-12)Pub Date: March 25, 2025
ISBN: 9781728277035
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Sourcebooks Young Readers
Review Posted Online: Dec. 14, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2025
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