A. J. Lake's The Coming of Dragons is the newest entry in a bushelful of books designed to fill kids' seemingly insatiable desire for stories about dragons. In most of these books, the dragons are heroic beings, but in Lake's newest, Torment the Dragon is a nasty piece of work. In the first pages of this ripping yarn, the Spearwa, the dragon destroys a sailing vessel and all hands, except two passengers, Edmund, a king's song, and Elspeth, the skipper's daughter. Both are saved by clinging to an chest from the cargo hold, and then by an old, Gandalf-like mentor named Aagard, who takes them into his home when they wash ashore. Edmund and Elspeth are soon discovered to have stunning--and inconvenient--gifts. Edmund is a Ripente, one who can see through others' eyes, and Elspeth becomes the guardian and wielder of a silver sword which comes to her unbidden from the chest. Many scary and sometimes violent adventures follow, asthe two children desperately try to get back home. The Coming of Dragons is a tad bit uneven, with a few patches of clunky writing and some egregious proofreading mistakes, but the whole book is greater than the sum of its parts. Kids should love it, and the ending is such a cliffhanger that Lake should scarcely have been allowed to release the first book before the second one was written. (This is Book One in the Darkest Age series.) Parents should be warned that there is a short scene of torture towards the end of the book that may be too intense for younger children.
Stand Tall
By Siena Siegel
by Joan Bauer
Putnam, 2002, 182 pgs Realistic Fiction
Tree is 12 years old and over 6 feet tall. That would be great if he were a basketball player, but he is not. Dealing with his unusual size is not Tree's only challenge. Tree's parents have recently gone through a divorce, and his grandfather has had his leg amputated as the result of an old Vietnam War injury. The strength of this book is the characterizations. All of the main characters are dimensional and sympathetic. Bauer sets the characters in real and often funny family situations. Best of all is the character of Tree. He is boy with a heart to match his stature. This is a great book for boys or girls ages 9-12, as a read aloud or for individual reading. This book could also be a good Rx book for children whose families are going through divorce, or for anyone who feels like they don't fit in.
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