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.
The House with Nobody in It By Jon Klassen Somerville, Massachusetts: Candlewick Press, 2026. Board Book. The House with Nobody in It may very well be your child's first ghost story. The simple story begins with the narrator explaining to readers that this house used to have someone in it, but there is now nobody there. Toddlers and preschoolers will love contradicting this statement as they peek through the house that the board book forms, as the ghost is clearly visible throughout the story. This unique and imaginative board book is the perfect thing to read during Halloween season! The book itself plays into the experience, with cutouts and clever turns that make it especially interactive. The illustrations are superb, simple but well crafted, adding to the story's theme as a whole. This will likely be a book that gets many repeat reads!
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