I was trying to think what to blog about over the summer and thought it might be fun to review some children's books :) Since I'll be in the UK I thought it would be a good time to re-read my favorite British authors (which some of you may not be familiar with :) ) and tell you what I like about them.
Having said that however, my first review choice is not British :)
Tui T. Sutherland lives in Massachusetts and I just LOVE her series, Wings of Fire (published by Scholastic)
She's written 3 books in the series so far - book 3 just came out (and I am waiting for my copy to arrive) and book 4 will be out in October (sigh - it will be a long wait!)
I am a big fan of fantasy - and if it involves dragons that's even better. Throw in a prophecy and I'm hooked. Plus, as a bonus, there are great maps of Pyrrhia in the book> (shades of Anne McCaffrey's Pern novels!!)
5 young dragons are brought up in a secret cave under a mountain - they are the dragonets of prophecy and are guarded by the Talons of Peace. A little quirk appears early in the story: The dragonets were supposed to be from 5 specific species of dragon but unfortunately the Skywing egg was broken so a Rainwing egg was substituted instead. We're not sure how this will affect the prophecy... :) but it's keeping me enthralled trying to guess what will happen!!
The dragonets escape from the cave and search for their families. They all have different desires and each book focuses on one dragonet but continues the overall storyline. In book one, Clay the Mudwing finds his family; in book two Tsunami, the Seawing finds hers. So far the protagonists have had to make difficult choices and I expect this will continue with the rest of the series.
Having said that, I've already been surprised quite a few times - the storyline has NOT gone the way I thought it would, which I just LOVE! - so who knows what will happen to Glory, Starflight and Sunny! :)
I seriously couldn't put the first book down and then read the second one immediately after!! (And book three had better get here SOON!)
There is some violence - dragons fight and kill each other - and there's no sugarcoating of the results of war but some of my grade 3 students read the books and loved them. They're definitely a great choice for grades 4 and 5!!
There's a lot in this series - themes of prejudice, loyalty, friendship , choices, empathy, senselessness of war... - all wrapped up in a fantastic adventure story.
I was thinking of trying the first book as a read aloud next year - just for the discussions that I'm sure will result. :)
Has anyone else read these books? What are your thoughts?
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