
On Wings of a Dragon by Cora Taylor is a great book I found because School Library Journal is having me review the sequel. I hadn’t read or even heard of the first book, but I am so happy that SLJ asked me to review the second because I got to discover another very talented Canadian children’s book author.
On Wings of a Dragon is the story of two girls. First is Kour’el who is trapped alone in a tower cell until she finds a tiny dragon who used to be a Great One, or huge dragon. Her story is how they grow stronger, and the dragon grows bigger, and they escape. Meanwhile, Maighdlin, a girl in a small village is gathered up by the queen’s soldiers and taken to the palace to work as a servant girl. Servants are always disappearing from the castle and never return to their villages, so it is seen as a death sentence. Her grandfather and another girl’s boyfriend follow the girls in the hopes of rescuing them.
The many stories converge into a single story by the end and readers will find themselves in a rewarding book that is fresh and new, despite its traditional epic fantasy setting. The characters are multidimensional and sparklingly written.
Recommend this to fantasy readers, especially those who enjoy dragon stories or stories with strong female protagonists.
Baldacci Writes for Kids
TimesDispatch.com | Fries with that? Baldacci takes a child-oriented detour
David Baldacci joins a growing list of authors of books for adults who are writing children’s books. I enjoy the fact that this started as a bedtime story for his children.
Harry Potter Beats Its Own Record
Library Journal – Half-Blood Prince Sets Sales Records, Bests Order of the Phoenix by 20 percent
I suppose we could have guessed it! After all, so many people have purchased their own copy in our community that the hold list for the library copies is very small. A record 6.9 million copies were sold in the first 24 hours in the U.S. alone!
Mary Hoffman Article
A nice article on Mary Hoffman and continuing her Amazing Grace series that started as picture books and now continues as chapter books.
Spank!
Spank! Youth and Teen Culture Online is a site that offers teens online forums, articles, website directories, and more. Teens contribute to the site via comments and forum postings.
Great Library Site for Kids
The Kids’ Pages at the Enoch Pratt Free Library is an amazing website that opens with a silly video of a purple cat. The site offers e-stories, lists of great books, library programming, and cool links. it has a completely kid-focused feel to it that I haven’t seen before in children’s library sites. Wonderful!
Multnomah County Book Lists
Multnomah County Library’s Readers’ Choice! is a great collection of booklists for kids. From infants through eighth graders, the lists cover specific ages, themes, and award winners.
Bloomsbury Publishing
Bloomsbury USA has a children’s section where you can see their new releases and search their catalog by age.
Amelia Rules
Amelia Rules is a great graphic novel series for children. But don’t take my word for it! Visit their dynamic site where you can read a sample, examine reviews, and of course buy the books.