A Review of Seraphina by Rachel Hartman

It’s been a sad year, but a hopeful one as well. On the one hand, we’ve lost amazing writers like Eva Ibbotson and Diana Wynne Jones. On the other hand, we’ve seen the arrival of new voices that promise to add something unique and wonderful to the canon of literature for children and teens. These newcomers by no means take the place of the voices we’ve lost, but they do bring their own magic to the field (which makes me think of the field of care in DWJ’s Enchanted Glass). This book is a good example of what I mean. Like Rachel Carson’s debut, The Girl of Fire and Thorns, another Rachel’s debut novel, Seraphina, has grabbed me and won’t let go.

I should confess that I am not big on dragon books as a genre. I only got through the first Christopher Paolini book, for example. But Seraphina is more about inter-species and international politics, not the care and feeding of dragons. In Seraphina’s world, dragons are a lot like the Vulcans in Star Trek. They are highly logical, math- and science-oriented beings who despise and even fear the influence of human emotions. They are also musically gifted, though their performances may lack nuance because of their lack of emotional expression. The dragons can take human form, though most are required to wear bells in public as a way of acknowledging what they really are. To call the truce between Seraphina’s kingdom and the dragon kingdom uneasy is an understatement.

As for Seraphina, she has a huge secret to keep. In a society that is dangerously anti-dragon, she is the ultimate abomination—the child of a dragon and a human. Most people don’t even think it’s possible for the two species to mix. There are ways in which Seraphina’s dual nature betrays her, certain procedures she must follow to protect herself. Her love of music has led her to become the assistant to the royal music master, but this puts her at even greater risk. On top of everything, she is developing feelings for a member of the royal family, and he is off limits for more than one reason.

Hartman’s depiction of dragon society and its interaction with the humans is skillfully drawn, as is main character Seraphina with her complex struggles. We learn that Seraphina has a cast of characters in her head that she must manage or she will lose her mind. At the very least, she will have headaches and seizures. Is she mentally ill because she is part dragon, or is there another meaning to her carefully cultivated garden of odd beings? Seraphina has named each character and learned ways to keep them under control. Here’s an excerpt showing a visit to the mind garden:

Sick and exhausted though I was, I could not put off dealing with Fruit Bat. I hauled my bolster onto the floor, threw myself down, and tried to enter the garden. It took several minutes before my teeth unclenched and I relaxed enough to envision the place. Fruit Bat was up a tree in his grove. I prowled around the trunk, picking my way over gnarled roots. He appeared to be asleep; he also looked about ten or eleven years old and had his hair in knots, just as he had in the vision. My mind had apparently updated his grotesque to conform to new information. I gazed up at his face and felt a pang of sadness. I didn’t want to lock him away, but I saw no alternative. Visions were dangerous; I could hit my head, suffocate, give myself away. I had to defend myself however I could.

Those who hate the dragons along with the dragons themselves become increasingly aware of Seraphina as she is drawn into the rising conflict. I will add that her relationship with her tutor is intriguing and poignant, especially considering his own difficulty finding out where he stands when it comes to Seraphina and the dragon kingdom.

The palace intrigue reminds me a little of the politics in a Megan Whalen Turner book, while the murder mystery ratchets up the suspense as the possibility of a rogue dragon turns a diplomatic mission on its head. You'll find plenty of plot twists in this one. Most of all, though, Seraphina is satisfying because its main character draws you completely into her strange world and her even stranger troubles. And isn’t that what Young Adult fiction is all about, whether it’s set in a modern high school or a distant palace in a land where there are dragons?

I’m not crazy about the book trailer, but you might want to watch it.

Note for Worried Parents: This is a book for teens and has a rather mature feel to it. There is some talk of affairs, along with violence, especially hate crimes.


Update: Check out this interview with Rachel Hartman at Enchanted Inkpot!

A Review of Dragonswood by Janet Lee Carey

Wilde Island, A.D. 1192, where the dragons and the fay live in a sanctuary called Dragonswood. In a nearby village, Tess hides her own magical abilities or the fact that she sometimes slips away into the forbidden forest and has seen fairies and dragons. She has enough trouble dealing with her father the blacksmith, who beats her.

When the royal witch hunter comes to her village, Tess is quickly targeted. Under torture, she betrays the two friends who have visited the woods with her. The three girls barely manage to escape with their lives and hide in the forest. There they meet one of the royal huntsman, Garth. He gives them shelter, but Tess is afraid to trust him.

After taking new risks to make up for her earlier betrayal, Tess sees her friends settled. She also finds out some of Garth's secrets. Eventually Tess visits the fairy realm, where she discovers the truth about her own heritage. But the fairies, like her human father, seem likely to use her for their own purposes. And Tess has decided she has a purpose of her own. To get what she wants, she will have to make strange new allies and trick the tricksters who surround her.

Janet Lee Carey does some nice world building with her versions of dragons and the fairy kingdom, and juxtaposing them with witch hunters and political intrigue adds still more spice to the mix. She touches on themes of loyalty, betrayal, and forgiveness. What motivates people like the witch hunters, or like Tess herself? I found Carey's stubborn heroine especially appealing.

The trees of Dragonswood rustled in the wind along the boundary wall. Mist blew up from the sea and swirled at our feet like witch's hair. I looked to the pines, longing to scale one.

"When's the wedding, Tess?" Meg said.

"What wedding?"

"You're to marry Master Percival soon," Meg reminded me.

"Never."

"You're seventeen. If not Master Percival, it will be someone else."

I'd had other suitors; none were rich enough to please my father until this latest one. He wanted to rope me to an older man with money, one who kept his wife in the same fashion he'd kept his own. Master Percival had grown children. He'd outlived three wives already. I'd seen their bruised faces when I'd met them at the town well. The welts on their arms just like mine and Mother's.

"Wedlock is a hangman's noose," I said.

Dragonswood is a suspenseful adventure with a romance between Garth and a leery Tess that develops slowly and subtly. I very much appreciate the way the author actually ends the book, even while hinting at later books that will feature other characters.

Note for Worried Parents: This book for teens presents violence in the form of child and spousal abuse (see above), as well as torture and the threat of death from witch hunters. It also describes the fairies' random sexual promiscuity as part of their culture.

A Review of Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin

If you watched The Today Show yesterday (Friday, December 4), then you got to see Grace Lin talking about her new book, which was featured on Al Roker's book club for children. Where the Mountain Meets the Moon is a different kind of fantasy: a bearer of fairy tales, a tender-hearted fable, and a unique adventure set in ancient China.

A young girl named Minli lives in a small village on Fruitless Mountain, a place where rice will scarcely grow for lack of water. The reason lies in legend—the Jade River lost her dragon children when she resentfully withheld water from the people of the earth and her children decided to make up for her pettiness by ending the famine themselves. "The Story of Fruitless Mountain" is only the first of many tales that are recounted in Where the Mountain Meets the Moon. I've seen the "story within a story" device work poorly in the past, but Lin's stories seamlessly work to support the larger plot, even as they entertain listeners both inside and outside the pages of her book.

Still more impressive, Lin has done this by slightly reworking traditional tales. I've read collections of Chinese fairy tales, and I saw glimpses of those stories in the ones recounted by Lin's storytellers. Paintings coming to life, ghost stories, talking fish, and stories with Confucian lessons cautioning against greed are just a few familiar themes from Chinese folklore that Lin draws on to build Minli's own tale.

Minli's story begins when she spends one of her two copper coins to buy a goldfish. Her mother, who worries constantly about the family's poverty, is angry over the waste, not only of the coin, but of the food that will be needed to feed the fish. Minli bought the fish because the goldfish man told her it would bring her family good luck, but she reluctantly takes the fish to the river that night and lets it go, thinking that her mother is probably right. The goldfish then speaks to her, thanking her for its freedom and counseling her to seek the answers to her questions from the Old Man of the Moon.

Determined to change her family's fortunes, plucky Minli sets out on a quest, following the goldfish's directions to look for the magical old man.

When Minli's parents read her note, they are heartbroken. They try to find their daughter, but eventually go home to wait and hope for her return. Unlike many fantasy adventures, this story shows poignantly how the parents miss their child, worrying about her wellbeing. Minli, for her part, misses her parents and worries about them while she is gone. These moments are not overdone. Instead they are simple and touching.

Lin's language is also simple, but effective. Watch for her metaphors; for example, she says, "Every night the stars filled the sky like snowflakes falling on black stone."

Minli finds a traveling companion along the way, a dragon who cannot fly. (When she encourages him to accompany her to ask the Old Man of the Moon for help, I pictured Dorothy telling the Scarecrow, the Tin Man, and the Cowardly Lion to join her on her journey!) Minli must find a way to talk to the king of the City of Bright Moonlight in order to complete her quest. She has further troubles with monkeys and tigers before reaching her goal. She also meets helpful people such as an orphan who owns a buffalo and has befriended a mysterious magical girl, a pair of laughing twin children who defeat great evil by playing on a villain's anger, and, of course, the Old Man of the Moon. An episode involving the gift of a coat is especially lovely.

In keeping with the kindness that weaves through the narrative like a magical red thread, Minli must decide whether to make a great sacrifice for a friend in the book's final pages.

A further strength of Where the Mountain Meets the Moon is the way Lin has quietly tied all of the pieces of her plot together in regards, not only to present events, but to the past—the past of a king, of a green tiger, of a goddess, of a wonderfully happy family, and of Minli's dragon friend.

Clear back at the root of the story is the discontentment of Minli's mother, which quietly echoes the anger and loss of Jade River.

Many of the characters in the book are poetically kind, yet they also seem real and rounded. Lin manages to tell a moral tale without preaching. Her lessons flow as beautifully as a river down a mountain where flowers and fruit do grow, after all.

Like so many books on the shelves of your library or bookstore, Where the Mountain Meets the Moon is an adventure and a fantasy, but it is something more besides. In an age when commercialism too often overcomes the simplest and best truths, Grace Lin tells a story which conveys a kind of beauty of the heart.

As if that weren't enough, the author created lovely color-plate illustrations to accompany the tale. Invest in a new treasure for your family—go out and find a copy of this book.

Note: I learned about Where the Mountain Meets the Moon because Grace is a member of the fantasy writers' blog group I belong to, The Enchanted Inkpot.

A Review of City of Fire by Laurence Yep

As the jacket points out, Laurence Yep is a two-time Newbery Honor Award winner. I really liked his sea dragon series. It's also nice that Yep gives us Asian-influenced fantasy and Asian characters, since fantasy often seems to be populated entirely by white children. So when the publisher offered to send me Yep's new series starter, I was happy to get my hands on it.

City of Fire introduces us to an alternative version of San Francisco in 1941. In this world, dragons take human form, and a well-to-do diplomat's daughter named Scirye has a lap-sized talking griffin named Kles. Her family represents the ancient kingdom of Kush. At a museum exhibit of Kushan artifacts, we meet the rest of our cast of characters—a boy named Leech, his companion Koko, and a disguised dragon named Bayang whose mission is to kill Leech.

When the exhibit is attacked by a huge dragon and other monsters, Scirye's warrior mother and sister fight back, but Scirye's sister is killed and the exhibit is robbed of a strange ring. Determined to avenge herself, Scirye impulsively steals a magic carpet and, with her new companions in tow, sets out to chase the dragonish thief.

Their first attempt to retrieve the ring fails, so our heroes must stow away on a plane headed for Honolulu, having realized that the thief is working for a wealthy and powerful man named Mr. Roland. On the island they meet a new ally, the goddess Pele. But even she might not have the power to stop Mr. Roland, who is planning to retrieve the Five Lost Treasures of Emperor Yu—for nefarious purposes, obviously!

Certain characters are particularly fun: while Pele may seem like a stereotype to some, I thought she was a hoot as a raucous, pidgin-talking, casually powerful Hawaiian deity in human form. Koko has an intriguing secret, and we do finally learn the mystery of Bayang's pursuit of Leech, who turns out to have magical powers of his own. Yep's world building here is another plus, with the retro vibe of the 1940s combined with an alternative Asian history to give the story a fresh fantasy feel.

Although the book is written in third person, alternating chapters give us the story from the points of view of Scirye, Bayang, and Leech, an approach I think enriches the narrative.

My only hesitation about City of Fire is that it seems to rely more on plot and setup than on character development, but I think that may simply be true of this type of series. For one thing, it's hard to juggle a large cast and give each character much depth. We do learn that Scirye is klutsy compared to her sister and feels she has something to prove and that Bayang begins to question her mission, but Leech is a little harder to get a handle on. I guess I didn't feel as strong a connection to these characters as I would have liked. However, as the series continues, Yep will no doubt add further nuance to his key characters. In the meantime, this series, with enough action to satisfy fans of Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson books, is off to a very good start.

Giveaway Winners and a List of Dragons

And the winners are... Susan and Infant Bibliophile! (I will be e-mailing you shortly about sending you each a signed copy of The Runaway Dragon.)

For the rest of you, hey--we came up with a nice little list of dragons while we were at it. Here are some favorite dragons or dragon books:

--The Reluctant Dragon, by Kenneth Grahame; illustrated by either Ernest Shephard or, more recently, Michael Hague
--Puff the Magic Dragon
--Kazul from Patricia Wrede's Enchanted Forest Chronicles
--Kitty from Tamora Pierce's Wild Mage quartet
--the title character from Boni Ashburn and Kelly Murphy's picture book, Hush, Little Dragon
--the dragons in Harry Potter, Books 1 and 4
--The Last Dragon by Silvana de Mari
--the Dragonriders of Pern series by Anne McCaffrey
--the dragon at the end of Hannah's Winter by Kierin Meehan
--Bruce Coville's Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher
--the dragon in Margaret Mahy's picture book, The Lion in the Meadow
--Eustace when he turns into a dragon in C.S. Lewis's Voyage of the Dawn Treader
--a British TV series, Jane and the Dragon

I'll add a few more dragons I came up with:

--the dragon depicted by Trina Schart Hyman in St. George and the Dragon
--the baby dragons in Shelley Moore Thomas and Jennifer Plecas' Good Night, Good Knight and other books in the easy reader/picture book series
--Everyone Knows What a Dragon Looks Like, a picture book by Jay Williams and Mercer Mayer
--the dragon who gets tickled in David LaRochelle and Richard Egielski's clever backwards fairy tale, The End (picture book)
--the sexy teenage dragon/boy from Vivian Vande Velde's YA, Dragon's Bait
--the dragons in the Eragon series by Christopher Paolini
--and of course, the marvelous Smaug from J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit

Please feel free to post a comment about any other terrific kids' lit dragons you might think of...

Even more dragons and dragon books from the comments:

--Jessica Day George's books, Dragon Slippers, Dragon Flight, and Dragon Spear
--the dragons in E.D. Baker's Frog Princess series
--The Tale of Custard the Dragon by Ogden Nash

P.S. In other giveaway and dragon-related news, I was just interviewed by author Linda Gerber on her website in honor of The Runaway Dragon's release. She is also giving away a copy of my book! (You have to note what your magical power of choice would be by 9/9/09 to get in on the drawing.)

New Book Giveaway

It occurs to me that I really should give away copies of my new book to a couple of deserving souls who have the immense sagacity to visit Book Aunt...

So here's the deal: leave a comment telling us about your favorite fictional dragon (other than my Laddy) and why your pick is so very cool/scary/cute/weird/other. Then you will be entered in a drawing to win one of two autographed copies of The Runaway Dragon!

If you already own the book, comment anyway--you can always give the non-autographed copy away or ask me to sign the book to a niece or nephew.

Being a great believer in randomness, I'll do this for a week or two, depending on how many people participate.

Note: It really helps for you to include your e-mail. If not, I hope your sign-in makes you easy to track down and/or that you will check back.

Update: Talking to Jennifer in the comments of my 9-27 post made me realize that if I were going to pick a dragon based on illustration, as opposed to one from fiction for middle grades, YA, or adults (which was what I had in mind when I brought this up), it would have to be the one Trina Schart Hyman created for Saint George and the Dragon. Gorgeous! Oh, but the best picture book overall about dragons is Everyone Knows What a Dragon Looks Like, by Jay Williams and Mercer Mayer. If you haven't read it, I suggest you look for it at your library. It makes a great read-aloud for second and third graders, many of whom will get the joke about how people form their opinions. I used to read it to classes when I was subbing and then have the kids create their own dragons using torn construction paper on black backgrounds.

Shelley Moore Thomas's Good Knight

There are a lot of forgettable easy readers out there, unfortunately. Notable exceptions include Arnold Lobel's Frog and Toad books, which are brilliantly written, though they may feel a little quiet for some of today's kids; Dr. Seuss's easy readers, such as the iconic Green Eggs and Ham; James Marshall's Fox books; and Mo Willems's Elephant and Piggie books, those shiny new masterpieces. Joanna Cole's Bony Legs is a marvelous easy reader retelling the Baba Yaga story. I've had older students and boys like that one, probably because it's a little scary. And speaking of scary, Alvin Schwartz's In a Dark, Dark Room and Other Scary Stories is another good easy reader, especially for boys. Two more classic easy readers are P.D. Eastman's Are You My Mother? and Nancy Gurney's The King, the Mice and the Cheese, while Dr. Seuss's Hop on Pop and Eastman's Go Dog. Go! are the easiest of the classics I recommend. (The latter is surprisingly long. It should be read in sections and thoroughly savored.)

Another series I adore for this group of readers is Jonathan London's Froggy books. They're not billed as easy readers, but with a little support, they make a nice transitional tool. The first book, Froggy Gets Dressed, is still my favorite, with its wonderful onomatopoeia and its call-and-response between Froggy and his mother.

Anyway, I recently came across Shelley Moore Thomas's Good Knight books and have happily added them to my repertoire of worthwhile easy readers, particularly for boys. The first book was no doubt inspired by a play on words: Good Night, Good Knight. We start off with an introduction to three dragons, but they're not quite the dragons you might expect:

Once there were three little dragons. They lived in a dark cave. The cave was in a dense forest. The forest was in a faraway kingdom. The poor little dragons were very lonely in their deep dark cave.

And where you have dragons, of course you have a knight. But he's not what you'd expect, either. Then again, the dragons throw him off his game:

He came to the deep dark cave. Inside he saw the first little dragon. "What's this?" he asked. "Methinks it is a dragon!" And he drew his shimmery, glimmery sword. The dragon had on his jammies. He was all ready for bed. "Oh good. You have come," said the dragon. "Could you bring me a drink of water? Please. Then I can go to sleep."

Yep, the Good Knight soon finds himself acting as a sort of guardian to three little dragons. Basically, all of his adventures consist of dealing with the trouble the dragons get into. After he puts them to bed with various complications in the first book, we find him taking care of sick dragons in Book Two. ("Methinks I heard a sneeze," said the Good Knight.) He ends up getting help from a wizard, and then from his mother.

Our hero celebrates his birthday with his three charges in the third book, Happy Birthday, Good Knight. He doesn't guess why the dragons want his help coming up with a present for someone special, and their attempts to make a gift result in more than one mess. Three little dragons can use an amazing amount of glue when making a birthday card!

Books Four and Five switch to a picture book format, so I guess I'm cheating here, but maybe your reader will be able to practice in a slightly tougher format with your help. Take Care, Good Knight is the story about what happens when three little dragons attempt to pet sit for an old, old wizard. But when an old, old wizard leaves you a note telling you how to care for his seven cats and you can't actually read, you're bound to misinterpret his drawings and make some mistakes. Fortunately, the Good Knight is willing to act in an advisory capacity after the cats are put in a cupboard, among other mishaps.

The author's most recent book is A Cold Winter's Good Knight, in which it's too cold for the dragons to stay in their cave, so the Good Knight brings them to the castle. However, there's a ball in progress and the dragons have no idea how to behave. They raise a ruckus as the knight repeatedly tries to instruct them in castle etiquette.

Jennifer Plecas's line drawings, with their bug-eyed baby dragons and their slightly harassed-looking knight, suit this series like a good coat of armor. While her work has a cartoonish feel, the loose lines bring it back into the realm of illustration. It's a nice balancing act.

If you have a kindergartner or first grader at home who's done with Green Eggs and Ham and wondering what to read next, give this series a try. The combination of the author's sense of humor with the fresh premise of a knight fostering baby dragons makes it a charming alternative for the easy reader crowd.

Update: The author dropped by this post and let us know she has a new Good Knight book coming out next year, so look for it!