Dragon of the Month Club by Iain Reading

Genre:  Middle Grade , Young Adult, Fantasy

Source: I received a copy to facilitate my review. The opinions expressed here are my own.

The 13^th of each month is a very special date for Ayana Fall and Tyler Travers. They are brand new members of The Dragon of the Month Club. Their adventure begins with Ayana, hiding in the library after a run in with her worst nightmare, Heather van der Sloot, who constantly bullies her. It was because of her hiding in the library that she meets and becomes best friends with Tyler.  While sitting in the library she finds a magical book. They take the book and try to conjure up a dragon. They are finally successful.  One bad spell attempt and they find themselves traveling through strange worlds. These worlds are related to the books lying around Tyler’s world. Now all they need to do is find a way back home.  They meet several people along the way who try to help them, and some not so nice people.

Iain Reading has quickly become one of my favorite authors. I started reading his Kitty Hawk books and now I’m introduced to a fantastical world.  This is the type of book I would have spent hours in my room, wishing I could slip into the pages and have an adventure.

He does an excellent job when it comes to creating characters that the reader can relate to. His world building, as always is excellent.  I loved the idea of being able to call up different kinds of dragons. They aren’t your ordinary dragons. I loved the idea of a fog dragon. Even more than that, I loved the idea of a dragon of the month club where you could summon a dragon each month on a specific day.

I am really looking forward to the next book in the series. More importantly, I’m looking forward to sharing these with my students.

Contest:

There is an ongoing contest for readers to win a one-of-a-kind hardcover version of The Dragon of the Month Club with their artwork as the cover.

“Draw a picture! Write a story! Take a photograph! Bake some cookies! Mold a dragon out of clay! Knit one out of yarn! Make one out of LEGO! Whatever you want! Just let your imagination run wild because anything goes – the more creative the better! Send your dragon in and then on the 13th day of every month one entry will be chosen at random and featured on the official Dragon Of The Month Club website. Each month’s lucky winner will also receive a free one-of-a-kind personalized hard-cover edition of The Dragon Of The Month Club book featuring their winning artwork (or other creative content) on the cover or inside the book itself,” says Iain.

To learn more, go to http://www.dragonofthemonthclub.com/ 

About the Author:

Iain Reading is passionate about Root Beer, music, and writing. He is Canadian, but currently resides in the Netherlands working for the United Nations.

Iain writes young adult novels. He is the author of the Kitty Hawk Flying Detective Agency Series, The Wizards of Waterfire Series, and the dragon of the month club. To learn more, go to http://www.amazon.com/Iain-Reading/e/B00B0NGI6Q/

Connect with Iain on Facebook, Twitter, and Goodreads.

Guest Post: Maggie Kast Author of A Free Unsullied Land

 Did It Really Happen? 

A reader of any age might ask this question of a story, whether it’s told by a parent or teacher or read in a book of fiction or non-fiction. And today’s reader has a particularly strong “reality hunger,” a term used by David Shields to title his manifesto about the confusing nature of reality in modern life and our desire to find it. A writer of non-fiction today can get in serious trouble if he or she fails to report as accurately as possible what really happened, as memoirist Vivian Gornick points out in an interview in The Rumpus.  And both readers and reviewers often assume that a work of fiction is all or part autobiography. The historical novel is a special case. Well-known and documented historical events provide a non-fictional frame, which the writer of fiction must observe. If historical figures appear in the novel, they must be true to character, and if they speak, their words must at least be close to what they really said. But the writer is free to imagine invented characters within the historical frame.

In my first book, The Crack between the Worlds: a dancer’s memoir of loss, faith and family, I

followed the rules of non-fiction and told what happened as well as I could remember, searching documents from dance programs to autopsy reports for evidence. Shortly before it was published my mother died, and I acquired all the correspondence she’d saved in her lifetime, from handwritten and typed letters on fading yellow paper to emails she’d printed out in her later years. Most interesting to me were the ones she’d written as a girl, before and during her courtship with my father. They revealed a vibrant, sassy, smart young woman kept under the thumb of her own mother, a woman held back by nineteenth century expectations of women.

I wanted to find that girl I never knew, to take her on adventures she never had, to let her experience all the risky possibilities of her time and place, prohibition-era Chicago. Thus the seeds were planted for my historical novel A Free, Unsullied Land. I invented a young woman of the 1930’s named Henriette Greenberg, but she is not my mother. Her personality has elements of me, my mother, and many other women I have known.

I made the time and place as historically accurate as I could, and doing the research was one of the most enjoyable parts of writing the book. I dug through libraries and the Internet to find what such historical characters as Theodore Dreiser, Jane Addams and W.E.B. Dubois really thought and said. I researched the endless legal battle of the so-called Scottsboro Boys, nine African-American young men unfairly accused of rape in Alabama. I listened to the jazz that was making its way from the South to Chicago at the time.. I watched the groundbreaking musicals of Busby Berkeley, who celebrated the Great Depression’s “forgotten man.”

Did the events in the book really happen? No, they never did and never could have. My mother would never have had or even wanted to have the adventures of Henriette. She and the people with whom she interacts are almost all invented characters. But the world of the novel was real at one time, and I have tried to give it new life. I hope the reader will see how very different and yet how much the same it is as the world in which we live today.

Maggie Kast is the author of The Crack between the Worlds: a dancer's memoir of loss, faith and family, published by Wipf and Stock. She received an M.F.A. in writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts and has published fiction in The Sun, Nimrod, Carve, Paper Street and others.

A chapter of her memoir, published in ACM/Another Chicago Magazine, won a Literary Award from the Illinois Arts Council and a Pushcart nomination. A story published in Rosebud and judged by Ursula Leguin won an Honorable Mention in their fantasy fiction contest.

Kast’s essays have appeared in America, Image, Writer's Chronicle and elsewhere. Her first novel, A Free, Unsullied Land, is forthcoming from Fomite Press in November 2015. An excerpted story, “The Hate that Chills,” won 3^rd prize in the Hackney Literary Contests and is forthcoming in the Birmingham Arts Journal.

Website URL: maggiekast.com

Blog URL: http://www.ritualandrhubarbpie.blogspot.com

Facebook URL: https://www.facebook.com/magdance1

Twitter: @tweenworlds

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/hp/?dnr=zA9_R7IwxvqvfyKjWoynR9fyxdqvYeeAGYo

Skype: username: maggiekast

Four Books by Koos Verkaik

Alex and the Wolpertinger – The Monster Inn

Genre: Fantasy, Adventure, Middle Grade

Source: I received a copy to facilitate my review. The opinions expressed here are my own.

Alex is a young boy who was from the Alps. He found himself picking berries in Westland, the kingdom of Prince Ruff Rumble. This prince was the son of King and Queen Clover who ruled Northland. They had two other sons. Prince Dozen ruled Eastland, and their son Prince Prime ruled Southland. When Alex meets up with Prince Rumble he is taken to the castle to work in the kitchen. It is here he witnesses the capture of a very important magician, who has landed in the lake. The Prince locks him away. His parents soon arrive looking for the magician, who they tell the Prince can make gold. There is a big problem here. The magician’s magic books are all wet, the ink is smeared and his memory is going. He tells the Prince to make gold he needs help from the Downhills. The Prince agrees to send Alex and the kitchen cat Shabby Tabby Chum to get that help. Alex is shrunk down to the size of the cat. They find the magic tree that lets them into the Downhills. It is here their adventure begins as they meet and get help from a Wolpertinger.  I really enjoyed the mysterious adventure this author has written about.  I think young and old alike will enjoy this book.

Alex and the Wolpertinger – The Downhills

Genre: Fantasy, Adventure, Middle Grade

Source: I received a copy to facilitate my review. The opinions expressed here are my own.

Alex’s adventures in the Downhills are not what he expected. He finally finds a way to help Halo the Magician, only to discover he can’t help the magician there. He must return to the Prince and get help from someone else. Like the first book, I enjoyed the land of the Downhills. I enjoyed all of the characters and the quest. The adventure and the situations they face because of Prince Ruff’s greed make this a book you just can’t put down. I really enjoyed it. Eventually I will read the other’s in this series.

Saladin the Wonder Horse

Genre:  Adventure, Middle Grade

source: I received a copy to facilitate my review. The opinions expressed here are my own.

This is a wonderful tale from the middle ages. What happens when the King leaves his brother in charge of the country, while he joins the Crusades? Trouble is what happens. Prince John is not there for the people. He is there for himself and all that he can take. When he tries to take the horses that belong to Lord Baltimore, a young orphaned stable girl named Annie takes a young colt named Silver and flees.  She meets up with Saladin the wonder horse and his owner. She is trying to find Robin Hood while Prince John is trying to find her. She is saved multiple times by Silver and Saladin.

One thing that really impressed me about this author’s writing is his ability to write about complicated themes in a language children can understand. At the same time he never dumbs down or insults their intelligence. This for me, as a teacher, is very important when it comes to suggesting books to my students. This is one I will definitely recommend.

Nibelung Gold

Genre: Adult, Paranormal

Source: I received a copy to facilitate my review. The opinions expressed here are my own.

This is a different type of book from the others I have reviewed. In this book we take a look at spiritualism in Europe in the early 19^th century.  While some put all paranormal activity under witchcraft, the main character sets out to prove whether the paranormal can be debunked or if it is real. Wilhelm Wolf and his mentor Jacob set out to debunk people who say they can do specific things. They often find wires and other hidden tricks. However, they are led to Were Keller who claims she is telekinetic.  During their visit Wolf has an experience he can’t explain. This leads him to search for more answers. The book is full of suspense, and gives us a look at the beginnings of Spiritualism and how many set out like Wolf to debunk these people. The book is well written. It is completely different from the author’s children’s books in style. It will be unlike any paranormal book you have read. It reads somewhat like a research journal as we find our main character doing just that, research. This author’s variety of styles in writing intrigues me and I will read more.