Middle Grade Books about Friendship

November 29 – Middle Grade Monday

Posted by

0

celebrate-picture-books-picture-book-review-dragon-legend-cover

Review by Jakki Licare

Dragon Legend

By Katie & Kevin Tsang

 

Synopsis

This synopsis contains spoilers

Dragon Legend continues the exciting saga begun in the first book of the series, Dragon Mountain, in which San Franciscan Billy Chan, attending a summer camp in China to improve his Mandarin language skills and learn more about his Chinese heritage, discovers that he and his friends, Charlotte, Ling-Fei, and Dylan, are destined to bond with dragons who are guarding a portal that leads to the Dragon Realm. Once they’re bonded, the dragons gain strength in ability as well as in size. Through the dragons’ mystical pearls, the kids also gain super powers. Charlotte receives super strength, Ling-Fei can sense nature, Dylan has the power of persuasion, and Billy gains super agility.

These dragons tried to keep an evil dragon, known as the Dragon of Death, out of the Human Realm, but they were unable to defeat her so they sent her through a time portal to the past. Now in the Dragon Realm, evil dragons are trying to open up a time portal and bring back the Dragon of Death. Billy and his friends are able to stop the evil dragons and close the time portal. But not before Old Gold, the owner of the summer camp, kidnaps Billy’s best friend, Dylan, and jumps through the time portal before it closes. (for a full synopsis and my review check it out here: https://celebratepicturebooks.com/tag/dragon-mountain-book-review/)

As Dragon Legend opens, Billy, Charlotte, Ling-Fei, and their dragons must create a portal to go back in time to save their friend Dylan who was kidnapped by Old Gold, the owner of the summer camp the children have been attending. The group agrees that JJ, Old Gold’s grandson, can come too so he can find his grandfather. While they all believe that JJ will be helpful in locating Dylan in the Dragon Realm, they don’t trust him and tend to exclude JJ from the group.  Billy’s dragon, Spark, swallows a star to create a portal and they are transported back in time to the Dragon Realm.

With the help of some dragon parents and a cute flying pig, Billy and his friends find Dylan entrapped in a tree by dark magic. JJ is able to open the tree because his grandfather created the spell. Billy and his friends are thrilled to have Dylan back, but JJ, who has felt like an outcast among the group, lets the tree ensnare him. He wants to wait for his grandfather.

Billy feels conflicted over JJ’s decision but ultimately decides that there isn’t anything he can do about it. Dylan tells the group that Old Gold has bonded with the Dragon of Death and together they are searching for the remaining mystical pearls. In all there are 8 pearls, inspired by the  Chinese symbols of the Eight Great Treasures. The group is determined to find the rest of the pearls before the Dragon of Death does. As they travel, Spark confesses to Billy that since she swallowed the star she craves the power that comes from dark magic and now she hungers for more. She promises BIlly that she will fight it, and Billy vows to help her.

To find the Ice pearl Billy and his friends have to travel to the Frozen Wasteland on their own. The dragons can’t cross a magical barrier that separates the dragons from their mortal enemy, the worms. While the kids negotiate with a giant hungry fish for passage and fend off giant scorpions, they discover that their powers are enhancing. Dylan can create illusions, Ling-Fei can open up the earth, and BIlly is even faster than before and can create electric shields. After Charlotte defeats the Wasteland Worm and captures the Ice pearl, the group discovers that Charlotte has been lethally bitten by the giant worm. Using their new powers and working together they are able to locate a flower to heal her. Once Charlotte is healed, they create a portal using the magic from their pearls to get back to their dragons.

As soon as they reunite with their dragons, they all head off to the human realm to find the Diamond pearl. They travel into ancient China and steal the Diamond pearl from the emperor’s headdress. The Dragon of Death appears with JJ and Old Gold. JJ has bonded with Dimitrius, a noxwing they fought in Dragon Mountain. Billy tries to convince JJ to come to their side, but JJ refuses.

Dylan and his dragon, Buttons, protect the humans from the Dragon of Death’s poisonous breath. Ling-Fei and her dragon attack the Dragon of Death while Charlotte and her dragon attack the noxwings. Billy and Spark go after JJ and his pearl. Billy grabs the pearl just as JJ’s dragon tries to blast him with fire. Spark reacts just in time and blasts Dimitrius and JJ with an electrical net. Billy is stunned by the look of pain on JJ’s face, but before he can ask Spark about it, he has to help Charlotte who falls off her dragon’s back. Billy catches Charlotte and together they fight the noxwings. Spark entraps the noxwings with an electrical net and BIlly is surprised when Spark starts sucking away the noxwings’s life force. Spark then ensnares the Dragon of Death with an electrical net and starts to feed off of her life force too.

The dragons decide that the Dragon of Death must be turned into a star. Spark releases JJ and Old Gold, and they are all shocked that Spark has injured them. Spark gathers the pearls from everyone so she can turn the Dragon of Death into a star, but then she releases the Dragon of Death. Spark acknowledges that the Dragon of Death is too powerful to fight and gives her the pearls. Everyone is stunned by Spark’s betrayal, and Billy feels guilty for hiding Spark’s struggle with dark magic. The Dragon of Death uses the pearls to call forth a turtle named Destiny Bringer. Destiny Bringer shows the Dragon of Death eight different destinies and the Dragon of Death chooses one.

Billy wakes up back in the human realm, but the entire human race is enslaved by the Dragon of Death. He’s thankful that he is still with his friends and explains to them all that he has a plan. Together they will defeat the Dragon of Death.

Review

 

Dragon lovers rejoice! The second book in the Dragon Realm series is here and it’s ready to sweep you back into Dragon Realm. Like the first book, Dragon Legend is a fast-paced adventure that will keep your middle grader on the edge of their seat. Be prepared to join Billy Chan, his friends and their dragons as they face off with the Dragon of Death. Katie and Kevin Tsang’s imagination soars to new levels in Dragon Legend. The fantasy world is filled with memorable locales like the Forgotten Sea, a body of water that can only be seen by those who remember it.

The children also must cross the daunting blood strait, a river of blood that separates the dragons from the worms. Additionally, they must also traverse the Frozen Wasteland that looks like a frozen “thrashing ocean” while the ground is covered in bones. While the majority of the story takes place in the dragon realm, my favorite part was when the kids travel into the human realm. Here we get to fly over the great wall of China on a dragon’s back, protect the imperial palace and its inhabitants from the noxwings’ fiery breath, and steal the Diamond pearl from the emperor’s headdress.

One of my son’s favorite things about Dragon Mountain was when the kids discover their magic. So he was thrilled when, in Dragon Legend, the kids’ magical powers begin to evolve. Kevin and Katie cleverly string these evolutions throughout the story, adding an extra element of surprise to many of the fight scenes. For example, Dylan’s power of persuasion evolves into the power to create illusions just as the drifters, hungry soaring jellyfish-like creatures, are about to descend upon them. Dylan is able to distract the drifters from eating them with an illusion of their group in a different location. Then, when they are trying to steal the Diamond pearl from the emperor’s headdress, Dylan’s powers evolve again, allowing him to camouflage people in invisibility.

Like the first book, a major theme of Dragon Legend is the power of working together, but this time we see the negative effects of not working together in JJ’s storyline. Kevin and Katie explore the feelings of exclusion and distrust when JJ joins the group. JJ’s close relationship with his grandfather makes the kids distrust him, when the reality is that JJ is just as confused by his grandfather’s actions as they are. 

In the beginning when Dylan is missing, JJ feels as if he can’t live up to Dylan’s image and believes that everyone is disappointed that they have him instead of Dylan. The kids could have befriended JJ and potentially gained another ally, but their distrustful nature create their own enemy. To add fuel to the flames, Katie and Kevin add in  Spark’s mistreatment of JJ at the end, leaving a wonderful plot thread for us to explore through the rest of the series. I won’t lie, my middle grade-loving heart is hoping for a reconciliation.

Spark’s struggle and her craving for dark magic took this series to a whole new level. The entire first book built up BIlly’s bond with Spark, so Billy’s debate of whether to keep Spark’s struggle a secret or to tell the others about it had my son and me on the edge of our seats. Every time Spark’s eyes flickered black my son and I groaned out loud. Like Billy, we too, are rooting for Spark to overcome her craving for dark magic. I’m very interested in seeing how Billy’s and Spark’s relationship plays out in the next book.

If your child enjoyed The Land of Roar or How to Train Your Dragon, then this fast-paced, immersive adventure is a perfect fit.

Parental Considerations: this book does contain fantasy fighting; the most extreme moment included an innocent bystander being burned alive.

Ages 9+

Sterling Children’s Books, 2021 | ISBN 978-1471193095

You can learn more about Katie & Kevin Tsang, their Dragon Realm series, and their Sam Wu Is Not Afraid series on their website.

Thanks go to Sterling Children’s Books for sharing a copy of Dragon Legend for review consideration. All opinions are my own.

celebrate-picture-books-picture-book-review-dragon-legend-cover

You can find Dragon Legend at these booksellers

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Books-a-Million

To support your local independent bookstore, order from

Bookshop | IndieBound

Picture Book Review

October 25 – It’s Middle Grade Monday

Posted by

0

celebrate-picture-books-picture-book-review-from-the-desk-of-zoe-washington-cover

 

Review by Jakki Licare

From the Desk of Zoe Washington

By Janae Marks

 

Synopsis

This synopsis contains spoilers

Zoe, an aspiring baker, receives a letter on her 12th birthday from her biological father, Marcus, who is incarcerated for murder. She’s sure her mother won’t let her read his letter so she secretly hides it. She isn’t sure if she should write back because her bio dad must be a monster to have murdered someone. But he sounds so nice in the letter that Zoe decides to write back just this once to see if she can get some answers. As she’s trying to write back to her dad, her ex-best friend and next-door neighbor, Trevor, tries to hang out with her. After making it clear that they aren’t friends anymore, Zoe finishes her letter and mails it.

Zoe discovers that the Food Network is auditioning kids for a children’s baking show, and she begs her mom and step dad to let her audition. They aren’t sure if she’s ready, but they agree to think about it and even get her an internship at a local bakery. Over the next couple of weeks, Zoe sneaks out letters as she writes back and forth with Marcus. Zoe tells Marcus about her job at the bakery and how she wants to make her own recipe. Marcus tells her about his life in prison and how he’s going to college online. He suggests she tries to make a cereal cupcake.

After some prodding from Zoe, Marcus confesses that he’s innocent of his crime, but had a bad lawyer and ended up wrongly convicted. Zoe wants to continue writing to Marcus, but doesn’t like hiding it from her mom, so she asks her mom if she can write to Marcus. Her mother absolutely refuses, and Zoe decides she must keep lying.

Zoe is sickened by the idea that her dad is innocent and stuck in jail, but what if he’s just lying to her? Zoe decides to do some research at the library. Trevor finds her reading books about incarceration, and he listens as she explains that she wants to find out if her dad is really innocent. He helps her research and they start to talk. Zoe confesses she heard him bad mouth her to his basketball friends. Trevor apologizes and they decide to work things out.

Zoe decides she must find Marcus’s alibi witness and find out if Marcus is telling the truth or not. She begs Marcus for the name of his alibi witness and sets off trying to find the lady he met at a tag sale. She hits a lot of dead ends, but with Trevor’s help she stumbles across the person who fits the description Marcus gave her.

Unable to reach the woman by email, Zoe and Trevor sneak off to Harvard, where she teaches. When they find her, she says she doesn’t remember Marcus. Zoe is devastated that she trusted Marcus. She thinks that he must have been lying to her and that he did kill someone. Zoe and Trevor get back late, and their parents are furious that they ran off. While Zoe is waiting for her mom to get home, she gets a text from the professor saying she does remember Marcus and to call her back.

Zoe’s mom is furious when she finds out why Zoe went to Harvard on her own and absolutely livid to discover that she’s been secretly writing to Marcus. She takes away Zoe’s phone before she can call the professor back. Several days later Zoe’s mom and step dad tell her they’ve been in contact with the professor and that she did have an alibi for Marcus.

Over the next several weeks, a friend of her stepdad who is a lawyer and lawyers from the Innocence Project work together to assemble a case to appeal Marcus’s verdict. When they take it to trial, Marcus and his attorneys win. At the end, Zoe’s mom admits that she was wrong about Marcus and shouldn’t have thrown out Zoe’s letters. Zoe is still grounded for lying and running off to Harvard, but she uses the time to reconnect with her family. On his next birthday, Marcus gets to celebrate with his family at home. And while Zoe never realizes her dream to audition for the Food Network show, she does create a cupcake based on her dad’s suggestion, and the bakery where she’s interning adds it to their menu. She’s proud to take this as a success.

Review

 

Janae Marks’ uplifting and timely contemporary novel takes you on a quest for justice that is filled with memorable characters and strong friendships. From the Desk of Zoe Washington is a compelling introduction for kids to the problem of racism in our justice system and will open up a lot of meaningful discussions.

Zoe is a spunky, upbeat, and determined twelve-year-old middle-class twelve-year-old. It’s her determination that ultimately brings about Marcus’s appeal, but we also see Zoe’s determination through multiple facets of her life. I love how she’s willing to prove to her parents she’s ready to audition for the Food Network. I like how she gives herself her own challenges too. No one asks her to come up with her own recipe, but she tackles that task and the problems involved in creating her own recipe herself. She doesn’t give up after the first batch of cupcakes comes out too sweet, but instead spends her time problem solving. She creates a system of small batches of cupcakes with different amounts of sugar until she finds the perfect recipe.  

Marks tackles the incredibly complex issue of wrongful incarceration with beautiful sensitivity. This is highlighted in the way Marks slowly changes commonly held views of prisoners. Zoe starts off reading her father’s letter and being surprised that he sounds nice instead of like a scary villain from a tv show. Marks also debunks the idea that only guilty people go to jail, a concept that many young readers may not understand. She introduces statistics on how black men are more likely to go to jail than white men and shows that an indifferent lawyer can lead to wrongful conviction.

From the Desk of Zoe Washington never feels depressing because Marks balances Zoe’s ambition of becoming a pastry chef along with her father’s storyline. Marks even manages to tie the two together by having Marcus make a suggestion in his letter to make a cereal cupcake. Forgiveness is a strong theme in From the Desk of Zoe Washington. In the beginning, Zoe is not speaking to her best friend Trevor, and he has no clue why. It isn’t until almost halfway through the book that we learn she heard Trevor dissing her to his teammates.

Marks does a superb job in showing how awkward it is to discuss hurt feelings but also how necessary it is to talk them through so there’s a chance for understanding and forgiveness. Here’s how Zoe describes her impressions of their conversation: “But it was like when you drew something in pencil and then tried to erase it—the pencil lines would mostly go away, but sometimes the indent would still be there, so you could still sort of see what had been erased. That’s how Trevor’s apology felt….”

Zoe’s mom also has her own issues with talking through problems. She’s so devastated by Marcus’s arrest that she closes off her heart and is unwilling to let Marcus hurt her baby. Zoe’s mom apologizes at the end, but Marks gives us enough of the scenario to see why Zoe’s Mom felt so betrayed. I think kids can relate to and learn a lot from these story lines leading to an understanding of how to open up to others.

From the Desk of Zoe Washington is an outstanding middle-grade read for those interested in social justice and the intricacies of family relationships and friendship. If your kids enjoy Joan Bauer’s Close to Famous or Kelly Yang’s Front Desk, then From the Desk of Zoe Washington is a must read. 

Parental Considerations: racism, racial slurs, and talk of murder.

Ages 8-12

Katherine Tegen Books, HarperCollins, 2020 | ISBN 978-0062875853

celebrate-picture-books-picture-book-review-from-the-desk-of-zoe-washington-cover

You can find From the Desk of Zoe Washington at these booksellers

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Books-a-Million

To support your local independent bookstore, order from

Bookshop | IndieBound

Picture Book Review