Today’s pick: Dragon
Seer’s Gift by Janet McNaughton
HarperCollins Canada, 2011
From the publisher:
Bored by homework and bullied at school, twelve-year-old Gwyn Rae
reluctantly takes on a Heritage Fair project to boost his history mark. He
begins to investigate the papers of his ancestor, Daniel Rae, with help from
his older sister, Maddie. Together they discover a notebook filled with writing
only they can see and an iron key that seems to react to their touch. When the
key unlocks a secret door in an old church, Gwyn and Maddie are launched into
the adventure of their lives.
My Take:
It’s interesting the way the author tied magic and dragons to
history. This is not a fast-paced story, but I was intrigued by Daniel and
Maddie’s special abilities and wanted to keep reading to find out more. I liked the way Daniel and Maddie were depicted as part of a family, with their parents having a presence in the story. The
bullying and environmental issues in this story make it a good book for
discussion in a classroom.
As a writer, I liked the idea of bringing
history into fiction. I thought the dialogue was realistic and studied the way
the author was able to tell so much of the story through dialogue.
Favourite quote:
“Real magic is a force of its own, like the force of nature.
It works as it wants to, not as humans would have it work.”
Other Info:
Janet McNaughton lives in Newfoundland. Dragon Seer’s Gift
is set in her own neighbourhood in St. John’s. You can take a visual tour of
some of the places in her book on her website.
This
book is nominated for the Ontario Library Association's Forest of Reading in the
Silver Birch category for 2013. [I have previously featured some of the other nominees: Cat Found by Ingrid Lee, A Tinfoil Sky by Cyndi Sand-Eveland and The Mighty Miss Malone by Christopher Paul Curtis.]
Dragon Seer's Gift
also won the IODE Violet
Downey Book Award and was named as one of three honour books for the Canadian
Library Association's Book of the Year for Children in 2012. On her website, the author says: “I'm very happy to be able to spend my time writing. I usually can't wait to get to work in the mornings.”
Other books
by this author include:
Dragon Seer
An Earthly Knight
The Secret Under My
Skin
The Raintree Rebellion
Catch Me Once, Catch
Me Twice
Make or Break Spring
The Saltbox Sweater
To Dance at the Palais
Royale
For more about Janet McNaughton, check out her website.
I was intrigued by the title. This sounds like an interesting book. Thanks for sharing it.
ReplyDeleteThis sounds like a good book for my son, except he's a reluctant reader and needs a fast past story to keep him reading. :(
ReplyDeleteCan't believe I haven't heard of this book. It sounds lovely.
ReplyDeleteThis sounds like an interesting read. Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteI haven't read anything by this author. This sounds like a fun book with a twist on history. Great review and thanks for sharing.
ReplyDelete