It's no secret that I love dragons and fiction, so when the two come together, it is difficult for me to resist. I very often judge books by their covers, so when I saw this book at the library, I grabbed it right off the shelf. I just knew it would be a fun read-aloud for my daughter and me.
In book 1, Where Dreams Take Flight, Cara, the main character, lives on the Isles of Bresal which is home to humans, merfolk, pards, perytons, howlers, firedogs, and DRAGONS. Her main job is looking after dragons and mucking out their stalls though she longs to be able to ride them, especially one in particular ~ Skydancer. Her father, Dragonmaster of Dragonsdale, forbids it because of his wife's tragic death during a dragon riding competition. When Cara can't convince her father to let her ride Skydancer, she decides to take matters into her own hands. Filled with lots of adventure, a horrible bully named Hortense, and everything you ever wanted to know about taking care of dragons, this is a fun fantasy novel for young girls. I enjoyed reading it to my daughter so much, we got the second book, and I recently finished reading that one, too.
The second book, Riding the Storm, really centers around the theme of friendship and how jealousy can so easily tear people apart. I don't want to say much about the plot because that might give too much away about the first book. What I will say is that there's more than stormy weather going on - will kindness and goodwill be strong enough to keep friends together?
FYI - Cara definitely has faults - she lies and disobeys in the first book, but she also sees how her choices affect others and can even put them in danger. Reading these books can be a great way for moms and daughters to not only enjoy a good story but to have some discussions about the importance of obedience, honesty, and thinking of others before yourself.
This series even made me think a little about being careful not to keep my kids from doing things just because of my own worries and fears which is extremely challenging! Balance is key, but I admit I mostly tilt toward the stricter side of the scale. Thank goodness I don't have to worry about my daughter riding a dragon! (Although that might be safer than her driving with the crazies on the road one day - yikes!)
I will leave you with a sweet quote about friendship from Riding the Storm . . .
Perfectly girly, huh? :)
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