Thursday, October 28, 2010

November Book Post: The Dragon in the Sock Drawer

Our November book selection is "The Dragon in the Sock Drawer" by Kate Klimo. This is the first book in a series called "Dragon Keepers." This fun book is about ten-year-old cousins Jesse and Daisy. Jesse is living with Daisy while his doctor-parents are in Africa establishing a children's clinic. The cousins are good friends and have always wanted something magical to happen to them. One day, Daisy's father (Jesse's uncle), a geologist, take the kids hiking and rock collecting to High Peak. Jesse finds what he thinks is a geode or "thunder egg". He picks it up and he thinks he hears the rock talking to him! Back home, all attempts to cut open the geode result in broken saw blades. Jesse puts the geode in his sock drawer. The next day, with a huge bang, the thunder egg hatches open and a tiny talkative baby dragon pops out! The two cousins are thrilled but clueless as to how to care for a dragon. They search the public library and the Internet where they find a strange website with a talking professor who can hear everything the cousins say. The professor guides the children on everything they need to know about the dragon. He tells them that the dragon’s hatching has designated them “Dragon Keepers.” Their biggest challenge is keeping the dragon, whom they named Emmy, safe from Saint George. St. George is masquerading as a herpetologist at the local university but he is really a villainous character who has kept himself alive for centuries by drinking dragons’ blood! There are two more books in the series with a fourth book planned for May of 2011.

October Book Club: The Magic Half

The book selection for October was "The Magic Half" by Annie Barrows. This is a wonderful book--part mystery, part history, part fantasy, part realistic fiction. The main character is Miri, an 11-year-old girl with twin older brothers and twin younger sisters. Miri often feels left out, especially after they move to a new house on land that used to be a working farm. The best part of the old house is that Miri finally gets to have her own bedroom. One day as she is in her bedroom imagining how it will look with freshly painted walls, she spies a glass lens taped to the wall near the floor. Curious, Miri pulls the lens free and looks through it...and is immediately transported back in time to 1935! She is still in the same house but that's all that is the same. There's a different girl, Molly, living in her bedroom. Molly is badly in need of help to escape an abusive situation. Miri feels an intense connection with Molly and wants to help her. Molly, in turn, says she and her magical grandmother have "called" up Miri. Together, with many twists and turns and near-disasters, Molly and Miri construct a plan that eventually succeeds in bringing them both back to the present day where they find that history has been changed! It's as through Molly and Miri have always been twins. Only they have any memories of what really happened.