Ferno the Fire Dragon

Ferno the Fire Dragon

First book in the Beast Quest series by Sawyer H.

                Caldor the Brave stood at the foot of the misty mountain. The knight’s bronze armor gleamed in the pale morning sunlight. He gripped a heavy sword.

               Turning to his squire, Robin, he used his weapon to point up the mountainside. “I’ll climb above the mist,” Caldor told the boy. “The dragon is close by. I can feel it. I just need to get above the mist so that I can see it.

               For the sake of our kingdom, it must be stopped!”He was soon lost from sight, swallowed by the eerie mist. Robin had never seen a mountainside like this before. With his master gone, he noticed how quiet it was. He shivered, although the air was warm.

               Suddenly, the mountain started to shake. Robin could feel the vibrations traveling through his feet and up his legs. He stumbled to one side and a huge shudder threw him to the ground, knocking his head so badly that his teeth clattered. There was a metallic taste in his mouth and he put a hand to his lips. Blood! What was happening?

             “Caldor!” Robin yelled, scrambling to his feet as the rocks shifted beneath him. “Come back!” But there was no way he could be heard above the grinding screeches that filled the air. The whole mountain shuddered and Robin froze. Was it about to come crashing down?

Rolling out of the way, he glimpsed Caldor high above him, clinging to the dark slope of the mountain. The spiked head of a huge beast reared up behind the knight. It's face was the same color as the slippery stones of the mountain. It's eyes glinted with dark fire.

              In this mythical, fantasy, adventure book: The main characters are: Tom, Elenna, Robin, Caldor, Ferno the fire dragon, King Hugo, Aduro the Wizard, Storm the Horse, Silver the wolf and the blacksmith.

             They live in Avantia--a  land that has been peaceful for ages--with terrains of deserts, mountains, seas, ice lands, forests and plains. Here Tom is  trying to do is put the beasts back to good because the evil wizard Malvel has cast a spell on the beasts so that they wreak havoc on Avantia.

Tom sets out on a quest to free the beasts from Malvel's spell. freeing the dragon restores water to Tom's town. The way Tom frees the beasts is by unlocking the enchanted chain and lock that Malvel put around each beast's neck. Each time tom frees a beast he gets a token, the fire dragon gives him a scale which he puts in his shield ,then his shield can withstand extreme heat.

             This book would be great for 3rd to 5th grade adventure lovers. My experience reading the Beast Quest series is that it is has balance of good, evil, tense, relaxed and happy. the other books in the Beast Quest series have an ice beast, centaur, cyclops, sea serpent, phoenix and many dark monsters like: a giant ape, stone charmer, moon wolf and a ice dragon.

The Secret Series

The Secret Series

By: Pseudonymous Bosch

Reviewed By: Madeline S.

This book series by Pseudonymous Bosch is unique because it is all about a secret, THE secret. I think that Bosch’s style brings you close to the story because he writes in a way that intrigues the reader and really brings the story to life. I personally think that this book series is good for ages 7+ and anybody who likes mystery, humor, fiction, and most of all secrets. The plot will make you want to read through all five books in all your spare time.

This series starts with the book The Name of this Book is Secret and with a warning, that’s right a real warning. “Warning: do not read beyond this page.” The narrator goes on about how dangerous this book is. Then he X’s out the first chapter, he apologizes and says that he can’t tell you the real names of the people, the real place, or anything else real. He makes up names for his characters: Max-Earnest and Cassandra, or Cass for short, then he launches into the story. He starts off with telling you all about Cass, then all about Max-Earnest. The story really begins, though, when Cass overhears one of her Grandpas’ customers telling them about the newest house she is selling. Her name in the book is Gloria and she is a relator.  She always drops off old junk at the abandoned firehouse that Cass’s grandpas call home. They have an “antiques” shop downstairs and live upstairs, but whenever someone comes they never buy anything, they just give away their old stuff to the shop. Gloria drops by all the time and tells stories about the houses she sells. The story about the current house, however, really intrigues Cass because the house belonged to a magician, a magician whose kitchen suddenly burned down! When the gardener smelled the smoke, he went to investigate but found no remains of the magician. Cass starts to wonder if the magician really died or if he escaped.  When Cass and Max-Ernest go investigate at the house, they find themselves pulled into a great and dangerous mystery. The kids join the ancient Terces Society. Throughout this series they are on a quest to discover THE Secret and protect it from falling into the wrong hands!  They and the other Terces Society members have to fight many battles against the Midnight Sun, a group of villains who are also after the Secret. Will Cass and Max-Ernest ever discover the Secret or will it remain just that, a secret? Will you the reader ever find out what it is? Do you really want to know? Bosch warns the reader that this information could be deadly!

I really enjoyed the mystery and suspense that are present throughout this series. There are some surprising twists and turns in the plot that keep you guessing what is coming next. But the best part of this series is that Bosch makes the story really fun to read because he uses so much humor!

The Trespassers

The Trespassers

By Logan W.

The Trespassers was not that good of a book and did not impress me. It seemed like it was trying to be scary but wasn’t. Also, parts were added to make it dramatic but the book had foolish endings. The conflict was too quickly solved, not allowing the reader to understand how the disagreements and tragedies started and developed, instead the Trespassers gave too much information on what the surroundings were like.

The story starts when summer vacation starts and an older sister has to help her eight-year-old brother [thus being Neely and Grub]. Neely is the only person in her family who can help Grub get through his strange emotions. They usually go up the hill to a mansion known as Halcyon House. Halcyon House’s previous inhabitants had bad luck running through their rich blood, making some to believe the manor is haunted. Despite what others say, the two sneak into the house and explore; that is until the owners, the Hutchingson’s, return to the mansion. Neely and Grub and the family that live at the home will have to get along before and accidents happen in this haunted mansion.

The story is not scary and does not explain how the conflicts are solved. It includes a very bad ending, by not explaining how things happened. The book told me useless information about the past. To top it off, the main conflict is in the last 18 pages [has no climax!]. This book is unfitting to its genre and is not good. The book is for people over age 10 who want short reads and no fantasy [if you still want to read this book].