These are middle grade books that take a fresh and cozy look at life on Bresal - an island where people ride dragons. Children start as early as four to learn to fly and look after a dragon. For the brave of heart there are competitions or the flying guard or the hunting party or you could be on the display team doing aerial acrobatics as a group. There are four 'stables' that compete against each other.
Our heroine is Cara, a girl who's father is the Dragonmaster of Dragonsdale, who is forbidden to ride dragons as her mother died in a riding accident. Her mother was a master flyer, think undefeated record holding Olympian of dragon riding. But Cara develops a special Trustbond with a rare Goldenbrow dragon, Skydancer, and you can imagine what eventually happens.
Cara's got a group of friends to aid her on her journey. BFF Breena, a good flyer herself. Drane, a new stable hand who wants nothing to do with dragons. Wony, a novice flyer whose dragon is nicknamed Bumble.
The villain? The stuck up Lord Torin's daughter, Hortense.
The stories are all about the riders, their relationships to the dragons, the adults and each other.
Good clean fun reads. You can hand this to your eight you old without previewing and feel confident they are going to get a good story and learn some valuable lessons on friendship and trust.
Con: The author, who I believe writes under a pen name, stopped writing the series. The sequel was published in 2008 and there hasn't been another since. Grr. Too bad, because I was all set to see what adventures Cara and her friends would have next.
Do you have a good middle grade series to recommend?
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