Dragon Girl and the Awakened Flames (Dragon Girl #1)

Moore (the Huxley Higgins series) spins together laugh-out-loud humor, heartfelt friendship, and classic fantasy adventure energy in a sparkling series launch. Hidden in a cave in the Witchingford Wood, Emba Oak—who has yellow-hazel eyes and glittering scales along her arms and legs—lives a quiet life with her adoptive mother, Fred, the keeper of the prophecy-filled volume Tome of Terrible Tomorrows, and Odolf Bravebuckle, a former blacksmith’s assistant turned hero-in-training. Emba’s world is upended when a dragon only she can see appears. Revealing that the dragon sighting portends the arrival of villainous, dragon-obsessed necromancer Necromalcolm, Fred informs her charge that the sorcerer has been hunting Emba, believing that she’s a prophesied dragon girl. When Fred is kidnapped by Necromalcolm, the youths embark on a rescue mission armed with courage, friendship, and ]magical objects they obtain along their journey. Radiant prose crackles with expert comedic timing and clever wordplay while retaining the gravity of the narrative’s tender emotional undercurrents. Emba’s wrestling with identity and destiny, Odolf’s charmingly clumsy yet sincere heroics, and Fred’s steady guidance ground the frenetic energy of an all-out fun story about the power of chosen family. The protagonists are described as having pale skin. Ages 8–13. (Mar.)