The Last Dragon, Listening for Lions, and Life as We Knew It

The Last Dragon by Silvana De Mari, 2006 (English), 2004 (Italian).
The first half is the story of young orphaned elf named Yorsh-something who is helped along his way by two kindly humans who almost get hung for their trouble. The misunderstanding between the two species is clever, laugh-out-loud funny. The second half is the story of Yorsh tending a brooding (as in an egg), melancholy, grumpy, dying dragon, teaching the new hatchling to fly, and figuring out how he can fulfill his prophesy. Ultimately he abandons his conscientious following of the prophesy in order to follow the dreams and desires of his own heart, only to fulfill the prophesy anyway. Fun read.

Some memory-jogging tags: Dragons. Elves. Misunderstanding. Culture clash. Dictatorship. Oppression. Orphans.

MS Rating: Great.


Listening for Lions by Gloria Whelan, 2005.
This book reminded me of The Secret Garden until the last part. A young girl, Rachel, is orphaned when her parents (British, African missionaries, orphans, doctor and teacher) die of influenza. A racist, greedy couple living nearby, who recently lost their daughter, Valerie, to the same disease, convince Rachel to assume the identity of Valerie and visit her grandpa in England who is dying and won’t live long, but wants to see his granddaughter first. Lots of animal and African landscape metaphors. Lots of nature and bird descriptions. Ultimately Rachel confesses the truth, convinced she will be sent to the orphanage or worse - prison, but the grandfather has known the truth for a long time and wants to adopts her. He provides for her every need and they are happy together until he dies, a few years later. The book begins between the great wars but the ending part progresses quickly through her school years, and then through medical school. Rachel must fight against discrimination against women to pursue her dream - become a doctor and return to her parents’ mission and reopen the hospital there.

Some memory-jogging tags: Women’s rights. Greed. Family relationships. Honesty. Mistaken identity. Assumed identity. Doctors. African missions. Bird watching.

MS Rating: Great.


Life As We Knew It by Susan Pfeffer, 2006.
This is a totally absorbing story of what life might be like if we had to live through a catastrophic event that wiped out our food production and commerce systems practically overnight. A seemingly benign event of an asteroid hitting the moon visibly knocks the moon closer to the earth, and the consequences continue to ripple destruction for several months to follow. First, the coastal cities and populations around the world are drowned by huge and recurring tsumanis and tides. Communications go out. Cell phones, land lines, TV and radio stations work intermittently and then not at all. Same with electricity. Stores are quickly sold out and then ransacked. Automobile gas becomes a luxury. Heating oil runs out. School is ended early. And then it really gets bad - earthquakes and volcanoes fill the atmosphere with ash and the world is plunged into a premature winter, isolating Miranda and her family from even her closest neighbors. She records her family’s experiences in her journal in her 16th year. Her brother Jon is 13, her other brother Matt is home from college. Her dad and his new wife try to make a go of it by heading south, and they don’t hear from them again. Finally, epidemics sweep through a hungry and weakened population and brings even more death. The story gripped me from beginning to end.

Some memory-jogging tags: Catastrophes. Natural disasters. Starvation. Family relationships. Skating. Swimming. Survival story. Science fiction story. Diary format.

MS Rating: Great. For older students.