I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: KATHLEEN EDWARDS-“Eat the Alphabet” on CBC Kids’ Mamma Yamma (2012).

I love Kathleen Edwards.  I think she has a wonderful voice (there’s something just slightly off that I think is really great).  I love all of her songs, because lyrically she’s clever and at times a little dark.

This is the only children’s song that she has sung that I know of. I don’t think it’s based on any of her proper songs.  It’s a simple strummed electric guitar ditty with a catchy chorus (as befits a children’s song).  Lyrically the song is all about different kinds of foods that start with the different letters of the alphabet.

Of course, she gets off to a strange start because after doing A (apples and apricots) and B (broccoli and banana) she gets to C which is “for Cat and mine’s called Mr T”).  She gets back on track (feta cheese!).  Although she skips J&K (which aren’t that hard, frankly).  She also skips Q and then  T, U, and V (in a way that seems like it’s improvised, although surely it isn’t).

It’s fun that she ends with Y as Mamma Yamma, our favorite talking potato.  It’s not the greatest kids song, but it is certainly fun.

You can see it here:

[READ: January-February, 2012] The Secrets of Droon: Books 17-21 & SE#2

I established with my previous Droon post that I would write posts for the books in between the Special Editions.  The arcs may not be completed, but the Special Editions seem like a natural recapping point.

I’ve been reading this series to my son and he is totally hooked.  And I have to say by the next sequence of books I was really blown away by the twist that Abbott put into the series.  At this stage, each book is getting more intense, although they are all kind of formulaic.  By the end of Book 21, though, things start to change, and the series has just gotten better and better.

Book 17 is called Dream Thief.  It has the kids waking up with dreams of Jabbo.  And Eric wakes up with a silver stone in his hand–a stone that he brought from the dream world!  The action of this book is set in the Bangeldorn Forest, where the monkeys live.  They befriend Tweet and Woot and go to the Dark Lands.

This story I found particularly dark because Jabbo, who was a previously goofy character, suddenly becomes quite evil.  I actually even wondered how the kids would be able to fix the situation.  It turns out to be a surprisingly weird (but logical in some ways) solution. This book also features the evil creature the Haokth-Mal.  At the end of this book, Julie is attacked by the creature and is transferred some magic.  As the book ends she develops a magic power of her own–good for her!  Eric also meets Zara, who will play a much larger role behind the scenes in the upcoming books.

One thing I’ve liked about these stories is that all of the kids help out in some way.  As Eric and Julie grow more powerful, Neal is still able to help.  In this case, he teaches the monkeys baseball–which actually comes in handy later in the book.

Book 18 is called Search for the Dragon Ship.  As the story opens we learn that the gift which Julie received in the last book has stayed with her–she is able to fly!  But like Eric and his wizard powers, she must be very careful about showing them to anyone.  This time, when the kids take the rainbow staircase down to Droon, they end up in Lumpland, where Salamandra has Galen ‘s tower under attack.  Salamandra is a supremely powerful witch (and to me, much more fearsome than Sparr); she is able to freeze people and control their minds. When Max gives her the plans for the Dragon Ship, which she will use to travel anywhere and any time, he and Galen are trapped in the tower.  The kids must travel to Zorfendorf Castle to find Thog, the giant who helped Galen bury the pieces of this ship.  But Salamandra gets to the castle just as the kids do.  She freezes Thog and takes him away and then sends her minions after the kids.  As I mentioned, Salamandra is a really formidable foe.

The kids run into Hob, who was in Book 13, and he makes them masks which render them invisible to Salamandra’s ghost riders.  The kids learn that Salamandra has gone to Morka.  They travel there to meet Gryndal, king of the hog elves.  The hog elves have been hypnotized by Salamandra (she’ll really powerful!)  But so is Julie!  More powerful than we at first thought.  She learns that she has shape shifting powers and is able to change herself in order to confuse Salamandra.

Book 19 is called The Coiled Viper.  It sees the return of Sparr as he searches for the third of his Three Powers–the Coiled Viper.  But this time, the magical item is not in Droon.  It is in the Upper World.  And Sparr and his Ninns have found a way to get to the Upper World (through the Dark Staircase).  This story is very different from the others because it takes place largely in Eric’s home town.  We get to see a few important areas, including the library.  And we get to meet Neal’s mother, the librarian.  But how will the Upper World react to seeing the red Ninns walking down their main street in a parade?  And how can Eric and Julie use their powers without everyone in the hometown learning about them?

Well, it turns out that Eric’s powers have been growing steadily, and his sparks have now turned silver instead of just blue.  Just how powerful is he?  This book will answer that.  It also answers the question of whether or not Eric will help Sparr by actually giving him the Third Power.

Book 20 is called In the Ice Caves of Krog.  This is another book in which multiple plot lines converge–the kids go on a very specific mission (to the Ice Caves) but also have to deal with Sparr by the end.  This book also introduces some new characters and re-introduces some older ones. The kids take the staircase down to Droon in the icy section, where they see the Knights of Silversnow (from Book 16).  They say that the newly empowered Sparr is a serious threat, but so is the newly awakened ice monster Krog.  When they search for Krog (who has been attacking villages), they meet a girl names Motli who tells them that The Prince of Stars was after Krog, but that no one has heard from him.

This book also sees the return of Keeah’s harp, which plays a significant role in this book.  First, it plays songs that are clues which help the kids locate Krog.  Second, Neal is actually able to play it by which helps the kids to push back Sparr at the end–when he tries to attack using the Golden Wasp.  This story also features another grand hallucination as all of the kids believe that they are at a banquet–when they are really under the spell of Krog. I especially liked the end of this one, which teaches the kids not to simply attack without finding out the truth behind the illusions.  Once the identity of Krog is determined, it really changes not only what we saw happening but what will come afterwards.

Book 21 is called Flight of the Genie and it involves another strange location of Droon.  This time, it’s the magic city of Ut, which appears once every 100 years.  During the rest of the time, it kept inside a bottle (!)  The kids must travel to Ut to see if they can rescue Hoja, the good genie, who made his first appearance in Book 15.  But if they don’t get themselves out on time, they will be also trapped inside of the bottle for the next 100 years.  All of the story feel like a race against time, but none as much as this one, in which time has real consequences.

This book has some fun details, like when the kids are trapped with Hoja and have to figure a way out.  There’s also the wonderful detail of their rescue by…pickle.

Once Eric gained his powers, I was wondering if the other kids would get any powers too.  I was happy that Julie did, but I’m a little sad for Neal that he never gets any special powers. In this book Neal doesn’t get any special powers, but he does become powerful, if only briefly.  It turns out that the ruler of Ut, Duke Snorfo is an exact double of Neal, which allows Neal to have some serious power for a short time.  Of course, Neal isn’t the only one with a double in Ut.  Snorfo’s sister (the preposterously named Dumpella) looks just like Julie.  This makes for some fun, borderline slapstick scenes, especially when the magical urns come into play.  This book also introduces us to Anusa, who takes Galen away on a long and important journey.

SE#2: Wizard or Witch completely breaks with the pattern of every other book in the series.  It is written from Keeah’s point of view!  This book was such a nice twist, although it was also a little confusing because the narrator is “I” and the “I” is Keeah.  Although none of the other books are narrated by Eric, the point of view of the books is pretty much always with Eric first–the series is his.  So, to have Keeah keep saying “I” was tough to remember at first.  The premise of this book is that Keeah has finally been awarded her Wizardbook.  And as the novel opens, we see her writing in it as a kind of magical diary.  But the presentation of the Wizardbook is like a rite of passage–the time when Keeah can be lured away from the forces of good and into the forces of dark.  And she must make the choice, which won’t be easy.

Although every book opens with a kind of summation of what has been happening, including a description of Droon and of the staircase, this book opens with a very long (and rather helpful) summary of everything that has been happening in Droon from Keeah’s point of view.  Usually we just get to hear her sum up the crisis to Eric and his friends, but here we get her entire point of view.  And since we see it from her point of view–her “diary entry”, she tells us the truth–even when she makes a mistake.  Like that she let Sparr into Jaffa City, where he was able to imprison her parents and presume to take over the city (which he thought of renaming Sparrville).  And when he offers to let Keeah rule with him, perhaps they can called it Keeahport.

But just when things are about to get really ugly, Keeah calls out a halting charm which freezing everything.  Keeah needs help to recue her mother and father, to find Max (who was lost in a fight) and to save Droon in general.  We also finally get to see Keeah call for Eric, Julie and Neal (normally we just see the message in the Upper World).

Keeah also learns that she is on her way to becoming a droomar–magical elfin folk with the gift of Elfin Sight.

The story also focuses on Demither and how she turned away from the droomar when she was Keeah’s age.  She was put under Sparr’s spell and forced to do his bidding for as long as Keeah has known her.  When it is revealed that Demither is not only her Aunt, but also someone who was tricked into doing dark magic, the children set out to rescue her as well.  But in the process of saving her parents and Droon, she is unable to prevent Sparr from getting the Third Power, the Red Eye of Dawn, which means he has all of his powers.

Now and can put his evil plan into action.