I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: JULIET-“My First Hardcore Song” (2012).

Lars from NPR (I’m just going to call him Thor from now on) pointed me to this song.

Juliet is 8 years old and while she didn’t write the music, she sings all the words (and one assumes wrote the lyrics, right?).  Juliet can scream with the best of them.

And, of course when she opened up the pit, it made me want to get our pit ready at home, too….

There have been replies and haters, but none can compare to the original.  Juliet has destroyed out Old Skull as my favorite pre-adolescent hardcore band.

ooooooooooooooooooooh.  Oh.

[READ: April 2012] The Secrets of Droon: Books 29-31 & SE#5

Droon grows more and more exciting with each book.  I have high hopes that we may finish this series before Clark’s school is over (sometimes it’s fun to set little goals for ourselves, even if they are meaningless).  [Since this is being published after he finished school, I know whether this came true or not, but you’ll have to wait to find out].

Book 29 is Pirates of the Purple Dawn.  One of the fun things about Droon is that old enemies keep coming back.  In this book, an old enemy Ving, king of the hawk bandits of Tarkoom, comes back (from book 11!).  But this time, he has brought his twin sister Ming with him.  I enjoyed that although they are twins they not only don’t really like each other they’re not all that alike–Ving hates the water and Ming is in charge of a group of pirates!  They plan to bring dragons back from the past to destroy Droon.

The book opens up in a funny/tense way.  Eric is in school but he is dreaming of Droon.  And then he starts talking in his sleep–telling the whole class about Droon and even firing a fireball at the blackboard!  This gets the kids in class very excited–one even wants to go on a field trip to Eric’s house to see Droon herself!  And things grows even more chaotic when Galen’s twin Nelag shows up and confuses things tenfold.  When the kids finally get to Droon, they journey to the land of Jabar-Loo.

After this funny intro, things get more serious.  There is a Purple Dawn, which means a rift in time (which means Clark will have a slightly hard time grasping everything).  This means that they have to go see Portentia the oracle who was around for the first Purple Dawn.  Things grows even more serious when the pirates kidnap Keeah–as if  the kids didn’t have enough to worry about.  And what about that green mist and the vision that Eric had?

Book 30 is Escape from Jabar-Loo.  Eric wakes up at Neal’s house.  Every time the kids are called to Droon, it’s through a dream or the arrival of the magic soccer ball.  In this case the ball comes all the way from Eric’s basement to Neal’s house.  And then (hilariously) it hits Eric in the face and leaves letters on his forehead.  The ball then hits the other two kids on the head, leaving them a message that they need to look in the mirror to read.  When they get to Droon it proves to be Khan, king of the Lumpies who has called them.

As the title of this book suggests the kids must get to Jabar-Loo–a mysterious land that has not even been mapped properly.  Keeah’s parents are lost there, as is Galen’s messenger Flink and now Max the spider troll, both of whom went to look for Queen Relna and King Zello.  Eric was suspicious that Salamandra, queen of thorns had something to do with this visit, but he told himself that no, she was following Ko.  But signs (and thorns) point to the queen–who the kids can never really trust–being responsible.  When Salamandra finally up, she promises to help the kids…but only at a price.  And when the story ends that price is very high, and Eric is the one who has to pay!

Book 31 is called Queen of Shadowthorn.  It has one of the creepiest/scariest covers of the series or of any children’s book I can think of.  We wanted to finish this book quickly so we wouldn’t have to look at the cover any more.  But it was a very exciting book.  Eric has lost all of his magic (it’s really tough to avoid spoilers) from his encounter with Salamandra.  If he hadn’t sacrificed his powers, his friends would never have made it.  So he doesn’t regret the decision, but of course he does a little bit–he has no powers at all now.  He is ordinary, like everyone else in the Upper World.  And he can’t bear to tell anyone.  Especially when Neal and Julie have had dreams about Droon but he hasn’t.

But the dreams are spoiled when there is suddenly a fire coming from Eric’s house!  The kids rush over there, skirting past  the firemen, because the fire is coming from the basement door.  Which means it’s coming from Droon!  When they made it to Droon they saw that Jaffa City was on fire!  But then just as suddenly the fire was out.  What was this?  A vision?  A curse?  Magic of some kind?  And when the kids see a thorn on the stairs they know the magic came from Salamandra.  When they tell Galen about the vision, he gets out his magic mirror to talk to Max.  Max is across the country where he had found a rare starfox as well as the entrance to Ko’s lair!  He had moved out of the Dark Lands and into Droon.  So the kids and Galen fly to the Mountains of Saleef where Max is waiting.  But before they can do anything Salamandra appears.  She tells them that she showed them the vision of Jaffa City aflame and she wants to help.  But again, how can anyone trust her?  How can Eric trust her when she has taken away all of his magic?  She even seems to be helping Gethwing!

As the book ends, we learn that Salamandra has plans for all four of the kids.  And those plans do not involve returning to the Upper World soon.  The book ends on a major cliffhanger!

Special Edition #5 is called Moon Magic.  This book picks up right where the last left off–with Gethwing throwing the four kids being into Salamandra’s Portal of Ages.  As Eric falls into the Portal he grabs Gethwing who also falls in after them.  And Salamandra says a word that will follow Eric through to the end of the series: Reki-ur-set.

I enjoyed the way this book was structured–one chapter about Eric and Keeah in the future and Neal and Julie in the distant past. Back and forth with small cliffhangers leading us to the other kids.

Unfortunately for Eric and Keeah, Gethwing is with them in the future.  And they have to not only figure out where (or when) they are, and figure out why they are there.  They also have to avoid Gethwing!

Fortunately for Neal and Julie, they go into the past where Zara has just created the moon medallion.  They also meet Galen…as a little boy.  And then they see Urik…holding baby Sparr!  The kids are in a real pickle–they know they shouldn’t change the past, because it will impact the future.  But at the same time, they have the ability to stop Ko from kidnapping Zara and Sparr…of preventing so much evil in the world from happening.  What should they do?  i was really glad that Clark understood the dilemma and chose the “don’t meddle with the past” route.

This was an amazing book.  It filled in awesome information about the past, it was completely full of excitement, and it allowed the children to find the important magic that they were looking for.  So, does this mean Salamandra is a good guy?

The series just keeps getting stronger and more exciting.  There’s only eight more books to go, and things are getting more and more intense!