Little Worlds of Magic by Mary T. Kincaid
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

While I found Little Worlds of Magic full of the kind of intriguing situations that would appeal to children in the 8 to 12 year age bracket I think it requires some editing. In particular, ignoring a couple of typos, there is a sudden switch in the POV for a few pages near the end from first person to third and some of the phrasing came across as too monotonous. Too often Mason, the boy at the centre of the story, related what was happening with very little excitement in his voice. The tale came across like reading a menu list without any emotion. There were a few things that I found confusing so I’ve no doubt that a child reader, good or not, will be unsure of them. For example it is not clear enough that the Commander is Mason’s father or that Frisbee is his cat. I could appreciate that the author was attempting to tell the story from Mason’s angle and, therefore, a portrayal of his confusion about the surprising events that happened to him would need to be there in the writing. But could you expect a child reader to pick up on this? I don’t think so - it needs more clarity. The illustrations were charming but if the narrative was not to be bright and colourful then maybe a few more pictures, ideally in colour, would help. Finally, the whole story had such a lot of potential for humour – tiny people living in walnut shells! And playing computer games on full size keyboards! – but there was a dearth of amusement in this book. Children love funny situations and adults love to read about them with the kids.

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The Temptation of Dragons by Chrys Cymri
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The title included the word dragons so I should have been prepared for the fantasy story I was about to read, but it was a pleasant surprise, nevertheless, to find my imagination so quickly challenged by so many quirky characters: dragons, vampires, unicorns and a gryphon who advises the main protagonist. The main protagonist happens to be the recently widowed vicar, Penny White, who is an ardent fan of the Doctor Who series. She is suddenly plunged into a mystery and invited to become the Vicar of Incursions in the parallel universe known as Lloegyr. The combination of dragons, the author’s name, Cymri, and various words like Lloegyr lead me to think that there is a very strong link with Welsh and Celtish legends behind this fantastical tale. I understood Lloegyr to be the old Welsh name for England. Whatever the truth of it I found Chrys Cymri’s imaginative story to be completely captivating – even though this genre is definitely not my usual preferred reading matter!

This book is a very well written one, full of amusing phrases, conversations and situations from beginning to end. However, there are more serious matters for the reader to contend with, like murder, Christian faith and biological pairings between dramatically different “species”, such as dragons and humans or elves and unicorns! Penny is a strong and well-drawn character who I found I was rooting for despite my own lack of religion. Somehow the author manages to ascribe personalities and beliefs to the various dragon bishops, vampire clerics and co, such that one forgets the incongruity of it all. The ending was a little too enigmatic for me but there is a probable intriguing hook there for another similar book. It is a story that would most likely appeal to young fans of Buffey, The Hobbit and maybe Doctor Who etc.


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