Hachette Books ISBN 9781408357859 £5.99
For those children who are familiar with the juggernaut that is the ‘Beast Quest’ set of series, this book will need no introduction, except to say that this is the new series: ‘New Blood’. However, for those of you who are less familiar with the idea, (even though there are over 100 books, various series and computer games), the heroes in the stories battle with scary mythical based beasts to lead good to the path of victory over evil. The same happens in this story, but with three new heroes – Charlie, Amy and Sam. The three characters have clearly chiselled out forms: Sam is sporty, brave but over-adventurous; Amy is a deep thinker, aggressive but quiet; and Charlie is ultra-clever, geeky but a worrier. The fact that Sam has a pet dragon could lead to a vast array of Design and Technology lessons – it is always a favourite with classes I have taught, including making amazing dragon’s eyes! The main story here revolves around the children becoming guardians who are charged with protecting a magical beast’s egg from the Malvel, an evil Dark Wizard. With a myriad of short punchy sentences, exclamation marks aplenty and a proliferation of italics and capitalised verbs, the action is never far away and kicks this story off in style. Thereafter, action follows action followed with yet more action. If you are trying to teach a class of children this style of writing, there is no better place to look. It is also a great introduction to the fantasy genre of writing, which, in the future, could lead on to a love of such great books as Lord of the Rings! There are some great illustrations throughout the book, which will help children in Year 3 upwards with visualising some of the main characters.
Jamie Marshall