ARA Review by davidmwpowers of Dragons of Introvertia

[davidmwpowers]

[Following is an OnlineBookClub.org ARA Review of the book, Dragons of Introvertia.]

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5 out of 5 stars

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I think I found the perfect present for one of my nieces — Dragons of Introvertia — a wonderful hero and heroine’s journey with an important message.

A boy and a girl, and who cares what others assume... In Introvertia, hundreds of missing dragons, so there aren't any for Ranger Cadet Ezalem Skywing and his year mates... In Extrovertia, an overheard conversation by Cammie, daughter of a renowned but retired Extrovertia General: they want him back because they stole the dragons, and that will mean war...

Eza is on a training exercise, scouting towards Extrovertia but with the puzzle of the dragons front and center. Cammie is on her own mission to meet an Introvertian, but has her own agenda in relation to the stolen dragons. It is inevitable that they meet. It is inevitable that there will be conflict. But really they both want the same thing.

Though Eza is accompanied by his family dragon, Neemie, who starts to grow on Cammie.

The authors are a couple, writer and artist, who may just have a bit of Eza and Cammie in them. The book, now a nine-book series, started as a joke — as the country names may suggest — and light tongue-in-cheek humor pervades the book. The characters are well drawn, with the two protagonists eschewing the clichéd caricatures of their kingdoms and crossing boundaries.

This is the best book I've read this year, and I read hundreds. It is a wonderful, optimistic (see subtitle) tale for young people from 9 to 99, with a lot for us to learn from its hero and heroine.

The book will be accessible and recognizable for any who have ever had a label applied to them, or someone they love: whether diagnosis or spectrum or name-calling or all-of-the-above. It teaches us the social skills we need to get along in a world that is increasingly dividing us with burgeoning labels.

This is illustrated well by our protagonists’ recognition of one of the unwritten laws of Extrovertia: "Be different, as long as it's the same different as everyone else." It helps us see through the different ideas of political correctness of our various societies, and sort through our cultural baggage to understand each other as individuals despite the social strictures that bind and divide us.

But whereas so much speculative fiction is dystopian , and even children's literature can be depressing, self-serving and pessimistic, this is "An Optimistic Young Adult Fantasy Series".

It deserves every one of the 5 out of 5 stars that I award it without any hesitation or reservation.

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