So, my phone has decided it no longer wants to support some of my online reading apps. Therefore, I must do readings at lunch on my work computer. Well, that can be awkward since sometimes well, you just want to read something that is not maybe 100% okay to read at work… like Blessed Cure by Mario Oliveira, which has WAY too many male dilly-dongs to be work friendly…even if I’m not on the sales floor. So that leaves me with my children’s books.
And one of those was The Weirn Books V02: The Ghost and the Stolen Dragon by Svetlana Chmakova. Now, I am not complaining, I like my children’s books, my middle grade books and I enjoyed book one, but was not sure I really wanted to read book two. Yet, lunchtime reading also means I need to do shorter books if I don’t want to take months trying to read it. And the Weirn Books are shorter for the adult, but for kids a nice and solid length.
At first the story was a little slow, but once the action started it wasn’t stopping. The idea of magic and middle school issues are not new, but there are a few elements that do make things fresh. Of course, read the first book, The Weirn Books V01: Be Wary of the Silent Woods, first. After all, there is a huge plot point that is in one you need to know for two. But overall, it is easy to pick up. We have cousins who are best friends and their other best friend. We have a love of dragons. We have one crazy family. And we have magic. Add that all up, toss in some “cool girls,” secrets, human-dragon beings and ghosts and that comes together to make the adventure of Na’ya and her crew of friends as they fight ghosts of the past and nightmares of the present.
They are fun, colorful, not overly crowded, but can be busy, illustrations. The overall feeling is slightly younger than Mary Downing Hahn novels and/or graphic novels. The modern characters help give it a today vibe and relatable.