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Volume 45 Number 1
BOOK REVIEWS
FICTION
At Home in Mossy Creek by Debra Leigh Smith, Sandra Chastain, Debra Dixon, and Martha Crockett, with others (Belle Books, 2007; ISBN 978-0-9768760-8-3, $14.95).
They say there’s something in the water of Mossy Creek, Ga., especially when it’s Valentine’s Day weekend, the Cirque d’Europa’s bus breaks down, and town residents open their homes and hearts to the stranded travelers. This collective novel by multiple authors shows that circus performers and Creekites alike have much to learn from each other about love. Mossy Creek, whose town motto is “ain’t goin’ nowhere, and don’t want to,” is home to lively residents like Mayor Ida Hamilton Walker, police Chief Amos Royden, chef Bubba Rice and librarian Hannah Longstreet, all of whom must react to the romance in the air this weekend. Add knife-throwers, acrobats, mimes and a dancing bear to the mix, and this cozy read offers light-hearted entertainment. Sixth in the Mossy Creek Hometown series, At Home in Mossy Creek can stand on its own, although readers who are new to the quaint north Georgia town would find helpful an updated “Who’s Who of Mossy Creek” that includes more major characters from this book. Still, this novel provides an enjoyable escape to the kind of Southern community familiar from TV shows like Evening Shade and Mayberry — perhaps it doesn’t exist, but we might wish it did, at least for a romantic weekend visiting a mountain cabin or a magical circus performance. Suitable for popular or regional fiction collections.
— Reviewed by Emily Rogers Valdosta State University
The Death of a Confederate Colonel: Civil War Stories and a Novella by Pat Carr (University of Arkansas Press, 2007; ISBN: 978-1-5572-8835-6, $14.95).
Carr’s latest publication is a collection of works, each told from a Civil War era woman’s point of view, giving a gritty and fascinating glimpse into the life of women in the South during the War Between the States. The reader is transported from place to place by means of a series of short vignettes that paint the South and its struggles during this difficult and tragic time. The collection opens with “Diary of a Union Soldier,” in which a married woman learns the inner workings of a Union man’s thoughts as she reads the diary she finds in his torn and bloodied clothing. “Slave Quarters” gives a stark look at the life of Southern slaves during a malaria outbreak. The title story, “Death of a Confederate Colonel,” shows the brutal results of the Civil War through the heart-wrenching decisions required at a makeshift medical base where the limitations of medical supplies and expertise prevented adequate treatment. “The Mistress” provides a change of pace as the reader views a short scene between house slaves and the Lady of the plantation. “The Return” is a Southern girl’s diary as she waits for her betrothed to return from the war. “The Confederate Wife” describes the hardships and sacrifices of a thrifty woman left to manage the farm while her menfolk fight, and we follow a young lady behind Union lines in “Bringing Travis Home” as she searches for her injured brother. The final novella, “Leaving Gilead,” presents the collapsing world of the South through the eyes of innocent, 8-year-old Sarnell Birdsong. Sarnell, her mother and their slave, Renny, desert their home as Union soldiers approach. This work seemed to end too abruptly, however, the vibrant characterizations of Renny and Sarnell make the journey worthwhile. Pat Carr has published 12 other books of fiction and more than 100 short stories. Recommended for public and academic libraries.
— Reviewed by Crystal Renfro Georgia Institute of Technology
Spirit Willing: A Savannah Haunting by Susan B. Johnson (Bonaventture Books, 2006; ISBN 978-0-9724224-6-8, $19.95).
Charlotte Horner wants to capitalize on the booming Savannah, Ga., tourist trade by turning her family’s historic home, known as Hibiscus House, into an upscale inn. Unfortunately, the home still belongs to her elderly aunt Olivia, and unbeknownst to Charlotte, Olivia has a secret ally — Cyrus Thornheart, ancestral owner of Hibiscus House and very determined ghost. Though its title and cover may suggest a spooky midnight tale of terror, Savannah-based author Susan Johnson’s novel is by turns slapstick comedy, light romance and touching family drama. The novel’s most frightful character, the turbulent and manipulative Charlotte, tries everything from legal maneuverings to poisonous mistletoe to get her way, but she is continually thwarted by the antics of ghostly Cyrus, who wishes to ensure that an ages-old promise is kept and that Hibiscus House remains a family home. The linchpin for a happy ending resides with Charlotte’s younger brother, Alexander, who is pursuing an artistic career in Ireland. Though Olivia is distrustful of her niece Charlotte, she fears Alexander’s continued bachelorhood and apparent lack of interest in returning to Savannah could spell the end of Cyrus’ hopes. Little does she know, but fate has intervened, and Alexander has fallen for an Irish lass who may help to bring him home, after all. Readers seeking the familiar stock of oddball Southern characters will get a laugh, and the story’s quick pace will appeal to those looking for a good beach or weekend read with a regional setting.
— Reviewed by Christina Hodgens Conyers-Rockdale Library
NONFICTION
Gardening With Heirloom Seeds: Tried-and-True Flowers, Fruits, and Vegetables for a New Generation by Lynn Coulter (The University of North Carolina Press, 2006; ISBN 0-8078-5680-0, ISBN 978-0-8078-5680-2, $22.50).
Coulter provides a holistic approach to gardening in her beautiful heirloom gardening guide in this survey of all types of plants — flowers, fruits and vegetables — and in her holistic overview of the gardening season, including ways to promote a healthy garden by enlisting nature’s help instead of by employing harmful measures like pesticides and insecticides. The beauty of gardening with heirloom seeds is that they have proven resistant to diseases, as evidenced by their survival through multiple generations. Gardening begins with an explanatory introduction about utilizing heirloom seeds in the garden. Her anecdotal tales provide fond reminiscences of a simpler time and convey the sense that heirloom gardening allows gardeners to honor the past while enjoying a superior plant. This book is divided into sections dedicated to the different seasons, and each chapter begins with a summation of the gardening tasks specific to the season. Coulter describes favorite flowers, fruits and vegetables best suited to planting in the season highlighted. Fifty descriptions give historical placement of the plant, Coulter’s favorite varieties and growing tips specific to the plant. The chapter on winter recounts the mixed emotions the gardener experiences: the feeling of relief that the bounty of summer and fall is over, coupled with the anxiousness to begin the new season’s garden. Coulter provides a historical context for the planning process by recounting the history of the seed catalog and emphasizing its importance even for today’s gardener. The text is complemented with beautiful pictures of plants, seeds and old-fashioned seed packet illustrations. Botanically themed quotations grace the margins, with space reserved for note-taking. Complete with a bibliography, a guide for finding heirloom seeds and gardens, and an index. Suitable for gardeners in any area, but emphasis is on plants that do best in Southern climates. Recommended for public and academic libraries.
— Reviewed by Diana Hartle Science Library, University of Georgia
Willie Mays: Art in the Outfield by Mike Shannon (University of Alabama Press, 2007: ISBN 978-0-8173-1540-5, $29.95).
In Willie Mays: Art in the Outfield, Mike Shannon gives a detailed account of the career of one of baseball’s greatest players. According to Shannon, Willie Mays not only dominated centerfield, he was also one of the original five-tool players, excelling in nearly every aspect of the game. Shannon describes Mays’ most remarkable plays in vivid detail, not only relying on his own words, but on accounts from witnesses of the actual events. The narrative text is heavily laden with baseball jargon but is readable by non-baseball enthusiasts as well. Fans of Willie Mays, the Giants, and baseball historians will enjoy Shannon’s summarized version of Mays’ career, complete with statistics and firsthand accounts. Baseball enthusiasts are taken for a tour down memory lane with quotes from many famous players, coaches, scouts and executives and reminders of the great ballparks of Mays’ day, like the famous Polo Grounds of New York. As an added bonus, Willie Mays: Art in the Outfield includes a 20-plus full color inset of artist renderings of Willie Mays at his best. The artwork includes everything from photographs to splatter painting and cartoons. A brief biography of each artist is also included. This book makes for a fun and interesting read for baseball fans and is appropriate for middle and high school readers. However, it must be noted that the book only contains a Works Consulted page with no bibliographical citations and that the author has an obvious bias for Willie Mays. Recommended for school and public libraries with a large sports biography section.
— Reviewed by Sandy Hester Fitzgerald-Ben Hill County Library
Foodways: The New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture Volume 7 edited by John T. Edge; Charles Reagan Wilson, general editor (University of North Carolina Press, 2007; ISBN 978-0-8078-3146-5, $39.95).
Foodways is a delicious repast, encompassing the regional specialties of Southern cooking from biscuits to benne, from Coca-Cola cake to stack cakes, and from collard greens to red beans and rice. The simple word “food” could not suffice to title a volume with African American, Appalachian, Cajun, Caribbean, Gulf Coast, Hispanic American, Jewish, Lowcountry, and New Orleans cuisine. Furthermore, cookery is merely the appetizer, because “foodways,” according to the introduction, is “the study of what we eat, as well as how and why and under what circumstances we eat.” Ritual cemetery cleanings, with their accompanying picnics; King Cakes, emblematic of New Orleans Mardi Gras; and lunch counters’ symbolic significance in the modern sit-in movement all get their due in this volume that weaves food with society. One learns that Duncan Hines was a true person and newspaper food critic before boxes wore his name, that charity cookbooks designed to raise funds are repositories of community history, and that raw okra pieces will adhere to the face “for a speedy Halloween mask.” Entries on Southern commercial specialties such as Goo Goo Clusters and Moon Pies share these pages with brief biographies of chefs and cookbook authors. The volume opens with a general introduction to the 24-volume encyclopedia, an introduction to Foodways, and an overview article, “Southern Foodways.” The bulk of the volume is twofold: There is a section of articles followed by a section of brief descriptions, with each section arranged alphabetically. All entries identify their authors and include source notes. There are no headings to distinguish the two types of entries, a fact that may confuse some readers. The volume is indexed, but it does not include cross-references to other volumes in the encyclopedia. This review refers to the hardcover edition; Foodways is also available in paperback (ISBN 978-0-8078-5840-0; $19.95). Recommended for academic and public libraries.
— Reviewed by Vanessa Cowie Forsyth County Public Library
Peachtree Creek: A Natural and Unnatural History of Atlanta’s Watershed by David R. Kaufman (University of Georgia Press, 2007; ISBN 978-0-8203-2929-1, $34.95).
Author David Kaufman uses tales of his urban adventure canoeing down parts of Peachtree Creek as a framework for a narrative history of Atlanta’s endangered watershed. Kaufman points out at the beginning of the book that attempting to navigate Peachtree Creek and its tributaries is a dangerous and not advisable undertaking because most of the waterway is not safely navigable due to fallen trees, trash, sewer pipe crossings and possibilities of flash flooding, not to mention extremely poor water quality. Kaufman undertook his canoe trips in the early 1990s and broke his journey into four parts: the South Fork and North Fork tributaries, Nancy Creek and finally an eight-mile stretch of the main branch of Peachtree Creek starting at Piedmont Road and arriving eventually where the creek flows into the Chattahoochee River, once the site of the Creek Indian village Standing Peachtree. As he journeys down the creek, we learn about the history of the watershed, the development and overdevelopment of the land around it, and how this overdevelopment has led to problems of flooding and contamination of the creek by sewage and ground water runoff. The reader also learns about the history of many of the people who came and settled near the creek and helped to establish the city of Atlanta. The troubled history of Atlanta’s sewer system is covered as it is intimately intertwined with the history of the watershed. Peachtree Creek is a cautionary tale of a beautiful natural resource barely surviving within an urban jungle. The author offers hope that while the watershed will never be returned to its original pristine state before man intervened, it may, with work and dedication, be brought up to a healthier quality for future generations. The text is interspersed with archival photographs and photographs taken by the author. Also included is a chronology of the watershed and a selected bibliography. Enthusiastically recommended for all libraries.
— Reviewed by Kim Tomblin Forsyth County Public Library
Romancing God: Evangelical Women and Inspirational Fiction by Lynn S. Neal (University of North Carolina Press, 2006; ISBN 978-0-8078-5670-3, $18.95).
Religious romance fiction follows the familiar formulaic pattern of secular romance novels but is differentiated by the addition of a third central character to the love relationship — God. In her work Romancing God, Lynn Neal notes that the formula in successful evangelical romance is “boy plus girl plus conservative Protestant Christianity equals a happy marriage.” In her examination of the role that evangelical romance fiction plays in the devotional life of Christian women, the author interviewed a number of avid readers and romance authors to explore the draw of inspirational fiction. Highlighting the devotional aspect of leisure reading in the lives of the readers, the interviews also bring to light the many ways in which these novels both underscore and undermine the readers’ religious faith. The author discusses the issues of race, sexuality and paternalism and the ways in which female readers use the novels to create a definition of appropriate femininity within the context of their faith. Filling a gap in scholarship on the topic, Neal provides an unbiased and well-researched look at a literary genre that holds a significant market share in book sales. Her interpretation places the genre in the context of both the romance and evangelical Christian aesthetics. The book contains a clear historiography of romance and religious fiction, several examples of illustrated book covers and a comprehensive bibliography. Recommended for academic libraries or libraries with a collections focus on religious studies or literary criticism.
— Reviewed by Kate Farley Armstrong Atlantic State University
Ralph Ellison: Emergence of Genius by Lawrence Jackson (University of Georgia Press, 2007; ISBN 0-8203-2993-2, $22.99).
In 2001, Lawrence Jackson published a book that would be the first to examine the early life of the writer, critic and former musician Ralph Waldo Ellison. In 2007, Jackson went one step further and created an exhaustively researched book that provides readers with a well-rounded view of the author’s early life. Tracing his life from poverty to the publishing of his famed novel, Invisible Man, Jackson weaves together a comprehensive list of resources including paper collections, interviews with Ellison’s family, friends and associates, as well as numerous articles and monographs to lyrically paint a re-creation of the life that Ellison lived. Born in Oklahoma, Ellison was given his name by his father, who named his son after the American poet Ralph Waldo Emerson. The book chronicles Ellison’s childhood from birth in Oklahoma to his years studying music in the music school at Tuskegee where, after reading T. S. Eliot’s “The Waste Land,” he experienced the life-altering moment that led to a life of writing. Weeks later, Ellison authored his first creative work. Although music remained dear to his heart, writing was the vehicle through which Ellison would become a notable figure in American history. The book is neatly divided into chapters covering distinctive time periods in the author’s life, including his involvement in the Socialist Left. In Ralph Ellison, the author has produced an engaging history of America starring a literary icon. Readers learn about the history of Ellison’s family, institutions where he studied, organizations of which he was a member and about influential individuals among Black America’s literary elite, such as Langston Hughes and Richard Wright. Scholars and researchers interested in learning more about Ralph Ellison will not find a more intimate look into Ellison’s life. Highly recommended for medium to large public libraries and all academic libraries.
— Reviewed by Tamika Maddox Strong DeKalb County Public Library
Colors of Africa by James Kilgo (University of Georgia Press, 2007; ISBN 978-08203-3017-4, $16.95, pbk).
James Kilgo, invited to travel to Africa with a safari group in the spring of 2000, views his unexpected opportunity with conflicting emotions: excitement, wariness and trepidation. Although he intends to shoot only with his camera, he is part of a group intent on bringing home big game trophies, such as zebra, kudu, leopard and lion. Kilgo, fighting an insidious cancer himself, ponders issues of life and death even as he describes the beauty and brutality of Africa. He visits villages and keenly observes traditions; he explores the bush and observes life and death within the animal kingdom. He writes with eloquence, power and sincerity about the majestic landscape of Africa. The reader is drawn, sometimes unwillingly, into the drama and harshness of the safari’s purpose. We experience each failure and success as the often grim and graphic hunt progresses. Kilgo weaves observations from David Livingstone, Hemingway, Dinesen and others throughout his journal, adding dimension and depth to his reflections and experiences. Kilgo was a member of the University of Georgia English department faculty for over 30 years and directed the creative writing program there from 1994 to 1996. He passed away in 2002, and this book was his last. Not for the faint of heart, it is nevertheless recommended for public libraries and university collections in the state of Georgia.
—Book Review by Ruth Hayden Smyrna Public Library
Stand Up for Alabama: Governor George Wallace by Jeff Frederick (University of Alabama Press, 2007; ISBN 978-0-8173-1574-0, $47.50).
Jeff Frederick answers two questions in his deeply researched book: What was George Wallace’s impact on the state of Alabama? Why did Alabamians continue to embrace him over a 25-year period? Frederick lucidly portrays the complexities of George Wallace and the political and economic culture of Alabama from 1963 to 1986. He explores broad themes such as Wallace’s collusions with special interests to steal opportunities and resources from working people, his constant fomenting of regional pride and invocation of Southern citizens’ sense of victimhood, his lifelong “government by perpetual campaigning,” and his disinterest in administration and policy. Frederick also presents colorful details of Alabama life that help readers see the people and ethics of the time; his inclusion of citizens’ letters to Wallace adds illuminating human perspectives. From Chapter 2 onward, Frederick adeptly turns his research at the Alabama Department of Archives and History and of contemporaneous newspapers into a fluent narrative. The preface and Chapter 1, though, feel like a dissertation’s literature review; readers may feel like they’re wading through other researchers’ generalizations. The book is rigorously referenced; virtually every paragraph has an endnote, some listing up to 13 sources. Because of the depth of his research and storytelling (474 pages including notes), Frederick’s conclusions about Gov. Wallace’s intentions and effects carry the weight of expertise, sound judgment and efforts at fairness. When he attributes Wallace’s misgovernance to narcissism, hypocrisy and demagogic appeals to racism and mistrust, he provides information to support these statements. Several components would make the book more navigable, such as a brief chronology of Wallace’s long career and a bibliography of sources. Nevertheless, the book will be instructive and entertaining to readers wanting to absorb an era or to watch in hindsight as a self-serving politician wastes leadership opportunities to improve people’s lives, leaving a 50-year legacy of limitations and lost potential for progress.
— Reviewed by Peter Otto Swilley Library, Mercer University
Georgia Legal Research by Nancy P. Johnson, Elizabeth G. Adelman, and Nancy J. Adams (Carolina Academic Press, 2007; ISBN 978-1-59460-388-4, $25.00).
This work represents one of the most current and comprehensive legal research tools written specially for Georgia. Clearly written and without extraneous legal jargon, the 11 chapters and three appendices of this 253-page paperback book cover a broad range of topics that explain how to perform legal research in Georgia. The topics include the court system; the eight steps of doing legal research; researching and reading cases; understanding Georgia statutes, constitutions and court rules; understanding Georgia’s legislative history and process; Georgia’s administrative law; how to update the research through citators; using secondary resources, legal ethics, online resources; and, finally, how to put it all together. The three appendices provide a section on understanding legal citation, a useful bibliography and a list of Georgia practice materials. A good table of contents, adequate indexing and chapter learning objectives make this book easy to follow, especially for researchers who will only need a certain section of the book. As a legal research guide specifically for Georgia, written by three law librarians, including a professor of law and a former law instructor, this book is an invaluable tool for serious legal researchers, including librarians, law students, and paralegals. Recommended for all law libraries, academic libraries and most public libraries.
— Reviewed by Duke C. Darkwolf Dougherty County Public Library
The Women’s Movement Against Sexual Harassment by Carrie N. Baker (Cambridge University Press, 2008; ISBN: 978-0-521-87935-4 (hardback) $80.00, 978-0-521-70494-6 (paperback) $24.99).
Using interviews and research from legal records, The Women’s Movement Against Sexual Harassment provides a thorough examination of how a grassroots women’s movement against sexual harassment led to the creation of federal policies to protect women against sexual harassment in the workplace. With the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, the women’s movement used Title VII of the law, prohibiting discrimination in the workplace based on race, color, national origin, religion and sex, as the basis for their early lawsuits against employers who fired women who refused their sexual advances. Out of these early lawsuits, a woman’s organization, Working Women United, was created in Ithaca, N.Y. This small grassroots movement grew and spread to cities, both large and small, across the country. As the movement gained momentum, more organizations were created, and the media began to notice the growing number of lawsuits. Eventually by the late 1970s, the federal government developed policies and guidelines to address the issue of sexual harassment in the workplace. Carrie N. Baker is an assistant professor of sociology and anthropology and is director of women’s studies at Berry College in Mount Berry, Ga. Currently on leave from Berry, she is a visiting associate professor of women’s studies at Smith College. This book is well-researched and should be required for any college course that discusses women and social change or women in American society. Recommended for academic libraries.
— Reviewed by Diane Fulkerson University of West Georgia
JUVENILE
An Angry Drum Echoed: Mary Musgrove, Queen of the Creeks by Pamela Bauer Mueller (Pinata Publishing, 2007; ISBN-10: 0-9685097-7-0; $18.95).
In precolonial Georgia, Coosaponakeesa grows up between two worlds. In her Creek mother’s home where she lives as a child, she is a princess, but even as royalty she shares in village chores: weaving baskets, making pottery, sewing skins and hunting and fishing. After her mother’s death, Coosa’s English father, an infrequent visitor from Charles Town in colonial Carolina, takes Coosa and her brother to live with him. She takes the English name “Mary” and learns English language and customs. From her father, she learns the deerskin trade, another bridge between the English and Creeks. Ultimately, she marries Englishman John Musgrove (and, in subsequent marriages, Jacob Matthews and Thomas Bosomworth, both Englishmen). With invented dialogue clothing the bare bones of biography, Mueller fleshes out the life of Mary Musgrove, the diplomat and businesswoman whose bicultural expertise smoothed the way for peaceful establishment of the Georgia colony in 1733, from her childhood to a short time before her death. Occasionally, Mueller takes the point of view of James Oglethorpe, establishing a chaste affair between him and Musgrove. This fictionalized biography will be appreciated by teen and adult readers with a strong interest in Georgia history, especially those who prefer a gentle read with uncomplicated characters and a straightforward plot.
— Reviewed by Vanessa Cowie Forsyth County Public Library
The Monster Who Did My Math by Danny Schnitzlein. Illustrated by Bill Mayer (Peachtree Publishers, 2007; ISBN: 1-56145-420-6, ISBN: 978-1-56145-420-4, $16.95).
“There once was a time I was frightened by numbers. They scared me at school and they haunted my slumbers.” So begins Schnitzlein’s harrowing tale of a boy who (like many of us) does not want to do his math homework. Late one night as the boy labors over his textbook, a monster appears and offers to do the work for him. Naturally, the boy accepts and presents his perfectly completed homework at school the next day. When he gets called to the board and can’t do the work, his teacher and classmates know something is amiss. The boy then realizes the error of his cheating ways and tells the monster to get lost. As he successfully scrambles to find (and count) enough money to pay the monster’s $64 homework bill, he overcomes his anxiety and realizes math isn’t so bad after all. Schnitzlein’s polished meter and rhyme give the story momentum that will keep students engaged. Mayer’s illustrations grab our sympathy from the first page: a wide-eyed boy cowers in bed as a menacing shadow five looms on the bedroom wall. A dizzying array of numbers and mathematical signs swirls in the background of several pages. The monster sports a ruler tail and sharpened pencil fingers. The “making a deal with the devil” theme invites comparison with similar texts, including Schnitzlein’s previous book The Monster Who Ate My Peas. Students and mathaphobes will enjoy the boy’s final triumph over the monster. School media centers will find this book useful to pair with math lessons. Vocabulary and subject matter most appropriate for second-fifth grades.
— Reviewed by Sharon Mitchell Jackson County Schools
Code Orange by Caroline B. Cooney (Delacorte Press, 2005; ISBN 0-385-732597-7, $15.95).
Included in this year’s list of nominations for the Georgia Peach Book Award for Teen Readers is best-selling author Caroline B. Cooney’s book Code Orange. Living in post 9/11 New York City, Mitty Blake loves having all of the sights, sounds and conveniences of Manhattan at his disposal. Attending school, much less participating, is something he does simply because it is expected. When his biology teacher assigns him the topic of “variola major,” known commonly as smallpox, as his research topic for a term paper, Mitty assumes that he will be able to breeze through the research, especially since everyone knows that smallpox no longer exists. However, with a deadline for notes looming and a requirement of having four book sources, Mitty resorts to borrowing some old medical texts from his mother’s book supply used for her interior decorating business. Within the pages of the old books, Mitty finds an envelope labeled “Scabs-VM epidemic, 1902, Boston,” and suddenly smallpox is no longer a contagious disease taken from the history books. It is something that can be seen, touched and smelled. But will it still be infectious after more than a century in an envelope? That is the question that haunts Mitty as he further delves into the significance of the smallpox virus and how it impacted the lives of people it touched in the past. Consequently, Mitty is surprised to learn that smallpox is not quite the dead disease of the past he thought. In reality, smallpox remains a very real threat in the world of bioterrorism. And, as the days slip by, Mitty wonders if he has been infected, making him a tool of destruction for millions of people should smallpox be revived. Learning the outcome of Mitty’s exposure to the smallpox scabs in the envelope and realizing the realities of the world we live in now combine into a fast-paced story suitable for both teen and adult readers.
— Reviewed by Ginger Nelms Vidalia-Toombs County Public Library
Quest for the Dragon Stone by Ami Blackford (Red Cygnet Press, 2007; ISBN 978-1-6010-8008-0, $16.95)
Atlanta College of Arts student Ami Blackford was one of the winners of a publisher’s competition call to submit a picture book with manuscript and illustrations. Quest for the Dragon Stone is her debut story, aimed at an audience of children 9-12 years old. Quest for the Dragon Stone is 48 pages with 16 full-page color illustrations. The story is about siblings Ruth and David, who are members of a scientific association known as “magbeologist” (a group dedicated to preserve and protect the “magic-kind” species), along with a resident faerie named Simone. The trio accidentally stumble upon an ill Phoenix dragon. This dragon is not as important in the story as is the dragon stone inside his head. This is disturbing — until you realize that the dragon, just like the mythological phoenix, is supposed to combust and come back as an egg to be re-hatched. There is no re-hatching in this story. In the ashes, the dragon stone is found. It is the stone that the children’s father has been searching for all his life, plus 12 other highly sought-after relics. There is a connection between these relics and saving the magic-kind from extinction. With egg and stone in hand, Ruth and David embark on an endeavor to keep their father’s work alive. It’s a perfect setup for a series of adventures. Certain characters and concepts could be sketched out a little more, but this debut story shows promise. An optional purchase for libraries with lots of juvenile fantasy readers.
— Reviewed by Erika Gschwind Conyers-Rockdale Library