Voices of Dragons

Voices of Dragons by Carrie Vaughn is a great story that includes international politics, friendship, adventure, dragons and more.

Kay Wyatt lives in northern Montana in the town of Silver River. The town is famous for the treaty signed there - bringing peace between the US and the country to the north, Dragon.

Sure everyone thought that dragons were mythological creatures or maybe they were real but extinct. But during World War II the atom bomb shook the Earth enough to bring them back to the surface. They had been living underground for generations.

When they first returned, there was war and misunderstanding between humans and dragons. Eventually lands were carved out to create a nation for the dragons. Kay has lived on the edge of the border with Dragon her whole life. Her mother is in charge of border control in the area. But Kay is also an adventurer. And since no one has seen a dragon up close in years, she decided to go rock climbing near the border.

Her climb is great, but when she is returning to her jeep, she stops at the river -the physical border between the two nations - to soak her sore hands. That is when she falls in the water. A dragon pulls her out. She is shocked to hear that he can speak English.

Thus begins the friendship between Kay and Artegal. But when the political and military climate starts to change, their friendship will be put to the test.

Voices of Dragons is Carrie Vaughn's YA debut. It is an instantly engaging read that will pull readers along to the very end. Her characters are real and compelling. Her story of a cold war between nations will feel familiar to any readers over 40 but will not be missed by those too young to remember our own Cold War history. A must-read for fans of politics, rock climbing, dragons, and more.

Vaughn, Carrie. (2010). Voices of Dragons. New York: Harper Teen.

Steel

Steel by Carrie Vaughn is a brilliant pirate novel.

Jill is sixteen. She lives in Texas. And she loves fencing. She is probably good enough to try out for the next Olympics. But when she loses a match - striking a fraction of a second later than her opponent - she starts to think that she may not be as good as she thought.

A few days after the match, Jill and her family leave for a vacation in the Bahamas. Because she is still focused on her loss, she elects to walk along the beach while her mom and siblings swim. That is when she finds the corroded tip of a sword.

Others might think of the piece of medal as junk, but Jill knows it is from the type of sword that her fencing foil is based on. So she keeps it. Later when her family is on a boat tour of the islands, Jill is knocked overboard.

When she surfaces she is no longer off of the coast of the Bahamas in 2011. She is in the same place, but about three hundred years earlier.

There begins Jill's pirate adventure. While she wants to get back to her own home, she will need to join the pirate crew and do what she can to survive. Vaughn has written a swashbuckling pirate adventure that will be a huge success among readers.

Vaughn, Carrie. (2011). Steel. New York: Harper Teen.