User:Dalton325/sandbox

The Secret of Dragonhome is the first book in trilogy of books by John Peel. It was published in 1998 by scholastic.

Plot introduction
Melayne and her brother Sarrow are left orphans when raiders kill their parents. They are both Talents, possessing special abilities. Melayne can talk to animals. In their world, they are considered dangerous and all Talents are sought out by the King's Men and forced to join the army in an unending war. Melayne decides instead to seek sanctuary, and after a dangerous journey the siblings arrive at Dragonhome. Here they find the strange, reclusive Lord Sander and his young son. They also discover strange noises in the night and a deadly secret hidden deep within the castle...

Major Characters
Melayne A young girl with a 'Talent', who has to lead herself and her brother to saftey when their parents are murdered by soliders from a waring kingdom.

Sarrow is Melayne's brother

Sander is the Lord of Dragonhome. He is a widower with a young son who agrees to take Melayne and her brother into his service.

Coran is Sander's young son.

Minor Characters
Tom Swale

Carl Romeo

Dairine Callahan

Mr. and Mrs. Callahan

Major themes
One of the major themes in So You Want to Be a Wizard is the ability to extend sympathy and understanding to anyone, even enemies. One excellent example of this takes place in the Other Manhattan. In this world, cars are alive, and when a Lotus Esprit kills another car, its prey, a piece of metal gets stuck in it. Upon finding the injured Esprit, Kit cuts out the piece of metal and the car zooms away. Later, when Nita, Kit, and Fred are attempting to find the dark book, the Esprit returns and offers the three of them a ride. It proceeds to assist them in finding the book and in protecting them from the Lone One.

This example shows how by offering sympathy and assistance to the car, who was originally Kit's enemy and would have attacked if it could, Kit received kindness in return.

Another theme is the balance between good and evil. In an interview with Harcourt Books, Duane writes The issues of the choice between right and wrong has to be an ongoing concern for everybody, at every age. There is no magical point in a human life when anyone is or becomes immune to the second-by-second choice to do right instead of wrong. Everyone has to deal with the choice with every breath, and it's so easy to fail at any moment, no matter how well you've been doing the moment before or may do the moment after. [...] Kids want to know (just as much as adults do, or more) how the hard choices look when they approach, and how to deal with them. "How shall a man do right?" has been one of the most basic human questions since long before Ecclesiastes. It turns up in the Book of the Dead and in old Hittite and Assyrian writings. I don't think I'd qualify as human if it didn't turn up in mine.

Reception and Reviews
So You Want to Be a Wizard is listed in ''What Else Should I Read? Guiding Kids to Good Books, Vol. 2 by Matt Berman as well as Rip-Roaring Reads for Reluctant Teen Readers'' by Gale W. Sherman and Bette D. Ammon.

Awards
So You Want to Be a Wizard has won the "ALA Quick Pick for Reluctant Young Adult Readers" award.

Release details

 * 1983, USA, Harcourt Trade Publishers ISBN 0-15-216250-X, Mass market paperback