Books for Reluctant Readers: Subjects? Dragons, of course!

My dragonling has discovered adventure books and it's reminding me of the old Dungeons and Dragons role playing games of yore. The series? Knights of the Silver Dragon from Mirrorstone. The three main characters are Kellach (14-year-old wizard's apprentice), Driskoll (12-year-old younger brother), and Moyra (13-year-old thief). Their adventures begin in Secret of the Spirit Keeper by Matt Forbeck, with the apparent death of Kellach's elven master, the wizard Zendric. It's up to our three young adventurers to figure out what really happened to Zendric--and why. Along the way, they must break into prison, deal with zombies, goblins, half-orcs and, oh--try to stay within curfew. We haven't delved further into the series yet, but the dragonling is clamoring for the next in the series.

If you're curious, Knights has a website available at Knights of the Silver Dragon which includes a fun quiz and a map of the city of Curston, as well as links to other Mirrorstone series. Of particular interest to me (other than the fact that my son really enjoyed the first book and that there's some great dragon art) is that there is a link to Teacher and Librarian Resources, which includes teaching and discussion guides, activities and programming ideas. According to Mirrorstone: "We publish fantasy and series fictioin for kids, partly because research shows these are the kinds of books that appeal most to children who think they hate to read." I would be curious to see what some of you think about these books and any experiences you might have with this series and your own dragonlings.

Enjoy!