Deep Magic

By Diane Duane

Book Two of the Young Wizards Series


Nita and Kit were SUPPOSED to be on summer vacation. Nita's family rented a beach house for a few weeks and she managed to convince them that Kit should come. Of course, magic never goes on vacation. When they help a fellow wizard--a whale--they agree to help a group of the underwater wizards perform an ancient ritual, a reenactment of when the Lone power offered death to the undersea peoples and was bound beneath the seafloor. The consequences if this ceremony fails? The Lone Power will break free. The catch? Whoever is singing the Silent Lord will die. You get one guess as to who agreed to sing that part, BEFORE finding out about that tiny snag. Here's a hint: Kit is upset and isn't singing, and Peach told Nita to read the fine print before she signed. Peach is Nita and Kit's local Seniors psychic macaw, and can tell the future. For those who are a bit confused as to how the Lone Power can be wreaking havoc in the universe (snuffing stars, convincing new species to take its"gift" of death, plotting the destruction of the universe, and so on) AND be bound on the bottom of the ocean, well, that's the usual confusion about time. All the Great Powers just dip into the time flow we live in. THEY live outside of it, in a place where things don't have to happen one after the other. Anyway, this is a really good book. I LOVE THIS SERIES! There are nine or so so far, and I am pretty sure there will be another one. They still haven't figured out what happened to Roshaun, although they are pretty sure he isn't dead.

Dragonhaven

By Robin Mckinley

Fourteen year old Jake Mendzoa has never had what could be called a normal life--not that he wants one--due to the fact that he lives in Smokehill National Park. Which, by the way, is a dragon preserve. Draco Australiensis, eighty feet long plus tail, flies, breaths fire, may or may not be intelligent, extinct in the wild, raises its kids in a pouch, nobody knows anything much about them, and nobody can agree on whether or not it's really a dragon. On his first solo overnight hike into the park, Jake comes upon a dead dragon, and a dead poacher. And the dragon's one surviving baby. Now, there is only one thing more illegal than killing a dragon, and that's saving its life. So what does Jake do? Picks up the weeny little squidgy bruise colored fetal baby dragon that really should spend a year or so in its moms pouch right about now except its mom is DEAD and sticks it down his shirt, is what. It really should have only lived a day or so outside of it's moms pouch, but somehow it survives down his shirt drinking deer broth or sheep broth or whatever. And since Smokehill is HERE to keep dragons from going extinct, now they have a hugely secret baby dragon that thinks Jake is its mom and won't stay with anyone else, AND a dead poacher killed by a dragon when supposedly their fancy high tech fence keeps poachers out and dragons are safe and don't kill humans mostly. So basically everyone is stressing out in their little (huge) crises and Jake is going nuts trying to keep Lois (the baby dragon) alive and healthy and a secret AND keep the social worker and home school checker-uppers off his back.
Sorry about all the run on sentences. I do that even whenever i talk about books. Anyway, this is a really awesome book. I love Jake, Lois, and ROBIN MCKINLEY!! this is one of my all-time favorite books. Funny, original, and really well written. Now go get it from the library or the bookstore or something and read it.

The Ultimate Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy

By Douglas Adams

The entire Hitchikers series in one big book. Yay!


Arthur Dent is really not having the best day. The city council has decided to demolish his house to build a bypass, and as his friend Ford Prefect tells him, the world is about to be demolished to make way for a hyperspatial expressway. Ford is a researcher for The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and is actually from a small planet in the vicinity of Betelgeuse. The Guide is probably the most remarkable book to ever come out of the great publishing corporations of Ursa Minor, and is regarded by some civilizations as the standard repository of all knowledge. It will tell you, for instance, how to mix a Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster (the effect of drinking which is described as having your brains bashed out by a slice of lemon wrapped around a large gold brick,) and it has the words DON'T PANIC across the front in large, friendly letters. Anyways, Ford rescues Arthur from earth seconds before it is destroyed, and they embark on a completely insane journey across the Galaxy, including, if you read the entire series, a visit to the Restaurant at the End of the Universe, highly intelligent mice, the Babel fish (you put it in your ear and it translates for you), towels, very bad poetry, and a very depressed robot called Marvin. This is REALLY good book. I actually only have the Ultimate Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, so I regard the entire series as one book. Very well written, hysterically funny, and with really, really interesting characters. Read it, it's funny.