Library Loot: Dragons, Magic and Fairytales

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Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Claire from The Captive Reader and Linda from Silly Little Mischief that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library. If you’d like to participate, just write up your post-feel free to steal the button-and link it using the Mr. Linky any time during the week. And of course check out what other participants are getting from their libraries.

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See my previous library loots here:

Mysteries, Paris and Hope

Feminism, Folklore and Body Positivity

Gymnastics, Mermaids and Achieving Your Dreams

Birds, Cages and Secrets

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I haven’t done one of these in a while – not because I haven’t been getting lots of books from my library (I have! I have currently maxed out both my library card and the one I ‘borrowed’ from my partner) but because I’ve been too disorganised/busy to take photos!

Here’s what I’ve picked up from the library this week:

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A Darkness of Dragons by S. A. Patrick

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After playing a forbidden spell-song to save a village from rats, 12-year-old piper Patch Brightwater is thrown in jail. But there he meets Wren – a noble girl under a rat-shaped curse – and together they befriend Barver, a fearsome dracogriff, and set off on a grand adventure filled with sorcerers, dragons, bandits…and one very deadly enemy.

From the depths of the Tiviscan dungeons to the highest peak of Gemspar Mountain, this stunning book reminds us of the soaring joy of adventure, the captivating danger of magic, and of the delight of finding friends in unexpected places.

This sounds exactly like my cup of tea! I love fairytales and re-imaginings, as well as fantasy. I have also been hearing good things about this book so was very excited to snap up a copy at the library.

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The Boy Who Lived with Dragons by Andy Shepherd

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The second book in a wonderfully funny and sparky series illustrated by award-winning artist Sara Ogilvie

‘My favourite sort of book – warm, funny, full of heart’ Polly Faber

Tomas has a secret – a big secret. He has his own tiny dragon, Flicker! A dragon which grew on a very special tree at the bottom of his grandad’s garden. And not only that – his friends Ted, Kai and Kat have dragons too, all grown on the same dragonfruit tree …

Having your own dragon is magical – but Tomas is also about to find out what living with a dragon is REALLY like. When the fire-breathing kicks in and you get singed every five seconds, it’s like having an unpredictable volcano in your pocket. Learning to train the dragons and keep them out of trouble at school and home will take all Tomas’s creativity and patience … What is more, the dragonfruit tree is starting to look droopy and unwell. Tomas and his friends have got to do all they can restore it to health and uncover its deepest mysteries, as well as trying to work out what big secret local bully Liam, ‘King of Trouble’, has got up his sleeve … One thing is for sure, life is never dull when you have a dragon in your pocket.

I’ve cheated slightly in that I have already read this, despite only just borrowing it! I loved the first book, but my only problem with it was that I felt so sorry for poor old Grandad who gets left out of all of the magic about dragons. In this second book he finally finds out the secret and gets to be more involved in his grandson’s life again. Both the first and second book are brilliant so I am really looking forward to the third book in this series.

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The House with a Clock in its Walls by John Bellairs

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A haunting gothic tale by master mystery writer John Bellairs–soon to be a major motion picture starring Cate Blanchett and Jack Black!

“The House With a Clock in Its Walls will cast its spell for a long time.”–The New York Times Book Review

When Lewis Barnavelt, an orphan. comes to stay with his uncle Jonathan, he expects to meet an ordinary person. But he is wrong. Uncle Jonathan and his next-door neighbor, Mrs. Zimmermann, are both magicians! Lewis is thrilled. At first, watching magic is enough. Then Lewis experiments with magic himself and unknowingly resurrects the former owner of the house: a woman named Serenna Izard. It seems that Serenna and her husband built a timepiece into the walls–a clock that could obliterate humankind. And only the Barnavelts can stop it!

Picked this up because it is fantasy, which is generally my favourite type of book to read – hoping to read this soon!

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The Ransom of Dond by Siobhan Dowd

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She’d known from the day she learned to walk what destiny awaited her.

Wonderfully atmospheric, this is the haunting story of Darra – who, as the thirteenth child to be born to her mother, is destined to be sacrificed to Dond, the dark god of the underworld. On the day she turns thirteen she’ll be rowed out to sea, where she will leap overboard with a rock tied to her ankle. She can’t think of a worse birthday present.

As ever, Siobhan Dowd’s compelling prose swells emotion from the first page.

Reserved this from the library as I have loved everything written by Siobhan Dowd and, true to expectations, I really enjoyed this. It reads like a folktale, with Barra being born as the thirteenth child to her family and therefore being destined to be sacrificed on her thirteenth birthday. She grows up, separate from her family and from the community, until she meets her twin brother, born only minutes before her, on the day before she is sacrificed.

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What do you think of the books I have chosen?

Would you like to read any of them?

Or are there any you would recommend me moving straight to the top of the TBR list?

Do you have a library near you?

How often do you borrow books?

Do you ever buy books after having already read them?

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Thanks for reading!