Poor Nurk-- a small, cautious shrew who aches to live up to the legend of his fearless, warrior grandmother, Surka, and yearns for an adventure of his own, first needs to overcome his timid and practical nature. An mysterious letter for help-- along with the discovery of his grandmother's rather cryptic journal, start Nurk off on his first adventure where he meets creatures real (if you call talking dragonfly kings real) and fantastical. A wonderfully clever and engaging first work by Vernon--who is also the illustrator-- i initially thought it was a British import-- a gentle (sort of) old fashioned feel, reminding me of Le Guinn's Catwings and Dahl and Avi and Jacques. Nurk himself is familiar and sympathetic-- both nervous and brave, and while the adventure concludes as we would (hope) expect, the story is clever and endearing and very well written. Vernon pulls us in and we really care what happens to our hero. Watch for a sequel. This is great high quality fiction for middle elementary kids - so sure to please that i chose it to be the first intallment in our summer BookWorms ReadALoud Book Club. I'll let you know how the kids react. Highly Recommended.
