About This Book:
For younger fans of Witchlings and Eva Evergreen comes a light-hearted and whimsical middle grade fantasy about a young girl who must save her witch aunt from an uncommonly voracious hat.
Where dragons take flight, through the dark of the night. Where the fire ignites, you will find the light.
Aunt Cauldroneyes is always looking into cauldrons. She’s found everything from giggling moons to troll nose rings, but when she looks inside a purple cauldron one stormy night, she finds a girl with blue freckles.
The old witch raises the girl and names her Spella. They live in Hungry Snout Forest in a crooked house with doors enchanted to smell like chocolate. In the attic full of floating fabric and biting buttons, Aunt Cauldroneyes teaches Spella how to make magical hats for creatures like unicorns and dragons, giants and goblins.
When Spella turns eight, she receives an invitation to Dragon’s Knob, a school for wand witchery and wizardry. But on the very night Spella is set to leave, a stranger appears with a growling hat that swallows Aunt Cauldroneyes and steals her away!
To rescue her aunt, Spella must go up into a sky full of dragons and to her new school. With protesters outside the gates threatening the school’s academic freedom and a deepening mystery within the walls, Spella and her new friend Tolden are thrust into the mystery of her aunt’s disappearance and a long-buried secret hidden somewhere in the school.
*Review Contributed by Olivia Farr, Staff Reviewer*
A SKY FULL OF DRAGONS is an imaginative and whimsical middle grade fantasy. Spella has lived with her Aunt Cauldroneyes, the hats, and Egypt (a mummified cat) for as long as she can remember. She also knows that she is destined to be a witch due to the shape of her shadow. After Aunt Cauldroneyes is taken by a hat, Spella sets out to save her, making a friend and attending a school for witches and wizards along the way.
What I loved: This is a really imaginative fresh take on witches/wizards and magic with plenty of new themes and manifestations. The world-building was fantastic as we learn about Spella’s world, the many hats she helps to take care of, her aunt, and the school she later attends. There is a bit of a mystery about what happened to Aunt Cauldroneyes and tension as Spella seeks to get her back that helps to propel the story beyond the typical attending of school. This school is unique and, like the world, presents a new take on magical education that was quite enjoyable.
The story is quite whimsical and imaginative, and children will love using their imaginations to explore this world described on the pages. The story is really high fantasy, not blended with our world but something wholly new. Egypt and the hats were excellent fun throughout, and I loved their personalities and eccentricities that we see throughout the story. Spella was also a compelling and relatable character who adores her aunt and is quite brave and determined.
While the key plot in this book is wrapped up, this world and characters are definitely ones that I am excited to see continued in future stories! This is sure to be an exciting series, and it will work well for middle grade readers of all ages.
Final verdict: A SKY FULL OF DRAGONS presents an imaginative and clever new world with plenty of magic, a touch of mystery, and dash of whimsy. This is a series to follow!
*Find More Info & Buy This Book HERE!*
