No one believes him except for Alaina, a friend and self-proclaimed expert in fantasy and fairy tales. She's seen this sort of thing before and believes Liam has been cursed with a powerful sleeping spell. Her journal is full of possible ways to break a curse—stand in a circle of salt, trick a troll, or wish on a falling star. Liam is skeptical, but with his normal life slipping farther away, he agrees to try her potential cures.
As they search for answers in stories, Alaina shares that she also is dealing with something no one else can see: type 1 diabetes. It rears its head like an invisible dragon, and she carries her medical equipment as a knight's lance and dragon-scale shield to battle it.
As Liam's mystery illness worsens, he will need Alaina's friendship—and perhaps a bit of fairy magic—to find a way to understand the truth of what is happening and regain the pieces of himself that are lost.
Sleeping Spells and Dragon Scales is a story about finding courage in friendship with empathy, and how a powerful imagination can help someone get through hard times.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Wendy S. Swore farms on the Sho-Ban reservation with a corn maze and pumpkin patch that is home to her five kids, two dogs, seven peacocks, eleven ducks, nineteen cats, and two hundred thirty seven chickens. She farms in the summers & writes in the winters.
Kids can write Wendy via the contact form at www.wendyswore.com or via social media:
Twitter, Instagram, Facebook.
REVIEW
Liam and Alaina were friends when they were small, but they hadn't spent much time together since. A school project pulls them together as Liam battles with a mysterious illness and Alaina opens up to him about her love of fairy tales and her struggles in dealing with diabetes.
Sleeping Scales and Dragon Scales shares fairy tale elements within a real-world setting. It explores the frustration of not understanding something new that's out of your control and figuring out how to deal with the misunderstandings and misconceptions that come with it. I love that this book explores the attitudes and frustrations that come with a new illness and teaches kids to be patient and have empathy for others. It explores not judging others when you don't know the full scope of what they're going through. It's also a great book for parents and explores themes of communication and really delving into a child's feelings to figure out what is going on. The children in this book also have to learn to communicate their thoughts with their parents. The themes in this book cover a wide range of areas to really help understand the emotions and feelings of going through some pretty tough situations from many different sides. The characters really come alive in this book as you see their struggles and how they try to navigate them. Overall, this is book was really well-written. The author takes her time to really share different perspectives and cover some serious topics in a thoughtful and inciteful way. I would recommend this book for kids, parents, and teachers to read. I learned a lot from this book, and I am sure you will too. To learn more about this amazing book, click here.
Please note that I received a free copy of this book from Shadow Mountain Publishing, however, this is my honest opinion. This post contains affiliate links that help support this blog.
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