Great dragon masters story as usual. Too bad they didn't think to use a belt as a leash for a certain baby dragon in order to know where she was, but that ended up not mattering. It amused me how unbothered Worm looked in the waterfall picture. I couldn't tell what real country this location was inspired by--something with shell motifs, a castle, and a dangerous island.

I appreciate how the author takes the first chapter to help remind kids of relevant things happening in the series. Not really necessary if you're binge reading them like my son did, but still a good refresher if things are blending together or you've had to wait a while for the next book to be released. I read the first 10 books to my son but he read the rest of them without me, so I may need to catch up. It's a very quick read for an adult when you're not reading out loud! I read this one because the nonbinary character came up in a discussion and I was curious how that was handled, since my son never mentioned anything.

I wonder if the author intentionally chose invisible dragons to be the dragon for her nonbinary character to represent how that portion of the population often feels excluded. I thought Val's inclusion was excellently done. They make a great co-main character for this story and have a very kind disposition. Nothing is being shoved down readers' throats. Val simply exists--as would a character who is blonde, in a wheelchair, or allergic to peanuts--and tries to help the baby dragons by teaming up with Drake and the others.

For those doubting, the singular "they" is indeed grammatically correct. Imagine you're at school and your teacher tells you "a magician is coming to do an assembly and they will be doing magic tricks." You know it's one magician but you don't know anything else about them. We use it [correctly] all the time when we don't know the identity of a person, but somehow we think that stops applying once we've seen their face or heard their name. (That was two more correct uses just then, by the way.)

The "they/their" pronouns only show up five times in 90 pages. The rest of the time it's Val's name. Nothing feels odd or unnatural. The amount of attention I'm giving it in this review is way out of proportion to the amount in the story. The pronouns aren't explained because it doesn't matter to the story. I think not explaining was also a smart choice because it lets parents have the conversation, provided kids even notice. If my 7.5-year-old had he would have asked me, which is obviously preferable to him getting info elsewhere. (Yes some parents will get it wrong but that's on them to learn accurately, as it is with any topic.)

I don't think the audience is too young, because kids will be exposed to things whether you like it or not, and it's better have more time to prepare. This is also around the age where many trans and nonbinary individuals have reported noticing they felt different from or less than their peers. (And by the way, they don't feel like it's a choice, so the reviewer talking about how she had to teach her kids about people "choosing to be male or female" has misunderstood and probably not gotten her info from an actual nonbinary person--if they felt like it was a choice, they'd pick something easier to deal with!) Regardless of the reason, it's someone else's nuanced life. The younger we can teach our kids to be compassionate to people with different experiences, the kinder our world will be.

I read to Galen on November 13 and 14, 2024.

Cute! Again love the diversity that doesn’t “other”. Such a cute series!

I feel like this one was the first bust of the series. Didn't hold our interest as much as the other ones did.

Finally an inclusive kids book. My son loved this book (and the whole series).