Hatching Magic

In this friendly little fantasy, three different seekers pursue a lost dragon. And this isn t just any dragon--her name is Wycca, and she s a wyvern, the most catlike of the species. Wycca belongs to Gideon, a busy twelfth-century wizard. When he finds that she has wandered through a bolt-hole into the future, he sighs, packs up his magic implements and his familiars--Ignus the flame and the two-headed snake he calls Ouroboros--and steps into the mysterious opening to emerge in twenty-first century Boston. There he meets Iain Merlin O Shea, the Wizard of Harvard Square, who takes him home and explains the magic of technology while they search for the lost wyvern. Other seekers are also abroad: Kobold, Gideon s half-brother and arch enemy, wants to capture Wycca to turn her against her master; he has brought along an assistant demon, Febrys, who in her uncomfortable disguise as a human woman finds that cloven hooves are not compatible with high heels. Caught between these two magical forces is twelve-year-old Theodora, or Dodo, who yearns for the black wyvern card to complete her set and gain her admittance to the Wyvernkeeper s Circle that meets in the local bookstore. To complicate matters, Wycca is with egg, and when she has nested and hatched her chick, there are two wyverns on the loose in Boston in this fast-moving tale that will entertain younger fantasy readers. (Ages 10 to 14) --Patty Campbell