The Star Shard by Frederic Durbin - ADVISABLE

Star Shard - Amazon

Durbin, Frederic S. The Star Shard, 320 p. Houghton Mifflin, FEBRUARY 2012.  $17.  Content: G (some tension and danger).  Cymbral, more widely known as the Thrush of Thunder Rake, has been a slave aboard the moving merchant city for as long she can remember.  While she finds a few joys in her captivity, she is jarred awake from her complaisance when a new slave is brought aboard – a boy, Loric, who has a lot of physical similarities as Cymbral – a boy who is known to be an elf.  Now Cymbral is willing to risk everything to get near Loric and to free him.  She doesn’t know it yet, but something evil is stalking Cymbral - for the powerful magic of which she is the caretaker – but also, some of Cymbral’s friends have much more power than they have ever let her see.  I found this book to be a pleasure to read.  The ebb and flow of the action was perfectly paced and while some things were hidden, they weren’t so obscure as to make you scratch your head.  All I all I found it to be very charming.  EL, MS – ADVISABLE. Cindy, Library Teacher