"Slip into an alternate reality with Jennifer..."
When we last left Jennifer Scales, she, along with her
friends and family had managed to stop Evangelina. Of
course, Evangelina had murdered Jennifer's grandfather
before she was stopped. Now Jennifer has permission to
bring Eddie Blacktooth with her to Crescent Valley.
However, Jennifer doesn't stop there. Her friend Catherine
has borrowed her grandmother's car and she's taking
Jennifer and friends to her grandfather's farm and on to
Crescent Valley. The fact she's bringing more than just
Eddie doesn't phase Jennifer in the slightest. She wants to
share this other half of her life with her friends, Susan—
just human—and Skip—her ex-boyfriend, werachnid—so she
brought them as well. Not surprisingly, the Blaze is not
exactly happy with Jennifer for doing so. While the Blaze
has finally decided to approach the Beaststalkers, Eddie is
not exactly stepping forward to help. And the fact she
brought a werachnid to Crescent Valley really sets the
Blaze off. So off Jennifer and her friends go back home
again. Jennifer will remain in Winoka until the next day
when she brings her mother—at least she was invited—to
Crescent Valley. When Jennifer's mom doesn't even make it
to the Blaze before they leave Crescent Valley, Jennifer is
once more faced with learning a secret her parents didn't
tell her. So while her mother is speeding away from them,
Jennifer's dad tells her the secret. Turns out while her
mom and dad were dating, they found a Silver Moon Elm and
were standing under it when two tramplers approached them.
The two—Catherine's mother and father—were sent to kill
Beaststalker Elizabeth—Jennifer's mom—and ended up being
killed instead. Instead of admitting what happened to the
Blaze, Jennifer's dad kept the secret all these years and
so the Blaze—and all the weredragons—blame Elizabeth for
their deaths. Now thoroughly upset that she let mom drive
away and that her dad didn't tell the truth all those years
ago, Jennifer goes back home, where she and Eddie get into
it. When she hears a tap on the window, Jennifer figures it has
to be Skip. Well Skip asks her out for ice cream, but
demands she puts on the necklace he made for her. So they
go, and after ice cream, end up in the park on a bench. As
Jennifer drifts off to sleep, she hears a strange singing.
When Jennifer wakes up, she notices quite a few differences
in Winoka. Except it's not Winoka anymore, it's Pinegrove
now and she's the only weredragon left. The werachnids are
running things and the Beaststalkers are nowhere to be
found. Will Jennifer be able to live in Pinegrove? Will she be
able to get her own world back, with her parents and
friends and everything else she loves? Is she on her own,
or will she find friends to help her in her quest to return
the world to what it should be? THE SILVER MOON ELM once again proves MaryJanice Davidson
and Anthony Alongi storytelling talents and why, even
though Young Adult, I have all the books in this series on
my keeper shelf. This book has a slightly different tone
than the other two, being quite a bit darker. We also have
sorcery thrown into this story and meet a lot of new
characters, while learning how those people Jennifer knows
become changed in the werachnids' world. Problems and all,
Jennifer comes to realize, just like Dorothy, that there's
no place like home. As a series, I'd have to rate this one
excellent.
Reviewed by Chere Gruver
Posted August 19, 2008
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Scaly skin, family fights...it’s tough being teenage dragon Jennifer Scales. Jennifer Scales was just starting to get comfy in her own skin—scaly as it is. She should have known, as half weredragon and half beaststalker, that things don’t stay normal for too long—especially when a powerful elder dragon starts stirring up trouble. Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy, Shapeshifter
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