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A review by the_fabric_of_words
The Fires of Calderon by Lindsay Cummings
5.0
This is a super-gentle fantasy series for younger readers, featuring an alternative world at the core of ours. We picked this up on a pre-COVID library shut down raid of the shelves.
One summer, 12-year-old Albert Flynn learns his father isn't just a postal worker in the isolated, desolate town of Herman, Wyoming.
A dog with strange, lantern eyes leads Albert away from the dead letter office, where he's supposed to be working but he's just making tunnels under the piles of dead letters. They barrel into the forest and he finds the portal to The Core, where magic and strange creatures reign supreme, not magma -- that's just a convenient cover to keep nosy scientists out -- and learns his father is a respected Professor.
Albert and two other new recruits dive for a Tile that will grant them special magic, but the Tile Albert's drawn to isn't in the books and it doesn't appear to do anything -- not at first.
Then a strange force threatens New York City, where Albert's mom and half-siblings live, and it's caused by an imbalance in the Core realm of Calderon.
Albert, Birdie and Leroy battle another team of recruits for the right to enter Calderon and right the imbalance. They must prove they have mastered their Tiles -- and that's when Albert learns what his Master Tile can do for him.
They'll face strange creatures, impossible situations and need to come together as a team to right the imbalance and save NYC.
Visit my blog for more great middle grade and young adult book recommendations, free teaching materials and fiction writing tips: http://amb.mystrikingly.com/
One summer, 12-year-old Albert Flynn learns his father isn't just a postal worker in the isolated, desolate town of Herman, Wyoming.
A dog with strange, lantern eyes leads Albert away from the dead letter office, where he's supposed to be working but he's just making tunnels under the piles of dead letters. They barrel into the forest and he finds the portal to The Core, where magic and strange creatures reign supreme, not magma -- that's just a convenient cover to keep nosy scientists out -- and learns his father is a respected Professor.
Albert and two other new recruits dive for a Tile that will grant them special magic, but the Tile Albert's drawn to isn't in the books and it doesn't appear to do anything -- not at first.
Then a strange force threatens New York City, where Albert's mom and half-siblings live, and it's caused by an imbalance in the Core realm of Calderon.
Albert, Birdie and Leroy battle another team of recruits for the right to enter Calderon and right the imbalance. They must prove they have mastered their Tiles -- and that's when Albert learns what his Master Tile can do for him.
They'll face strange creatures, impossible situations and need to come together as a team to right the imbalance and save NYC.
Visit my blog for more great middle grade and young adult book recommendations, free teaching materials and fiction writing tips: http://amb.mystrikingly.com/