I first read these two sometime growing up. Don’t remember exactly when; but the images of Pern stuck with me for years. I picked up these two again (they’re by Anne McCaffrey, as if the author of the Pern books could be anyone else) because my oldest is interested in dragon books, and I remembered these, but not well enough to recommend them without at least a cursory re-reading. However, what started out as a cursory reading (so M would have something to read over Spring Break) ended up completely engulfing and devouring my time. After all these years, I still love these books. (Whatever did I do without them?) Menolly’s plight in Dragonsong still tugs at my heart, and I still find myself cheering for her by the end of Dragonsinger. I didn’t want the books to end. They did, though, and now it’s time to pass them on to another soul who will hopefully love the stories as much as I do.

So, because M saw it in the bookstore, we bought Dragondrums. I’d forgotten about that one, and I finally got around to re-reading it (halfway through I realized that it was familiar, and figured I’d read it before). It’s not as good as the other two, but it finishes up the story quite nicely. Actually, what struck me is how well these three books fit into the other Pern series we own: Dragonflight and Dragonquest. We used to have White Dragon, too, but I decided that wasn’t worth owning.

I finished this a bit ago, but was waiting until I got around to finishing the rest of the series — it’s one of four books in The Enchanted Forest series by Patricia Wreade. However, I’ve gotten sidetracked by another book, and I figured I needed to type this one up before I forgot what I thought about it.

I liked it. A friend of mine years ago put this one in my hand and I remember liking it then, but I didn’t remember much else. It’s not a deep or profound book. The plot is: Princess Cimorene who hates being a proper princess and runs away to become the princess of a dragon. That’s about as deep as it gets. But if you know your fairy tales, it’s a lot of fun. There’s a lot of references to all sorts of princess (and other) tales, and it’s also a good “strong girl speaking her mind and doing what she thinks rather than what she’s told” books.

By the way, my 8-year-old daughter thought it was great, too.