D'Lacey's The Fire Within

The Fire Within, Icefire, and Fire Star have all been very popular in my library. Given the covers, and the length, I assumed they were hard-core dragon fantasies, so I was slightly confused to find a realistically based fantasy about a college student who boards with a family that makes clay dragons that are really alive. For most of the book, the dragons are hinted at, and most of the narrative involves squirrels, and the student's attempts to write a story for the young girl of the household. I am curious now to read the other two and see if more dragons are involved. LOTS of squirrels are, and usually books about squirrels don't circulate well.

I was also confused by the interpolation of clearly American references into a clearly British book. If any change had been made, it should have been to explain what conkers are. It's hard to explain, but I would just like to say "They're BUCKEYES!"

http://www.worldconkerchampionships.com/html/body_about_conkers.html

Any book that uses "erm" instead of "um", that has people eating beans on toast, and involves more than one cup of tea being served, is a British book.

Also read William Sleator's Into the Dream, which is a quickly moving story about two students who have the same repeating dream and try to find out why this is. Would appeal to students who like Twilight Zone type stories. From 1979.

Shannon Hale's Book of a Thousand Days was an okay retelling of a Grimm story moved to Mongolia, and I appreciated that she would give part of her profits from the book to Heifer International, but I can't move her Princess Academy. I don't have a strong group of female fantasy/medieval fans, I guess, so will pass.

Also won't buy the pink and fluffy "Choose your own adventure" book. The only readers I have for those are 6th grade boys. I always feel compelled to read every possible combination, so they drive me slightly mad.