Dragon Games: The Thunder Egg by Maddy Mara

Title: Dragon Games: The Thunder Egg

Author: Maddy Mara

Genre: Fantasy

Publisher: Scholastic

Published: 1^st August 2023

Format: Paperback

Pages: 144

Price: $14.99

Synopsis: One fateful afternoon, classmates Luca, Yazmine and Zane stumble upon a strange-looking rock called a geode in one of the rooms at school. To their surprise, a touch of this geode transports them to a magical land named Imperia. The geode is actually a dragon egg! It’s one of three Thunder Eggs that need to be returned home to secret locations in Imperia. Once these eggs hatch, the dragons born from them will restore peace to the land. In order to return the first egg, the kids must face off against the evil ruler of Imperia in a dangerous game.

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Luca, Yazmine, and Zane are alone in the classroom one day when they find a rock called a geode – but when they touch it, they’re transported to a place called Imperia that their teacher Ms Long is always talking about, but that they’ve never quite believed in. Yazmine is the new girl, Luca is the quiet kid, and Zane is the athlete, and they’re now plonked together to take the Thunder Egg back where it belongs in a game against someone called Dartsmith, the evil ruler.

When they enter Imperia, one of them becomes a beast, another becomes a dragon, and they’re faced with a series of games and challenges to find the egg and get it to a special mountain. This is the first book in the series, and it was good to go back and read it after having read the second book first as it filled in some gaps and gave the characters more personality. It is definitely a series I think should be read in order to get the full story and appreciate everything that the characters do and who they are.

This is a new early reader to middle grade series that takes the fun bits – adventure, mystery, and magic, and mixes them up with school and friendship – things that younger readers will be able to relate to, especially if they have had to work with people they don’t get along with or have had to do group projects – except in this one, everyone does their bit! What worked well was that the kids were allowed to be uncertain and find out what they were capable of on their own as they explored Imperia. The majority of the story takes place there, and as there are three eggs, there will be at least three books in this series. I do wonder if there will be more to do after the third book, but we will have to wait and see what happens. This book has something for everyone who picks it up and even though there are a lot of dragon books out there, this one has its own appeal and style, because dragons can be used in lots of different ways in stories.

As an early chapter book, it still has some illustrations to take kids to the next level of reading without overwhelming them with lots of text. I hope that kids enjoy this series when they read it.