Emily lives with her husband in the Seattle area. Her art has also appeared in the New York Times bestsellers A Practical Guide to Dragons, and A Practical Guide to Monsters. Lisez des commentaires honnêtes et non biaisés sur les produits de la part nos utilisateurs. She illustrated the ten-part fantasy story “The Star Shard” by Frederic S. Découvrez des commentaires utiles de client et des classements de commentaires pour The Star Shard sur. She has illustrated numerous Dungeons and Dragons rulebooks for Wizards of the Coast, and has contributed cover and interior illustrations to the novel series Knights of the Silver Dragon. He has won an award for writing short science fiction (?Green Angel?), but his focus is on fiction and non-fiction for a young audience.Emily Fiegenschuh attended art school at the Ringling College of Art and Design in Sarasota, FL, and graduated with honours and a BFA from the Illustration program. Her numerous articles and books concerning Inuit magic and lore have earned her a Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal.Of Scottish-Mohawk ancestry, Sean Qitsualik-Tinsley is a folklorist and fantasist, specializing in mythology, magic, and Inuit lore. And two little children desperately sprinting together toward their shared finish line, hand-in-hand.Born in an Arctic wilderness camp and of Inuit ancestry, Rachel Qitsualik-Tinsley is a scholar specializing in world religions and cultures. It’s refreshing and free of angst or love triangles. With a plot fraught with twists and turns, skeleton keys and potion-induced beauty, The Star Shard reads like a clear well of water. Cybril and Loric develop an awkward fascination with each other that later fleshes out into an adorable friendship and maybe even a relationship-to-be. Is that not the coolest supplementary material you’ve ever seen? And then of course, we have Loric, the faerie lad with the silver eyes and enigmatic smile - as much as young boys’ smiles can be enigmatic, I suppose.

There are snippets of lyrics spread throughout The Star Shard and even complete sheet music for two of the songs. Sold into this giant wheeled city at an early age, Cybril survives, as per Master Rombol’s orders, by singing for crowds during market days. Our darling main character Cybril is a slave on the Thunder Rake. I was, however, not prepared to be bombarded by the deliciousness that is this slightly rustic high fantasy world and a 12-year-old heroine that displays a lot more common sense than the average hormonal-driven and air-headed YA protagonist.

Plus, I admit that my opinion of MG is not terribly high (very hypocritical, I know, since I haven’t read a lot of MG). I was waiting for simplicity and frankly, not much depth. Maybe I should go back and fill in that gaping MG hole now, because The Star Shard exceeded expectations.

You could say that I sort of skipped a step in my reading repertoire while growing up, jumping directly from children’s books like Magic Tree House to YA like The Hunger Games.

The Star Shard by Frederic S. Durbin