Aspiring rockstar Zadie Drake's world flipped upside-down the moment her mom started dating Lloyd Clutterbuck—a boring risk analyst with an aversion to all things fun. Since Lloyd moved in, he's made it his mission to drain every drop of joy from Zadie's life—putting strict limits on her guitar sessions, nitpicking her every move, and filling the house with his utter dullness. Naturally, when Zadie's daredevil park ranger dad invites Zadie and her older sister to spend the summer at his cabin, Zadie can hardly contain her excitement. But Zadie's joy is short-lived when her mom announces that Lloyd will be tagging along.
Soon after arriving at the cabin, Zadie begins to suspect that there's more to her dad's job than meets the eye. Her suspicions are confirmed when family secrets make an explosive entrance in the form of a fire-wielding poacher who kidnaps her dad's best friend—an enormous, ice-breathing dragon. The revelations launch Zadie and her family into a cross-country rescue mission of epic proportions. As tensions spike, tempers flare, and the family's differences become glaringly obvious, Zadie realizes her family's most daunting challenge might not be rescuing the dragon but working together.
-
Creators
-
Publisher
-
Release date
June 3, 2025 -
Formats
-
Kindle Book
-
OverDrive Read
- ISBN: 9781665963381
-
EPUB ebook
- ISBN: 9781665963381
- File size: 4828 KB
-
-
Accessibility
Publisher statement (EPUB)
The publisher provides the following statement about the accessibility of the EPUB file supplied to OverDrive. Experiences may vary across reading systems. After borrowing the book, you may download the EPUB files to read in another reading system.
Summary
A simple complexity publication with images and logos, converted to meet EPUB Accessibility specifications of WCAG-AA level. This book contains various accessibility features such as alternative text for images and logos, table of contents, page-list, landmark, reading order, structural navigation, and semantic structure. Blank pages from print have been removed in this ebook, with related page number spans set on the first following in-spine page. Certain front and back matter pages have been adjusted in the reading order sequence from print, with related page references reordered in the page-list order.
Ways Of Reading
No information about appearance modifiability is available.
Not all of the content will be readable as read aloud speech or dynamic braille.
Has alternative text descriptions for images.
Conformance
The publication contains a conformance statement that it meets the EPUB Accessibility and WCAG 2 Level AA standard.
This publication claims to meet EPUB Accessibility 1.1 WCAG 2.2 Level AA.
Navigation
Table of contents to all chapters of the text via links.
Elements such as headings, tables, etc for structured navigation.
Additional Information
High contrast between text and background
-
Languages
- English
-
Reviews
-
Kirkus
April 15, 2025
A 12-year-old rock star wannabe finds an even better identity after her dad's dragon is kidnapped. In a thematic mashup that seldom pauses for breath, Reardon stirs rock dreams, parent issues, and (magical!) animal trafficking into a road trip that's highlighted by life-changing family revelations. To Zadie, the contrast between her flamboyant if often absent dad, Damian Drake--who looks "as if Indiana Jones had wandered into a Zeppelin concert"--and Lloyd Clutterbuck, her mom's nerdy and excessively cautious new boyfriend, could hardly be greater. Then she discovers that Damian is secretly a Gamewarden, charged with keeping cryptids out of the clutches of cruel and rapacious collectors. When she and her eco-warrior older sister, Persephone, tag along on a frantic chase across the Midwest to rescue Damian's companion dragon, Maverick, from brutal poachers, her views of both father figures change. Following several epic clashes with the thoroughly demonized bad guys, she not only comes away with an animal companion of her own, but also a new vision of her destiny, thanks to the discovery that her beloved guitar is good for even more than thunderous power chords. Along with chapter titles that make up a rocking playlist, the author weaves plentiful references to classic rock and pop standards into this adrenaline junkie's delight. Most characters read white; Zadie confusingly associates her mother's homeland of Sweden with "volcanoes and fjords." A headlong, cranked-up romp--with dragons!(Adventure. 9-12)COPYRIGHT(2025) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
-
School Library Journal
May 1, 2025
Gr 3-7-Twelve-year-old Zadie wants to be a rock star. She finds solace in playing guitar in her garage; that is, when her mom's worrywart boyfriend-Lloyd Clutterbuck-isn't telling her to turn down her music or worrying she's going to hurt herself. Zadie wishes she could spend more time with her dad, Damian Drake, who just gets her. Her daredevil father understands Zadie's big personality, and is the opposite of nerdy and cautious Lloyd. When Zadie and her sister Persephone get the chance to spend a week with their dad (under the condition that Lloyd supervises), Zadie grudgingly accepts. They quickly learn that their dad is a Gamewarden-a protector of magical creatures-whose animal companion, a dragon named Maverick, is kidnapped by poachers right in front of them. The quest to save Maverick and other magical animals starts a nonstop road-trip adventure where Zadie learns more about everyone in her family and finds her own animal companion. With chapter titles that make up a classic rock playlist, this middle grade novel starts up and doesn't stop. Amidst the action, Zadie embarks on a journey of discovery about her family, herself, and her guitar, that leaves ample room for further epic magical adventures. VERDICT A fast-paced book that will engage readers in what feels like the first in a series of adventures for Zadie and her family of Gamewardens.-Rebekah J. Buchanan
Copyright 2025 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
-
Formats
- Kindle Book
- OverDrive Read
- EPUB ebook
subjects
Languages
- English
Loading
Why is availability limited?
×Availability can change throughout the month based on the library's budget. You can still place a hold on the title, and your hold will be automatically filled as soon as the title is available again.
The Kindle Book format for this title is not supported on:
×Read-along ebook
×The OverDrive Read format of this ebook has professional narration that plays while you read in your browser. Learn more here.