Author:  Rebecca Barnhouse
ISBN:  978-0-375-86193-2

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Beowulf fans?  Lend me your ears!  This is a fantastic retelling of the end of the Old British poem that readers love. 
 
We begin in the Kingdom of the Geats.  Out on the shore, staring into the distance at the rolling gray waves, is a woman by the name of Amma.  Amma is a person who showed up in this kingdom a long time ago and was accepted and allowed to stay by the King of the Geats.  Amma has always been very quiet and somewhat odd to the other island inhabitants.  Instead of living within the kingdom, Amma decided when she arrived to live away from the others on the outer edge of the giants’ mountain, in a hut on Hwala’s farm.  She’s been happy and content there thus far, but has, for some unknown reason, wandered to this side of the island to simply stare into nothingness.
 
Fulla, a woman of the kingdom, is out on the banks with the rest of the wives collecting food and other necessities for the King when she spots Amma.  She raises her own gaze out to sea trying desperately to find the object that has her completely captivated.  Very soon a boat begins to appear out of the mist.  Although Fulla and the other women are very upset, thinking that it is one of their enemy’s ships coming to kill them, the King, himself, appears over the ridge and watches with as Amma runs to the boat and lifts out a baby.  With the child are a shield, a sword, and a strange pendant made up of colored runes…which becomes the child’s name.
 
Rune is a wonderful young man.  Raised by Amma, he has become a polite, fantastic boy that, unfortunately, is not loved by very many.  In fact, because of how strange his adoptive mother is, he is teased a great deal by a great many.  The one person who seems to treat him in a somewhat special manner is the King.
 
One day as he’s working in the fields his goat, Ollie, takes his pendant and runs off into the dense forest.  Rune loves that pendant more than life and races after the animal.  Soon, what sounds like thunder rolls across the sky and shakes the ground underneath his feet.  As Rune looks toward the heavens he sees it…a dragon has come to destroy their land.  Racing toward the King’s castle, Rune tries desperately to warn his people that this horrific creature is in the area and will destroy them all.  Time is not Rune’s friend as he realizes that the golden hall has been destroyed…and soon his own personal life will be affected by the destructive beast.
 
A world of vengeance, power, pain, and adventure is unleashed as Rune and friends go after the beast, and the King reveals secrets that literally change Rune’s past, present, and future.  This is a great young adult book that offers a little something for everyone – romance, adventure, thrills, chills, and mythical creatures…you name it, this author has delivered it all.  Enjoy!
 
Click Here To Purchase The Coming of the Dragon