The Wyverns' Treasure

The Wyverns' Treasure by R.L. LaFevers

My daughters and I don’t read every night together. I would say at most we read five nights a week unless we are under a deadline – a book needs to be returned. Occasionally the girls will want to finish a movie or watch an episode of a show instead. It doesn’t happen often and I allow it. It’s a break. I almost always work Tuesday evenings and they read with their father instead. I assume so anyway. And we’ve been reading, regularly, seriously for 8-10 years.

A year and a half ago, a woman named Alice Ozma wrote a book called The Reading Promise. I learned about it at work, the library, via NPR. The piece was titled Father-Daughter Reading Streak Lasts Nearly 9 Years. Intriguing. I am not promoting it or encouraging you to pick it up. What I want you to do is read to your own kids! Whether it is sporadic or more than 3,000 days straight come laryngitis or prom, put some time aside to read a book with your children. Read something none of you have read before. Read something new for all of you. I cannot express how much fun it is to read something for the first time together! Surprises await around every corner.

Currently, we are reading two chapter books simultaneously. One is specifically chosen for the younger and one is specifically chosen for the older. But all of us enjoy all of them. Maybe some more than others. Yet every night, there is the question, “Do we get books tonight?” And most of the time, there we all are. On the bed. With our books. Happy.

We just finished The Wyvern’s Treasure which is book 3 in the Beastologist series. If I have any complaint with the series, it is that it is too short. There is not enough detail. I want more. We all want more. And we are not the only ones. And the youngest keeps asking if the fourth volume is available yet. It’s about a unicorn. How could we resist?

But book 3, Nate and his Aunt Phil have finally returned to Aunt Phil’s home after having captured and restored the Basilisk. However, her home has been ransacked – torn to pieces! They are able to find Cornelius, the Dodo, and he is unhurt. But someone… the same someone who has always been a step ahead of Aunt Phil… is looking for something that only a Beastologist will have.

There is no time to set things back in order though because the wyvern’s of Scotland are restless. Dragons that is. They are threatening to break the covenant and wreak havoc upon the clueless inhabitants surrounding their caves. Why? There is an intruder within their caves. Someone after their treasure. Aunt Phil and Nate have exactly three days to find the intruder and bring him to justice or else the wyverns will attack.

I was most pleased with this volume because we finally get another, allbeit miniscule, clue concerning what has happened to Nate’s parents. For this we are grateful! For young readers and older reluctant readers, K through 5th. Fabulous read-aloud!