Omni and the Blazed Boy

Omni and the Blazed Boy by Benjamin Ver Burg & Sheri Ver Burg

This debut novel offers quite a lot to middle grade readers! It's got engaging main characters, dragon bonding (and hopefully riding in the coming books?), a magic school, creative world building, an ensemble of characters who end up being fast friends, and some good puzzles and mysteries that need to be solved.

My personal favorite element was the nature of the world itself - it is unique and I imagine would be very intriguing for young readers. And as a reader who enjoys all things dragons, I also really liked the method of finding a dragon to bond with, and the classification of dragons by the type of magical breath they possess.

There are a few elements that will feel familiar to the more avid young scifi/fantasy fans: the magic school and after-hours shenanigans that ensue are not unlike what we see at Hogwarts. And in an effort not to spoil any of the fun surprises the story holds, suffice it to say there are one or two other features of the story that were reminiscent of other well-loved fantasy worlds. This makes it a good choice for children who are fans of popular properties like Harry Potter, Star Wars, How to Train Your Dragon, etc.

This is a debut novel, and as such some of the descriptions, a couple character dialects, and a word choice here and there that caught me as a little odd, and pulled me out of the story briefly as I paused to discern the authors' intent. I don't think that is likely to phase younger readers too much, there may just be one or two new words worth looking up as they go along, because they didn't seem too easy to figure out from context clues.

All in all, the Ver Burgs have created an exciting world with an engaging cast of characters, good humor, and enough familiarity with fantasy/scifi tropes that I believe this book would be an good choice for middle grade readers who enjoy fantasy staples like magic schools and dragon riding.