Dragon Run

On Testing Day, when twelve-year-olds are summoned to the castle to earn the dragon-mandated rank that will determine the course of their future lives, Al Pilgrommor is given a shameful score: zero, even lower than those who score a one and are forbidden to own property or father children. On the run from the Cullers who want to kill him, Al finds help: from the mysterious society of Evans that help him escape; from his friends Wisp and Trillia, who abandon their own apprenticeships to go into hiding with him; and from the sword his parents left him -- which he can use to defend himself if he can teach himself to do more than parry. Author Matthews lays down his cards at a deliberately teasing pace as readers slowly begin to see the bigger picture: dragons are harvesting magical energy from the ranked humans, giving the dragons nearly unlimited power and preventing most humans from putting it to their own use. The society of Evans has a plan to loosen the dragons' stranglehold on humanity, and Al, who is unsusceptible to magic, could play a role in that plan -- if he can only figure out what he's supposed to do. Stories that shed light; colorful characters who help the young protagonists along; and a plot that keeps getting bigger and bigger propel this sleeper tale to a whiz-bang conclusion. anita l. burkam