Young Prince Lir must choose between banishment and a dangerous quest in the breathtaking middle-grade adventure Three Tasks for a Dragon by Eoin Colfer (Artemis Fowl series; Illegal), illustrated by P.J. Lynch (The Haunted Lake).
Lir, "an amiable and useful boy," knows he doesn't excel in the usual princely feats. His stepmother, Queen Nimh, agrees: "You cannot ride a horse.... You can barely lift a sword. And you cannot summon the wolfhounds." (Lir thinks the last of these accusations unfair--no one has summoned the wolfhounds for 500 years.) So Lir is not surprised when Queen Nimh names his stepbrother, Delbayne, her heir. He is stunned, though, by her ultimatum to him: rescue the girl Cethlenn from the great dragon Lasvarg's island or face banishment. Lir knows what his late father, "the questor king," would have chosen and does the same, accepting the quest. What Lir doesn't know is that it's all a setup--Lasvarg is an old, tired dragon who was instructed by Delbayne to get rid of Lir: "Do not preserve the questor prince in dragon amber to be eaten later. Kill him."
Colfer takes familiar fairytale themes (family, bravery, questing) and twists them ever so slightly to produce an enchanting and uncommon fantasy about found family and power from unexpected places. Lynch's pencil drawings are digitally colored in muted tones and delicately lined, graceful and elegant like the work of contemporary Chris Riddell. Three Tasks for a Dragon shows quests (and heroes) need not be about physical strength; great heroes can be calm, resourceful, and kind. --Kyla Paterno, freelance reviewer