In Deep Dark Wood by Marita Conlon McKenna
Published by The O’Brien Press Ltd., 1999

Reviewed by Kilkee Library Children's Book Club

Mia and Rory Murphy are brother and sister and live with their parents and grandmother in Glenkilty. An old lady called Bella moves in next door to them. She is a mysterious old lady but Mia grows fond of her. Bella is a sorceress – a dragon keeper and she needs Mia to help her train her young dragons.

Mia agrees to go with her and her dragons to a land of magic and mystery, but soon realises that Bella does not want to let her return to her family.

It is up to Rory to save Mia and bring her home. Rory sets off after her and with the help of the shadow hound, the giants and Conrad; he has many adventures on his journey to Bella’s castle.

Meanwhile in Castle Blackwell, Mia is having exciting adventures of her own and is learning all about magic and spells.

This is a wonderful adventure story full of magic, dragons and legendary creatures and was a very enjoyable read. All members of Kilkee Library Children’s Book Club would definitely recommend it rating it at 10/10. Members would like to read more books by the same author.

Favourite characters in the book were Conrad, Trig the dragon and Mia.

Favourite scenes from the book were when Rory rode on the Shadow Hound, when Rory and Mia got the flying coats and the part when Rory first met the giants.

Reviewed by Kilmihil Children’s Book Club

This story was set in Glenkilty, a village in Ireland.

Bella Blackwell moved in to her new home one stormy night. Her house was next door to Rory and Mia Murphy’s house.

Rory and Mia know that there is something strange about Bella and do their best to avoid her. One day when they are playing in their back garden, their ball goes into Bella’s yard. They both go in to find it and Bella comes to talk to them. Rory doesn’t like Bella but Mia who was most afraid of her talks to her and tells her a lot of things about herself and her family.

Mia discovers that Bella is a sorceress and is a dragon keeper. She has baby dragons in her greenhouse. Bella asks Mia to help her feed and care for the dragons until she can take them away to another land where they will be safe from humans. Mia agrees and grows very fond of Trig, a blue dragon with an injured wing.

One night, Bella decides to leave Glenkilty and takes Mia with her to a castle to help her and to be her apprentice. Mia agrees to go on condition that she will be allowed home when she wants to, but when they arrive at the castle Bella goes back on her word and puts a spell on Mia so she doesn’t remember her home or family.

When Rory finds that Mia has disappeared he knows that Bella has taken her and he will have to bring her home. The Shadow hound helps him and takes him to the land of the giants and with the help of the giants and Conrad, he finds Bella’s castle and rescues Mia.

Most of the children of Kilmihil Book Club enjoyed this book.
Their favourite characters are: Rory, Conrad, Trig, Mia and Bella. Some of them felt sorry for Bella and some disliked her. It was a very exciting read but some did find it a little scary at times.The children thought that the ending was good and think that there should be another book to follow on from this one.