| A Review of: Secret of Light by Heather BirrellThis sequel to kc dyer's first YA novel Seeds of Time, follows
Darrell, her dog Delaney and her two friends Kate, the "computer
techie" and Brodie, "the fossil geek" as they embark
on yet another time travel adventure. The three adolescents are
students at the Eagle Glen School, an "alternative" (read
magical) school located on Canada's west coast, near Vancouver. In
the first novel, Darrell was drawn through magical glyphs on a
nearby cave's walls into Medieval Scotland. Secret of Light whisks
the three friends off to Renaissance Florence, and into the company
of the renowned Leonardo da Vinci.
The students access their portal through an old lighthouse slated
for demolition, which adds an element of suspense to the tale. Also
upping the tension factor is Conrad Kennedy, an obnoxious baddie
who was to have been shipped off to reform school in Ontario. In
addition, Darrell is still haunted by the accident that caused her
father's death, and has left her with a prosthetic leg and a
distinctive hip-hop to her step. On the plus side, Darrell and
company enjoy classes with compelling if quirky teachers, and are
assigned the task of helping to organize a school-wide Renaissance
Fair. As a passionate artist herself, Darrell seems the perfect
candidate for da Vinci's mentorship, but the reality of the artist's
time teaches her a few hard lessons about a woman's place in 15th
century Florence. No matter, the plucky heroine soon finds herself
obsessed with more weighty matters; she becomes convinced da Vinci
was in fact on the path to discovering the mysteries of time travel,
and hopes by visiting him a second time to find the truth.
Readers will recognize essentials of the popular Harry Potter series
here: the three pals hiding their escapades from unsuspecting fellow
students, the twinkly eyed profs with kindly ulterior motives, the
boorish foil in the form of another student, and the feisty protagonist
with a tragedy in her past she longs to come to terms with. These
are all winning elements, and although the story lags in places,
Secret of Light mostly serves as a fun vehicle for learning about
a far-off time period and foreign way of life.
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