The Dragons of Winter (Chronicles of the Imaginarium Geographica, The)
This sixth volume in the Chronicles of the Imaginarium Geographica further twists the impenetrable time tangle that has literary and historical characters traveling through a splintered time line made up of realities that might have been or never were. (Got it?) The Caretakers need to rebuild the Keep of Time in order to defeat the Echthroi, the evil Shadows that invade minds, and reconnect the real world with the lost Archipelago of Dreams. One band is sent after the hidden Ruby Armor, while another is trapped in a possible future already lost to darkness. Clever references to both familiar and obscure stories are fun to spot, but even die-hard fans may struggle to follow the often confounding mishmash. Grades 8-11. --Krista Hutley