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Formats
Open Ebook Ebook Details
  • 11/2014
  • B01MUD74V6
  • pages
  • $2.99
Hardcover Book Details
  • 11/2014
  • 978-1944734398 1944734392
  • 192 pages
  • $16.99
Paperback Details
  • 02/2022
  • 978-1944734428 1944734422
  • 192 pages
  • $8.99
Jeanna Kunce
Author
Darien and the Lost Paints of Telinoria
Jeanna Kunce, author

Children/Young Adult; Sci-Fi/Fantasy/Horror; (Market)

Darien is a creative ten-year-old girl who wishes to escape her dull and predictable life. She loves to read, draw, and daydream, despite her parents’ efforts to teach her to be practical. But when a stormy day brings Darien together with her peculiar neighbor, strange things begin to happen.

Miss Mildred–or Miss Mildew, as she is called behind her back–lives across the street from Darien. Old-fashioned and stern, Miss Mildred agrees to babysit Darien for the day and shares her secret box of mysterious paints. Using the power of her imagination and her painting skills, Darien creates a doorway to another world; a world full of turmoil and unrest. She unexpectedly finds herself in the other world, caught up in a quest to find justice for dragons and humans alike.

Come along with Darien on a magical adventure as she encounters bizarre creatures, confronts a bad-tempered dragon, flees from a wicked king, attempts a daring rescue, and tries to find the courage to believe in something real–herself.

Reviews
After 10-year-old Darien’s babysitter cancels, her parents have a neighbor, Miss Mildred (“old Miss Mildew” to Darien), watch her for the afternoon. What could have been a dreary day stuck indoors transforms into an adventure when Miss Mildred gives Darien a mysterious set of paints; as Darien begins creating a forest landscape, she enters the painting and an enchanted world populated by talking dragons. After winning the trust of a dragon named Amani (dragons are suspicious of humans, who capture them to melt their scales into gold, Amani tells Darien), she accompanies him on a perilous mission to rescue his parents and to help end a rift between dragons that have mated across color lines and those still clinging to ancient tradition. First-time author Jeanna Kunce creates a thoughtfully developed universe with medieval and fantastical elements (the walls of an underground city are lit by tubes filled with luminescent fish). Craig Kunce’s delicately etched b&w illustrations help add to the magic of a fantasy starring a heroine empowered to do the right thing. Ages 8–up. (BookLife)
School Library Journal

Ten-year-old Darien tries her best not to be a disappointment to her parents by escaping into a world of daydream, but when the neighborhood witch is asked to babysit her at the last moment, adventure begins. After trying to figure out how to spend her rainy afternoon, Darien finally settles on an art project using concentrated paints in a mysterious old box and wrapping paper supplied by her babysitter, Miss Millie (or, as Darien thinks of her, "Miss Mildew"). The more Darien paints, the more her painting becomes alive—until she falls into the painting and into a land where she is challenged with the daunting task of saving dragons from the wicked King Radburn. In this strange, new world, dragons are captured and killed by hunters because their scales turn into gold. Armani, the son of captured dragons Audric and Brisa, joins Darien on a perilous quest to rescue the imprisoned creatures before they are killed. With obvious nods to Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and C. S. Lewis's "The Chronicles of Narnia," this slim volume is a quick read and suspenseful start to a fantasy series. Readers may appreciate Darien's workaholic and preoccupied parents. They may also relate to underlying themes of racism and bullying. Black-and-white illustrations interspersed throughout help move the story along. A strong debut with a confident female protagonist.—Gwen Collier, Buffalo and Erie County Public Library, NY

News
07/09/2016
Book signing at BN-Madison, WI

Author Jeanna Kunce will be holding a book signing July 9 from 11–1 at Barnes & Noble-Madison West. Pick up signed copies of her two books in the middle-grade "Darien" series and chat about what's coming in book three. Hope to see you there!

Formats
Open Ebook Ebook Details
  • 11/2014
  • B01MUD74V6
  • pages
  • $2.99
Hardcover Book Details
  • 11/2014
  • 978-1944734398 1944734392
  • 192 pages
  • $16.99
Paperback Details
  • 02/2022
  • 978-1944734428 1944734422
  • 192 pages
  • $8.99
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