My favorite book in the whole world when I was 12. ( )

First line:
~ The little green, all golden
Flu hissing at the sea.
To stop each wave
Her clutch to save
She ventured bravely. ( )

Dragonsinger moves Menolly into the Harper Hall, to be trained as a harper. It's a pretty typical boarding school story in many ways: Menolly must make friends, take lessons, and avoid the bullying of the worst students and school officials. It's fine, but again, it feels like Menolly never really does anything. It wants to be a coming-of-age story, but Menolly doesn't really grow or change; it's just that at the end of the book, everyone is like, "oh Menolly you're so awesome" and she becomes a journeyman. And she is indeed awesome: best at composing, best at singing, best at everything. A quick read, and it's interesting to delve into the mechanics of the Harper Hall, but again there was little to hold my interest.

Of the Harper Hall Trilogy, this is my favorite of the three. Unlike the first one, it is much more interactive as Menolly arrives at the Harper Hall and, as the first female harper in a long time, endures much before finally settling in. One of my favorite book to re-read. ( )

Menolly needs more than music's power to make it as a Harper in the second book in the Harper Hall trilogy, set within science fiction legend Anne McCaffrey's beloved and bestselling Dragonriders of Pern series. In the world of Pern, Harpers are more powerful than kings, for the music they play can control the minds of others. For young Menolly, her dreams of becoming a Harper have nothing to do with power, but rather her love of music. Now she is finally living out her musical dreams as an apprentice Harper, but it's turning out to be more challenging than she thought. Formerly forbidden to study music because of her gender, Menolly quickly encounters hostility from a number of her male peers and masters. With the help of new friends, teachers, and her nine tiny, colorful dragons, Menolly finds that her musical talents may be stronger than anyone could imagine. ( )