Another of Langton's children's fantasies starring the Hall family of Concord. The new tree warden moves in next door, but he is more interested in cutting down trees than preserving them. Shortly after he begins, an unsual tree sprouts on the property line. Not as good as the early books in the series, but not bad. ( )

Another of Langton's children's fantasies starring the Hall family of Concord. The new tree warden moves in next door, but he is more interested in cutting down trees than preserving them. Shortly after he begins, an unsual tree sprouts on the property line. Not as good as the early books in the series, but not bad. ( )

Jane Langton studied astronomy at Wellesley College and the University of Michigan and did graduate work in art history at the University of Michigan and Radcliffe College. Ms. Langton is the author of a dozen books for young people, including seven other fantasies about the Hall family of Concord, Massachusetts: The Diamond in the Window, The Swing in the Summerhouse, The Astonishing Stereoscope, the Newbery Honor Book The Fledgling, The Fragile Flag, The Time Bike, and The Mysterious Circus. Also well known for her mystery novels for adults, Ms. Langton lives in Lincoln, Massachusetts.

The Dragon Tree is an chronicle of a magical adventure that emphasizes the need for everyone to care for the environment. The strength of the book is in its message. Langton has a suggestive concreteness, a way of conveying action, character, and setting in a few sharply defined strokes of her pen. She melds the secret and the hidden with a sense of danger. Langton uses a reliable old formula, that of the new family in town finding their place, and joins it to one of her multistrand plots, this one about a scheme to save a tree which is growing in their yard. The Dragon Tree will certainly enchant readers of all ages for quite sometime. ( )