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Annotated Award-Winning Titles

McNally Robinson Book for Young People Award – Young Adult
(The Manitoba Writers' Guild)
Breath of the Dragon
Diane Juttner Perreault
Winnipeg: Great Plains Publications,
2005. 203 p.
(Great Plains Teen Fiction)
ISBN 1894283546
Ages 12 and up

Breath of the Dragon
Source

In this coming-of-age novel set on the shores of Lake Winnipeg, 16-year-old Krisjana has to deal with many changes in her life. Every year, her family spends the whole summer at the cottage. Krisjana helps her father fire up the raku kiln to produce his earthenware. The heat transforms clay into beautiful and vibrant glazed pottery.

This summer, however, things are different. Her father has suffered a heart attack, and he is not resting enough. Everyone is restless. Krisjana would like to spend more time with Ted, the local beach bum. As her father's health deteriorates, her half-brother Myles joins them. Krisjana discovers the meaning of friendship and the real value of the people who surround her.

In her first novel for young adults, writer Diane Juttner Perreault introduces attractive characters of Icelandic heritage and sets her story in the beautiful Lake Winnipeg area. She incorporates the metaphor of change effectively and expresses feelings of longing and desire in words normally used to describe a potter's kiln. She uses the magical transformation of elements and the powers of nature to echo the changes happening within the characters.

–JP