Parents' Guide to The Last Ember: The Aerimander Chronicles, Book 1

Parents need to know that The Last Ember is the first book in The Aerimander Chronicles by debut author Lily Berlin Dodd about a girl named Eva from a prestigious science school who buys a mysterious object at a jewelry store that turns out to be a kind of dragon egg. Everyone desperately wants the egg, from the Union of Thieves to the trigger-happy head of spies for Porttown, so expect extra helpings of violence, some of it jarring, that is only marginally offset by a matter-of-fact, conversational style of narration. A teen boy is stabbed to death and mourned heavily. A cabin boy is shot and killed. A man dies from poison; another is burned and reduced to ash. Dusty, a 13-year-old, is tied up, imprisoned, threatened with execution and extended torture, and briefly tortured with a knife to the clavicle. Dusty is beaten with a stick by the workhouse owner and a young orphan boy is hit and threatened. There's also a kidnapping, and skirmishes with explosions, fire, fire pokers, knives, a sling shot, and fists that lead to injuries including burns and a twisted ankle. A young creature is also caged and repeatedly tranquilized. All other mature content is mild by comparison. Beer is served at an alehouse and an older teen smokes a pipe, bad language doesn't go beyond "damn" and "hell," and a girl develops a crush on a boy who sings to her. Eva is a fun character to root for. Chapter one details that "Eva liked the way she looked: She was a short, plump girl with deep copper-brown skin and warm, dark eyes." She's also a budding chemist and insatiably curious. And her friend Dusty may be an orphan that can't read, but he's a bright thinker with plenty of street smarts who looks out for the other orphans in the workhouse.