title: Fire: Tales of Elemental Spirits
author: Robin Mckinley
description: Grade 8 UpIn this companion to <i>Water</i> (Putnam, 2002), McKinley and Dickinson explore the range of their storytelling abilities. The settings of these five tales range from ancient to modern, but they are all united by encounters with magical creatures with an affinity for fire. In "Phoenix," Ellie's love for forests leads her to Dave and Welly, caretakers of the ancient Phoenix, displaced from its Egyptian home to damp, chilly Britain. "Hellhound" features animal-loving Miri, whose choice of a red-eyed shelter dog proves providential when she must face a malevolent spirit. In "Fireworm," Tandin spirit-walks to defeat the fireworm that threatens his clan, though in doing so he develops empathy for the creature and its mate and distances himself from his people. "Salamander Man" finds orphaned Tib caught up in a bewildering chain of events, which results in him taking the form of a flaming giant to free the salamanders and rid his city of corrupt magicians. "First Flight," the longest piece, deals with Ern, who helps a dragon with a missing eye find its way back into the Flame Space, which dragons use to travel quickly through time and space. All of these individuals learn something about themselves in their encounters with the fire beasts, and all are the better for it in the end. This collection of beautifully crafted tales will find a warm welcome from fans of either author, as well as from fantasy readers in general.<i>Misti Tidman, Boyd County Public Library, Ashland, KY</i> END
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  # JONATHAN JANZ
  
  
  ## The Siren and the Specter
  
  
  FLAME TREE PRESS
  
  
  London & New York
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # For Peach, my youngest child.
  
  
  Thank you for bringing me joy and laughter every day.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # ‘If I knew something to keep us safe, don’t you think I’d be doing it right
  now? I used to think I knew what would keep us safe, but I don’t anymore. One
  time they gone see a cross and they gone back off, and next time they just
  gone laugh and make you feel like a fool. That’s real meanness in a spirit.
  And I tell you, they laughing now, they laughing real hard.’ Michael McDowell
  
  
  The Elementals
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # ‘Depending on one another’s hearts, ye had still hoped that virtue were not
  all a dream. Now are ye undeceived. Evil is the nature of mankind.’
  
  
  Nathaniel Hawthorne
  
  
  ‘Young Goodman Brown’
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Part One
  
  
  ## The Last Haunting
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter One
  
  
  David Caine motored toward the Alexander House, his Camry jouncing over a