On Sword Mountain, the social status of birds is based on where they live and the color of their feathers. Baby eaglet Dandelion is a dark-feathered valley bird, indicating low birth. Soon after hatching, she’s attacked by an archaeopteryx, a vicious soldier bird. She narrowly escapes being eaten, but her parents are killed. Fleydur, a once-exiled prince, finds the broken little bird and introduces her to palace life. Her high-born, golden-feathered classmates aren’t that nice to her, except Cloud-Wing, the most handsome and popular eaglet at the palace. But he soon he goes off to a special school to prepare him for battle and she loses her only friend. Luckily, Fleydur, who seem to be back in favor with the Council, adopts Dandelion, and suddenly, she’s a princess! But Dandelion’s not satisfied with her new station in life. It’s not fair that Cloud-Wing gets to learn to fight just because he’s a boy. She eventually gets her chance to fight alongside Cloud-Wing when a thief steals a magic stone and tries to frame Fleydur. Readers who haven’t read the first installments of this series may struggle. New plot lines appear abruptly and fizzle out, and motivations for the characters’ actions aren’t always clear. Cutesy devices, such as changing indefinite pronouns like “everyone” to “everybird” quickly wear thin. While it’s an interesting side note that the author is a freshman at Harvard, it’s not enough to overcome the flaws in this overwritten, underdeveloped tale.
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