Wings of Fire 4: The Dark Secret

The Dark Secret by Tui T. Sutherland is the fourth Wings of Fire book, a big dragon fantasy for 10 year olds.

What happens

This one belongs to Starflight. He's the NightWing of the five dragonets, the clever one who has read every scroll and is scared of nearly everything.

He wakes up with no idea how he got there. He's been snatched away from his friends and dropped in the NightWings' secret home. It's on an island with a volcano, and the air is so smoky he can hardly breathe.

He's always wondered about his own tribe. They're not what he pictured. The young NightWings are thin and coughing, with terrible breath. He meets a big sister he didn't know he had, and she's disappointed he isn't dead. Their queen hides behind a stone screen, even from her own dragons.

And Starflight is sure every NightWing in the room is reading his mind. So he tries very hard to think about nothing but lava.

You're inside Starflight's head the whole time. He's nervous and brainy and he never quite says what he means, which makes him easy to feel for. He also misses Sunny much more than he'd ever admit out loud.

There's still fun in it. The NightWing dragonets bicker and tease like any bunch sharing a dormitory. And Fatespeaker turns up, a chatty NightWing dragonet whose smile reminds him of Sunny.

It makes most sense after the first three books, which are all in the library. It also gives away a big secret from book three, so it's worth reading them in order.

Worth knowing before you hand it over

It opens on a battle where a patrol of young MudWings is ambushed. Dragons fall out of the sky with their throats torn, and one young dragon kills an attacker. Later a grown NightWing eats a bird he left to rot, and it's described in detail.

If yours finds fighting or gory bits hard going, that's worth a thought. If they're happy with dragons behaving badly, they'll want to know what the NightWings are hiding.

What to read next

If it's Starflight not fitting in with his own family that got them, try Enchanted Forest Chronicles 1 - Dealing with Dragons. It has a princess who's just as out of place in hers.