Hatchling

Dinotopia: Complete #6

by Midori Snyder

Janet, a young Hatchery apprentice, runs away when she accidentally endangers a dinosaur egg.  Then she meets a gravely wounded Gryposaurus, a very rare dinosaur.  Entrusted with the dying Gryposaurus's newly laid egg, Janet knows she must brave the wilds of Dinotopia--and return to an uncertain reception at the Hatchery.  

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Childrens, Dinosaurs, Young Adult, Middle Grade, Adventure

160 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1995

About the author

Midori Snyder is the author of eight books for children and adults, published in English, French, and Dutch. She won the Mythopoeic Award for The Innamorati, a novel inspired by early Roman myth and the Italian "Commedia dell'Arte" tradition. Other novels include The Flight of Michael McBride (a mythic western), Soulstring (a lyrical fairy tale), The Oran Trilogy: New Moon, Sadar's Keep, and Beldan's Fire (imaginary-world fantasy, recently re-published in Vikings's Firebird line), and Hannah's Garden (a contemporary faery novel for young adults). Except the Queen, a novel written in collaboration with Jane Yolen is forthcoming in 2010.

Her short stories have appeared in numerous venues including the The Armless Maiden; Black Thorn, White Rose; Xanadu III; Swan Sister; Borderland; and The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror. Recent stories have appeared in Young Adult anthologies, The Greenman, Tales From the Mythic Forest and Troll's Eye View, A Book of Villianous Tales. Her nonfiction has appeared in Realms of Fantasy and other magazines, and in essay collections including Mirror, Mirror on the Wall: Women Writers Explore Their Favorite Fairy Tales.

In addition to writing, she co-directs The Endicott Studio for Mythic Arts with Terri Winding. She co-edited and designed the online Journal of Mythic Arts from 2003 - 2008; and she served as chairwoman on the judges' panel for the 2007 James Tiptree, Jr. Awards.

Midori currently lives in Arizona with her husband, Stephen Haessler.

Reviews

[Connie]

This one had too many purposeless and frustrating circumstances to be really enjoyable. A shame really because it had a lot of potential. It never really felt like the main character's initial problem was ever actually resolved. All the events after she runs are so pointless and unnecessary to that end. It all seemed so forced and nothing felt connected.

[寿理 宮本]

I have mixed feelings on this one, since the moral of the story SEEMS like it should be "face your mistakes" and not "run away from your mistakes but end up helping someone in trouble who would've died had you not run away and found them." Like... even Janet has a moral dilemma about that, and it weighs on her conscience even after she returns home.

It also feels a bit heavy, since a lot of mistakes I wish I could have not done ended up leading me to my current, relatively happy life. While reading this, I ended up thinking far too hard about my past mistakes that I definitely can't undo, and it gave me a bit of a moral crisis: Should I be doing more to "make up for" my mistakes, even though technically NOTHING can? If I believed in a higher power judging me, what would it take to course-correct?*

Ahem.

On the whole, it's not a bad story, though it gets into a lot of lore that probably entertains fans of "fantasy slice-of-life" stories (like Frieren: Beyond Journey's End or Restaurant to Another World) that I ended up skimming in the interest of getting the gist of the story more than the meat. I mean, there was a time when dinosaurs were my favourite animal, but I feel like they got away from me so quickly that I don't even recognise half the ones mentioned in this, since all the dinosaur books I had were old even when I read them "new." Definitely probably a good read for fans of the series, though.

*I don't actually believe in that; hence why it's important to do it right the first time, to die without regrets, since death is the biggest point where it's no longer possible to undo anything. I know cynics and nihilists think it means you can just do whatever you want without consequence, since everybody dies the same, but... I'd rather not die having people punch me in the face or any of that.

[Anna]

Read this with my son. It was a fun little adventure story about Janet, a apprentice at the Hatchery on Dinotopia, and her nest friend, Zephyr. Janet decides to run away after she almost causes the loss of one of the eggs she's charged with taking care of. She finally comes to the realization that she misses home and they are on their way back to the Hatchery when they stumbled across Kranog, a hurt dinosaur in labor. Janet stays with her, while Zephyr goes to get help. This is Janet's quest to save Kranog's egg to atone for her mistake.

[Amy]

3.5. I have to admit I skimmed a bit. The story encompassed the struggles of man vs self and man vs nature, emulating the style of The Sublime. Because of this, there was a lot of description I didn't really read. The most interesting part was the medical care, and that was only a small portion. Appropriate for grades 5-8.

(This book was found in an exchange and gifted to me.)

[Timothy Pitkin]

Another nice simple story but there is more of a character arc as we follow Janet. And I do like her dinosaur friend Zephyr but I do kind of wish that these books would not assume the reader knows what all of the dinosaurs look like just based on their species name.

[Nicole Mosley]

Loved these as a child. Beautifully imagined world, swashbuckling adventure. Multiple authors for refreshing different writing styles.

[Morgan Laird]

Pretty predictable but it is a kids book.

[Pip]

this has to be my favorite in the dinotopia novella series so far

[Megan Ferguson]

A good tale, but the main character needs to see a doctor about her falling asleep all over the place (on the ground, in trees, etc.)

[Stefano Iulli]

**Statistic**

==Lenghth==

☐ Short.
☑ Medium.
☐ Large.

==Audience==

☑ Kids.
☑ Teenagers.
☑ Males/Females 18-25
☑ Males/Females 25-39
☑ Adults 40+

[Christa Magpie Corvidae]

a childhood favorite

[DinoGirlReads]

Another cute Dinotopia adventure

[Kit]

This book contains a beautiful story. It is full of old worldyness in the speech and the descriptions. The words spoken by Kranog in her language that is almost forgotten are fragile and beautiful.
The mission of bringing new life into the world, makes even the dirtiest and difficult situations poetry.
I find something indescribable in this book, the essence of it is very very special. And it is not found in the arc of the storyline necessarily, it ends, as it should, with no tinge of heartbreak. But it is in the details of the journey itself; relationships formed, friends who are strangers taken to heart, entrusting someone with your heritage and pulling them into your family, the heart pull towards home, and the determination to do the heroic thing, without thought of glory, and the wholesome Hatchery of old fashioned goodness.
No you cannot claim that this book does not have a heart, for it beats firmly in the pathways made of footprints in burning sand and mud.

[Joseph]

A good edition to the Dinotopia series, It can drag on near the end but overall I liked it. (I love anything Dinotopia). I particularly liked the beginning where it showed you how they work at the hatcheries. And once again Dinotopia puts a strangely huge amount of responsibility on a child! I’m seeing a pattern…

[Tristen]

it was not good

[Molly]

A wonderful, fantastic series. The authors do a good job to keep their writing and voice congruous throughout the various books.

[Meredith]

This was a very good book! I flew through it in a day.

[Beka]

A fun story about not giving up on your dreams even when you make mistakes.

[Theresa]

I read through this series of books on dinotopia as an interest in a lesson plan extension for higher elementary school grades, this was expanding the thematic unit i created for kindergarten...

[Daniel Domenech]

Ehh, not really my fancy; but they're good.

[Ishita]

Talking dinosaurs? Um...no thanks.