STONEHEART

This series opener has appealing motifs but is tedious and longer than necessary. Twelve-year-old George gets in trouble on a museum field trip, stalks outside and angrily swings at a small stone carving. Shockingly, the dragon’s head comes off in his hand. From that moment on, stone creatures are after him. A stone pterodactyl slides off the building and gives chase; as George races madly away, three stone salamanders join the pursuit. A statue of a Gunner from the Great War steps in and blasts the creatures to bits, but the respite is temporary. George has upset a balance he doesn’t understand. His quest to put things right is aided by the Gunner and also by Edie, a girl of George’s age who channels the past. They move through London, fighting desperately and seeking explanations from sphinxes and statues. Fletcher’s action sequences are disappointingly dry. More intriguing are his philosophies about stone and “makers” (builders), and the protagonists’ family histories, but these are too sparse, leaving the whole unsatisfying. (Fantasy. 10-12)