Books with author Tori Miller

Critically acclaimed author Tom Miller reveals the making and marketing of one Panama hat, from the straw fields of Ecuador’s coastal lowland to a hat shop in Southern California. Along the way, the hat becomes a literary device allowing Miller to give us his impressions from the tributaries of the Amazon to the mountainsides of the Andes. The Panama Hat Trail is at once a study in global economics and a lively travelogue.

One marked boy, a scale-plated adventure. Jaron is a rider of the kelpra, unpredictable beasts (don’t turn your back, never fall off) trained for elite racing in the city of Tiara. He will ride those dangerous animals but wants nothing to do with the Raken and their huge flying dragons, commonly known as firedrakes, when they arrive to guard the city. He has good reason. It may have been a wild ‘drake that razed his home village to the ground over a year ago but Jaron still bears the scars both inside and out. Then the Raken Lord himself, a man with a jaw hard enough to scrape stone and a temperament to match – notices Jaron’s mother. Jaron is determined to protect her, even if she doesn’t think she needs it. All this, and he’s busy trying to get ready for the biggest, most dangerous ride of his young career. But what he hoped to be a racing triumph turns into a disaster and forces Jaron closer to the Raken. His path is set on a journey born of fire where Jaron must try to put his past behind him – even as he learns of a terrible secret that will change his life forever. Can Jaron muster the courage to touch the sky as he is forced to embark on a scale-plated adventure and discover more about this thing the Raken call the Rillion? For lovers of all things dragon.

The scale-plated adventure continues...Jaron now has a firedrake of his own, but trust him to have a dragon different to the other riders. Jaron's spirited blue doesn't always behave himself, and some people in Rakenar are not happy with a throwback to the wild dragons of old living in their midst. Head of the queue is severe Lord Carna, the man who has re-kindled his relationship with Jaron’s mother, Rella, and isn’t backward in showing his disapproval of the boy’s choice of mount. As Jaron tries to get his blue accepted, he learns more about this strange magic called the Rillion he is cursed with. The boy can't bring himself to tell his friends he has the same power that drove their former leader mad. What with this magic and the scars he bears, both inside and out, Jaron is a boy of many secrets - but sometimes it's best to trust your friends, even if you are afraid of what they'll think. Especially when evil is lurking, and this time it’s hidden deep within Rakenar itself…