A Country of Their Own

by Alison Baird

Dragons. Wizards. Airships. Volcanoes. Shindaria had all these things, and more. At first it was only an imaginary country, a game the Martin children played along with their close friend, a lonely boy named Kevin Kim. But then one day Carrie Martin made a wish on a magic ring... and the four children found themselves trapped in a land of wonders that had become dangerously real...

269 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2013

About the author

Alison Baird is a resident of Oakville, Ontario, Canada, and a graduate of Trinity College, University of Toronto, where she earned her Honours B.A. in English and her M.A. degree.

As an author she had an early start, publishing her first poems when she was 12. Her first book, The Dragon's Egg, was published by Scholastic Canada: it was a national bestseller and a Regional Winner of the Silver Birch Award (a children's choice award). It is now featured on school curricula across the country. The Hidden World and White as the Waves: A Novel of Moby Dick were both CCBC "Our Choice" selections, and White as the Waves was shortlisted for the IODE Violet Downey Book Award. Baird has also written two trilogies, the Willowmere Chronicles and The Dragon Throne. The Stone of the Stars, the first book of The Dragon Throne, received a starred review in Publisher’s Weekly.

Baird's short fiction has appeared in On Spec magazine, a Canadian periodical of original science fiction and fantasy for adults. Her story "Dragon Pearl" received an Honourable Mention in The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror published by St. Martin's Press. Another short story, "Moon Maiden," appeared in the acclaimed young adult anthology What If. . .? Amazing Stories Selected by Monica Hughes (Tundra Books), which was an ABA Kids’ Pick of the Lists and was featured on the New York Public Library’s Recommended List.