The Basque Dragon. (The Unicorn Rescue Society)

The Basque Dragon, the second book in “The Unicorn Rescue Society” series, opens one day after book one, The Creature of the Pines, ended. The adventure begins when Mito Fauna, the eccentric social studies professor, appears in the cafeteria to recruit Elliot and Uchenna to accompany him on a trip to the Basque Country to rescue a missing herensuge dragon. The professor whisks the young students out to the school parking lot and flies them away in his own propeller airplane promising that, due to time zones, “We can go and be back in time for dinner.”

While Uchenna is a carefree spirit and always up for adventure, Elliot is only on his second day at his new school and is still reeling from rescuing a Jersey Devil (Jersey) from the town’s evil industrialist Schmoke brothers on his first day. Jersey has latched onto the two friends and joins Elliot, Uchenna and the professor on their adventure to the Basque Country in northern Spain.

Their trip gets off to a rocky start when Uchenna must take over and land the plane since Fauna is unable to control their descent. Once they are safely on the ground, the group is met with gunfire. The shooter is ultimately revealed to be a good friend of Fauna’s, Mitxel Mendizabal, the Basque Country rep for the Unicorn Rescue Society, who is protecting his land from any trespassers. Mr. Mendizabal takes the group to his home and introduces Elliot and Uchenna to local Basque Country cuisine (baby eels for Elliot) and to Euskara, the language of the Euskaldunak people. Mr. Mendizabal regales them with the ancient origin tale of the herensuge that occurred long ago in Mr. Mendizabal’s home. He details how the Nazi supported dictator, General Franco, outlawed the Basque people’s laws and language and how Mr. Mendizabal’s grandfather rescued the dragon from Nazi bombs during the Second World War. Care of the dragon was then passed down through generations of the Mendizabal family.

When the searchers venture into the herensuge’s cave on Mendizabal land, Uchenna falls down a deep crevasse. Elliot grabs a flashlight from the dragon’s pile of trinkets and treasure to help rescue Uchenna. The group recognizes the signature S of the Schmoke Brothers on the side of the flashlight and realize that the evil brothers must be responsible for the dragon’s disappearance. Mr. Mendizabal recognizes the Schmoke brothers’ name as his brother Íñigo had recently partnered with the evil duo in a new pharmaceutical company, Schmoke Mendizabal Pharmaceuticals. Unlike his brother Mitxel, Íñigo is interested in globalization and bringing big business to the Basque Country, and the group soon realizes that Íñigo and the Schmoke brothers have kidnapped the herensuge to harness the magical healing powers in the creature’s spit.

The group then head to the Schmoke brothers’ new manufacturing complex to rescue the dragon. Once on site, Elliot utilizes his map reading skills to find the herensuge shackled in a cave. Íñigo and the Schmoke brothers find Professor Fauna, Elliot, Uchenna and Jersey in the cave, and the brothers surprise Íñigo by revealing that they intend to use the dragon spit for selfish reasons to cure their family’s inherited male baldness and not to cure illness. During the confrontation, it is also revealed that, in their youth, the Schmoke brothers were students of the professor’s and members of his Unicorn Rescue Society and that they betrayed him and stole a dragon for their father’s business.

Angry at the recollection, the professor smashes the Schmoke brothers’ old Rescue Society ID badges and accidentally impacts the complex’s hydraulic support system, thereby bringing the caves crashing down. When the brothers flee the carnage, Uchenna, Elliot and Professor Fauna manage to unshackle the herensuge and find a deeper cave containing the herensuge’s male partner and six baby dragons. The reunited family of dragons smash through a cave wall to escape and ultimately fly back to their home on the Mendizabal property where Mr. Mendizabal and an apologetic Íñigo are waiting. Their mission complete, the children and Professor Fauna fly back to Philadelphia, arriving in time for dinner and finding the children’s unsuspecting parents awaiting the students’ return from their supposed after school Worm Nutrition Club.

For those young readers looking for a fun, fast paced adventure story, Gidwitz’s The Basque Dragon will not disappoint. Though the story picks up where the first book conclude, it can also be read as a standalone tale. Told in the third person and with brief eventful chapters, this book will appeal to those transitioning to chapter books and longer reads. The Basque Dragon would also be a delight for teachers and librarians to read aloud to student groups. Hatem Aly’s cartoonesque black and white sketches add to the story and are an obvious crossover to the book’s interactive website and animated shorts. While heavy on the fun, with evil villains, mythical beasts, and a silly absent minded professor, The Basque Dragon also provides interesting factual information about those mythical creatures, their origin tales and the Basque region and its history. Uchenna is a quirky strong female heroine, and her dialogue often includes important nods to feminism and equal opportunity. Discussions between the professor and the Mendizabal brothers also highlight current ecological and environmental concerns. Gidwitz’s winning formula will continue with a third book in “The Unicorn Rescue Society” series, and there are probably many more to come.