The Foreign Service Journal, November 2022

52 NOVEMBER 2022 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL Dragons of a Different Tail: 17 Unusual Dragon Tales Edited by Marx Pyle, Victoria L. Scott, Anne C. Lynch, and J.C. Mastro, Cabbit Crossing Publishing, 2021, $17.95/paperback, e-book available, 346 pages. Former Foreign Service Officer Katharine Dow’s story, “The Brook- lyn Dragon Racing Club,” is included among 17 unique tales in this col- lection by a mix of award-winning and emerging authors. The stories range from tales about dragons with wings as long as continents and dragons conquering outer space, to dragons in London, in Brooklyn, and roaming a post-apocalyptic earth. They are grouped in four categories: Dragons of Antiquity; Drag- ons of Now-ish … & Beyond; Dragons of The Stars; and Dragons of Other Realms. From science fiction to epic fantasy, to mystery thrillers and Westerns, the collection features a wide array of set- tings and literary genres, considerably broadening the scope of storytelling centered on these enduring mythical creatures. Katharine Dow’s “The Brooklyn Dragon Racing Club” is about a young woman who buys herself a racing dragon and learns the sport of dragon racing from a veteran. This story, inspired by the local pigeon races the author learned about while living in Brooklyn, addresses change and bias in a big city. Former FSO Katharine Dow served as a democracy, human rights, and governance officer with the U.S. Agency for International Development in Kenya, Afghanistan, Armenia, and Washington, D.C., from 2008 to 2020. She lives in New York state. The Unbound: Stir of Memory Lily Peterson and Jeremy Peterson, independently published, 2022, $6.99/paperback, e-book available, 244 pages. Theo, an orphaned teenager living with his grandparents in Shanghai, sud- denly develops the ability to shapeshift into a wolf. When a mysterious govern- ment organization discovers his new- found abilities, they whisk him away to Geneva to join their ranks and help him learn how to control his powers. The group hides their own abilities and agenda from outsiders, keeping secrets fromTheo even as they teach him to fight alongside them. But as the group he joined begins to battle with other groups of shapeshifters, he is forced to ask if he is fighting for the right team. The father-daughter team of Lily and Jeremy Peterson decided to write this dystopian children’s book when 13-year- old Lily discovered there weren’t any books about shapeshifters in the library and her father, a Foreign Service officer currently serving as a deployment and optimization manager in Washington, D.C., challenged her to write one herself. Jeremy Peterson joined the Foreign Service 11 years ago; the Peterson family has served in Suriname, China, El Salvador, and Thailand, in addition to Washington, D.C. CHILDREN’S BOOKS Riley Explores Being a Diplomat Monica Jean Normil, independently published, 2022, $15.99/ paperback, e-book available, 33 pages. Unlike some of her classmates, 9-year-old Riley doesn’t have an immediate answer when her teacher asks what each student might want to be when they grow up. Curious to see what people who “look just like [her]” do for a living in the big, busy city she calls home, Riley befriends Kennedy, who works as a diplomat for the “United Countries.” Riley learns from Kennedy all about diplo- macy and the different forms it can take, including economic diplomacy, which piques her interest as a mathematics enthu- siast. A diplomat’s life is not easy, yet Riley and Kennedy agree that opportunities to see new places and meet people from all around the world make it a unique and rewarding experience. Monica Jean Normil, an information management specialist currently posted in Lomé, Togo, joined the Foreign Service in 2019. Her first assignment was in Trinidad and Tobago. Prior to joining the Service, she worked in the fields of IT and operations management with several private companies and with the Peace Corps/USAID WASH project in Ghana. She is also the author of a cookbook inspired by her travels, Road to Table: Cooking My Way Around the World (2021).