The Dragon's Tooth by N.D. Wilson

So here is another "if you liked Harry Potter..." book.  It is a bit darker than the first Harry Potter.  In this book two brothers and a sister live in a run down motel owned by their family.  Their father has died in a mysterious boating accident and their mother is in a coma because she went to try to save the father, and nearly drown. The oldest brother, Daniel, is 18 and has taken the role of parent.  One day a spooky man shows up who claims to have known the children's parents.  He gives the younger boy, Cyrus, and his sister, Antigone, a set of keys and what turns out to be a dragon's tooth, and then is killed by even more scary men.  The bad guys take Daniel, but Cyrus and Antigone get away with the help of the first scary guy's lawyer.  Horus takes the children to a secret society, where they become accolades. The really scary guy is still after them and it takes all their skill, and the all the resources of the society to protect them.  There are a lot of strange characters in the book like a pirate cook with two false legs, and a snake boy who sheds his skin when he is injured.  There are flesh eating spiders, and friendly sharks--plenty to keep the young reader engaged to the end. Still, it is a B level fantasy.  I didn't ever really connect with the children characters.  It is hard to put my finger on the reason why.  I guess it was never really clear what made each of them tick.  In the beginning of the book Cyrus is dragging an old tire to throw in the motel's abandoned swimming pool.  I never figured out why he was doing that.  Also, at the beginning of the book Antigone was always shooting movies with an old camera.  I didn't really understand why she did that either. All in all, though, not a bad choice for the kind of kids who eat fantasy books like popcorn. (485 p.)