Erec Rex facts for kids

Erec Rex is an exciting series of five fantasy books for young readers, written by American author Kaza Kingsley. The very first book in the series was published in 2006 by Firelight Press and was even chosen as a special "Original Voices" pick by Borders bookstores. The fifth book, The Secret of Ashona, came out in 2012. The author later confirmed that a sixth book was also published in 2014 by Simon & Schuster.

Books in the Series

• Erec Rex: The Dragon's Eye (2006)
• Erec Rex: The Monsters of Otherness (2007)
• Erec Rex: The Search For Truth (2009)
• Erec Rex: The Three Furies (2010)
• Erec Rex: The Secret of Ashona (2012)

Synopsis

Erec Rex: The Dragon's Eye

Life is pretty tough for twelve-year-old Erec Rex. He lives with his adopted siblings and his single mom, who works really hard. They've moved into a tiny apartment where Erec even sleeps next to the washing machine!

But there's something even stranger about Erec. He has a mysterious power that makes him do odd things. He tries to fight it, but the urge to obey this power is too strong. Usually, it makes him do good things, like putting pillows under his sister just before she falls. But Erec worries: what if it someday makes him do something terrible?

One morning, Erec's mother vanishes. His power tells him to find her. This sends him on an amazing adventure that changes his life forever. He meets Bethany, a girl who also lost her parents in a mysterious way. Together, they discover magical worlds like Alypium, Ashona, and Aorth, where magic is real!

Things in Alypium are not right. Their King Piter is under a spell, and his castle is even lying on its side! When Erec puts on his mother's special glasses, he can see her. She's a prisoner of King Pluto of Aorth, one of the three rulers of the Kingdom of the Keepers. Erec can't understand why Pluto would want her.

Then, secrets start to spill out. Erec learns he was born in Alypium and might not be safe there. He feels upset that his mother hid so much from him and starts to lose trust in her.

His only hope to save his mother is to find special ingredients for a powerful formula. While searching, he enters contests to choose the next three rulers of Alypium. These contests, like the "Pro and Contest" and the "Under Mine," are super challenging. But someone is attacking the winners, making other kids afraid to compete. Erec's magic helps him save his friends from dangers like swamp gas, attack fleas, and even a minotaur!

A really evil and smelly character named Balthazar Ugry seems to be behind the attacks. Erec trembles just looking at him. Erec also discovers that someone is planning to take over Alypium and the other magical lands, Aorth and Ashona. Could it be Ugry?

When the blasting formula is ready, Erec bravely crosses King Pluto's deadly dungeons to save his mother. But he makes a mistake by doubting her advice. He almost loses his life to dangerous destroyers and shadow demons.

Amazed he survived, he puts on the glasses and sees that he freed his mother! With new trust in each other, they make a plan. If Erec becomes the next king, he can save Alypium from Ugry. His family could then come out of hiding.

With tough odds against them, Erec and Bethany move on to the final contest. But something feels wrong. Erec must get an eye from a fierce dragon. King Pluto wants the eye, but Erec learns he must keep it. He escapes to the castle, where he faces his most dangerous enemy.

Erec Rex: The Monsters of Otherness

After Erec Rex returned home, his siblings, Danny and Sammy, started acting very strange. They followed him everywhere, staring like lost puppies. Erec thought maybe the shock of him and their mother being missing was too much for them.

Erec goes back to Alypium to face twelve trials to become king. Danny and Sammy follow him there, even though their mother told them not to. Erec soon finds out they are not his real siblings! The real Danny and Sammy have been kidnapped. Erec follows clues that lead him to the Green House, where President Inkle lives. He starts to think a strange Hermit hanging around the castle might be involved in the twins' disappearance.

Erec wonders what his first scary trial will be. He learns he has to open a nest full of dragon eggs! Not only are the eggs hard to open, but feeding the baby dragons stings his fingers. On top of searching for Danny and Sammy, Erec is also trying to learn magic from his tutor, Mr. Peebles.

To make things worse, the annoying Balor and Damon Stain are competing against him because of a magical loophole. Balor, Damon, and Rock Rayson are also working with Erec's enemy, Baskania. If Erec doesn't win his quests, the future of the Kingdom of the Keepers looks bad. While Erec opens the dragon eggs, Damon Stain keeps bothering him. Bethany and Jack try to fight Damon, and one of the baby dragons gets hurt. After all the eggs hatch, it looks like Balor won. Erec tries to feed the dragons, hurting his fingers. Then, the dragon mother returns. Erec uses his dragon eye to talk to her. The dragon mother thanks them and gives Erec a special scroll, the Scroll of Alithea, which holds all the answers in the universe.

Erec's next trial is to "defeat the monsters in otherness." He isn't sure how to start. He hears that two children are held prisoner by scary monsters called vogum in "Otherness." This is a wild magical world outside Alypium. Erec realizes these children might be Danny and Sammy. A "snail mail" love letter, written on a real snail shell from a secret admirer, turns into a helpful message. It guides Erec through the dangers of Otherness to find the twins.

Erec discovers that the "monsters" are actually quite nice! In fact, Tina, his secret admirer, is a hydra herself. Baskania has gathered an angry crowd to "kill the hydras and save the children." He plans to kill the hydras and valkyries for his evil purposes. Erec stands in front of Tina and her people, arms out, begging the crowd to see that the hydras are good. But Baskania twists his words. In a last try, Erec holds up the Scroll of Alithea. Shots ring out, and Erec waits to be hit. But then there is silence. He wasn't hit because Aosqueth, the dragon, blocked a death spell from Baskania. Erec then takes Aosqueth's eye, giving him two dragon eyes.

The crowd drops their weapons, but Baskania disappears. All seems lost. But Erec, using his dragon eye, finds Baskania just as he brought one of his ancestors back from the dead. With this ancestor's help, and the dragon eye he plans to take from Erec, Baskania believes he will rule the world.

With help from one of his own ancestors and using what he has learned, Erec saves the day. But in doing so, he discovers two dangerous secrets. Baskania becomes even angrier and more determined to kill Erec and take his dragon eye.

Erec Rex: The Search for Truth

In the third Erec Rex book, Erec faces even tougher challenges, choices, and dangers. Baskania is somehow getting information from Erec's friend, Oscar Felix. Erec can't trust his friend anymore. When Erec goes to get his next quest, Baskania is there. He pulls the quest out of Al's Well, but it's torn. All it says is "get behind." Erec goes to find the Well of Delphi so he can talk to the Fates in person. He does, but the Fates aren't much help; they just laugh and giggle. Oscar suddenly shows up and demands to know how his father died. The Fates tell him, "Rosco killed him." But they aren't alone. Balor Stain appears just as Erec asks the Fates who his father is. The Fates get confused and think he means who Balor's father is. It turns out Balor is a clone of Baskania!

Erec's latest contest is to "get bee-hind and set it free." A Bee Hind is a magical deer that attracts bees and a special substance. Erec must take this Bee-Hind from its home and let it roam free to spread the Substance all over the world. But the Bee-Hind is protecting a man and his son. This man used to work for Baskania until he tricked him. If Erec removes the Bee-Hind, his new friends will be killed by a manticore. Erec eventually sets the Bee-Hind free, but instead of running away, it stays. He tells Bethany to go home, but she refuses. Erec later saves the day by luring the manticore into a hole in the Substance, which kills it.

Erec's next task is to find the five Awen from their hidden places and bring them together. This is a huge task that has defeated everyone who tried it before. Erec collects the Awen with his friends' help. But the Twyth Boar is trickier. The man who owned it long ago is now dead. Erec travels back in time to get it and discovers something truly shocking: he is one of the royal triplets! Erec returns to his own time and confronts King Piter, his father. Piter reveals that if Erec found out, the castle would collapse, which it promptly does. Erec connects the Awen to the Twyth Boar. He gains perfect knowledge of everything, but he gives it up to help fix the Substance. The Boar comes back to him, but the super intelligence doesn't. Erec and Bethany later find out that Baskania has kidnapped Bethany's brother. She goes to save him, but Baskania appears and captures her too. He demands to know her secret. Bethany, under a spell, tells him that the Final Magic is found in the smallest child of the first king of Alypium's greatest seer, which happens to be Bethany. Erec saves Bethany in the end, but she was hit with an old spell. She falls into a deep sleep. After a day or so, Erec has an idea. He kisses her, and she wakes up!

Erec Rex: The Three Furies

In The Three Furies, Erec Rex faces even more challenges. His best friend, Bethany, whom he secretly likes, has been captured by Baskania. Erec couldn't reach her in time to save her. She had been writing him letters, but he was so focused on his mixed feelings for her since he kissed her to save her in the last book that he hadn't replied. Thanatos Argus Baskania is the Shadow Prince who wants the Great Secret, which will lead him to the Final Magic.

Erec has "cloudy thoughts" that appear during tough times. These thoughts help him stop bad things from happening. Once, a cloudy thought made him turn into a fire-breathing dragon! His most recent cloudy thought made him realize Bethany was in danger, and he was right. She's been taken by Baskania. Erec must go back to the Kingdom of the Keepers to rescue Bethany, and his family will join him on this adventure. Erec needs to visit the Fates to see if they can help him find a way to save Bethany. Of course, like any quest to save someone in trouble, this task won't be easy. There will be only one way to save Bethany, and the steps Erec must take will be extremely difficult. These steps will also guide him on his path to becoming the King of Alypium. He must go to the Nightmare Realm, a place no one has ever returned from. Despite the dangers, Erec bravely continues his quests, determined to rescue Bethany.

Using his mother's Seeing Glasses, Erec can contact Bethany. Her situation is not good. She is chained to a chair with small metal cones around her head. These cones pull out her memories and show them on a screen so Baskania can search for the secret to the Final Magic. Bethany tries to convince Erec not to rescue her. She knows she's held in Baskania's most protected fortress, and Erec might not survive. Erec worries, but he keeps planning her escape.

After many difficult challenges, Erec finally gets into the fortress to help Bethany. But Baskania catches him. Baskania then makes a hundred copies of Bethany in the room. He starts killing them with magic until he hits the real one. Using his own magic, Erec manages to make copies of himself and Baskania. Using his dragon eyes and a comment to the real Bethany about how he told her he loved her, Erec manages to get Bethany and his friends out of the fortress.

But that's not all. After finishing his fifth quest, Erec gets his next one. It tells him to give himself up to the three Furies. This means he has to give his soul to them and die so they can get revenge on the world. He finds it hard to leave his family and Bethany, but he manages to sneak away to Tartarus to speak to the three Furies. At first, he hoped to find a way out of Tartarus alive, but after talking with the Furies, he thinks it's impossible. The Furies do escape Tartarus into the real world. Whether Erec makes it out too is a secret you'll have to read the book to find out!

Erec Rex: The Secret of Ashona

Erec Rex has faced many difficult tasks, but none like the one he has now. Erec has lost most of his soul and must get it back from the three Furies. If Erec doesn't get his soul back soon, he will turn evil. Meanwhile, his brother, Trevor, is in trouble, and Erec needs to save him too. Erec has also received his seventh task, which is just as dangerous as the last. Bethany, on the other hand, is stuck at home with Erec's family and Jam. Erec is also trying to free the souls held by the Furies. To do this, however, he has to give himself up to his worst enemy: Baskania. This couldn't be a worse time for Erec to be facing all these challenges.