Barron, T.A. Child of the dark prophecy [The Great Tree of Avalon #1]

Barron, T.A. Child of the dark prophecy [#1 The Great Tree of Avalon]._Philomel Books, 2004 [0-399-23763-1]
T.A. Barron takes us again to the magical world of Avalon after Merlin has died (or left) many years ago. Avalon suddenly has been troubled with severe droughts, brutal attacks, and other evil happenings. Now three people must set out to find the problem and solve it. This 434 page book is a magical quest as only T.A. Barron can write. I have a group of T.A. Barron readers who are already clammering for the next one of this series. I must say, it took me about the first third of the book to really get wrapped up in the story.