River Dragon

“The characters are so alive that they get under your skin (and into your heart) like real friends and mentors. - Anne Walter

“Best storyteller in a generation! AND she makes nonviolent resolutions to complex problems seem exciting, realistic and deeply satisfying.” - Lisa Marshall“This latest is really popular in the YA world in my town. All I have to do is give the parents one Ari Ara book … and it won’t be long before they want more! (I suspect the parents are reading River Dragon just as eagerly as their children!)” - Tom Hastings, Portland State University“River Dragon was my favorite book in the Ari Ara Series. The twists and turns made it a page turner.” - Darlene Goetzman“This book is a treasure for readers of all ages, but it’s especially meaningful for our young people who may not yet see the power of peace over conflict. It’s a remarkable guide to navigating life through nonviolent action.” - Heart Phoenix, River Phoenix Center For Peacebuilding“To read River Dragon is to enter a richly imagined world. It is to journey alongside a fifteen-year-old Ari Ara, fierce in her dedication to the nonviolent Way Between as she undergoes ‘The Ordeal of Queens’ in a world so much like ours in its ‘pointless, painful devotion to war.’ How she manages these ordeals, discovering herself and what she can offer her world, is beautifully narrated in this latest addition to the Ari Ara Series.” - Andrew Moss“The most important book I know. All the magic of Narnia and Harry Potter with a vivid, fun, and relatable embodiment of the deepest values needed right now.” - Anna Beale“I absolutely adore the Ari Ara Series. I think everyone should read these books! It’s not only a fun epic adventure series but the nonviolent way between approach is inspiring. It is truly a creative masterpiece.” - Melissa Pember Karapanos“I laughed, cried and was thrilled by Ari Ara’s courage and capacity to practice peace despite all odds. I am sharing this series as far and wide as possible.” - Madonna Quixley, Let’s Talk Peace Ballarat, Australia

“My family has enjoyed the whole Ari Ara Series immensely … we’ve already started reading it all over again!”- Karisha Longake

“Peace for our children’s children.”- Jeff Lott, Peace Week Delaware

“The perfect series to share with my children.” - Dr. Nick Meyer

“Such a captivating series. It offers so much to learn about peaceful negotiation!” - Carol Ranellone

“It’s not only engaging for young people, it’s also inspiring for adults, including long time activists.”- Jan Slakov, Conscious Canada“There is nothing like the Ari Ara Series in our current cultural landscape … the kind of complexity, compassion and commitment to do no harm is the story that the human soul needs for our next level of development.” - Laurie Marshall, Unity Through Creativity Foundation“In a world oversaturated with violence, Ari Ara’s

Rivera Sun is an award-winning author and an internationally-respected teacher of strategy for nonviolent movements. She is the founding editor of the weekly Nonviolence News, the largest international journal devoted to the use of nonviolence in mass movements. She is the author of nine novels, as well as nine theatrical plays, three books of poetry, a book of highly opinionated essays and a study guide to nonviolent action.

Her essays on social justice are syndicated by Peace Voice and have appeared in hundreds of newspapers and magazines. Rivera co-hosted nationally syndicated weekly radio shows for over five years and has co-founded two nationwide nonviolent study and action groups. She has been the program director for Pace e Bene/Campaign Nonviolence and is an advisor to many national and international social and environmental activist organizations. Rivera’s webinars, readings and workshops are available. She is happy to meet with classroom and activist groups and book clubs.

Rivera has red hair, a twin sister, and a fondness for esoteric mystics. She went to Bennington College to study writing as a Harcourt Scholar and graduated with a degree in dance. She lives in an earthship house in New Mexico, where she grows tomatoes, bakes sourdough bread, and drinks pu’erh tea. Rivera has been an aerial dancer, a bike messenger, and a gung-fu style tea server. Everything else about her -except her writing- is perfectly ordinary.

Rivera Sun sings the anthem of our times. Her work celebrates the everyday heroes hidden in activists and soccer moms, alike. Rich metaphor and exquisite writing thrust her novels and poetry into the realms of literary greatness, while the stories grab the social issues of our times by the collar and shakes them hard. A soaring tribute to the beauty of the human spirit and also a scathing indictment of contemporary culture, her work is unforgettable; it seizes you at the first page and sends you flying out the other side, refreshed, rejuvenated and empowered to change. Rivera believes in being an embodiment of love-in-action in all that she does. A passionate participant in creating a just, sustainable, and peaceful world, she takes the responsibility of life seriously … and with a good dose of humor. Her novels focus on the social issues of our times, positing creative solutions as well as muckraking through the causes of suffering. “Life is the ultimate adventure!” Rivera says.

Rivera encourages her readers to reach out, write reviews, and share their favorite quotes with others. Rivera in her words:

I collect tangible heroes imperfect and lovable from all times and all nations, races and creeds with their adventure-plot-metaphors that we, ourselves, live to inspire all people to lead boldly authentic, everyday lives deeply connected to themselves each other and this earth.

I pair complexity to simplicity fold panoramas into packages challenge one voice to speak many. I leave room for music, dance, and physicality. embodying the teller in mind, heart, and soul.

The kitchen becomes a stage the classroom a theatre every human a storyteller. The tales become common discussed over tea, simmered with dinner written in letters rippling… into our lives.