With a two-way conversation between two mostly unseen characters, as you read you’ll learn what it is that makes a dragon.
From wings so they can fly, to breathing fire, even if they are friendly.
Baby dragons, underwater dragons, and firefighting dragons. They're pretend dragons, but they all must breathe fire.
Real dragons do exist, though.
Dragons,
Dragons, and More Dragons
Perhaps
because he knows dragons feature in my novels, he became interested in The Glitter Dragon Series by Maddie Mara after spotting
one at a school book fair. We read the entire series together and even made it
through several of the follow-up The Treasure Dragon Series before he grew tired of these wonderful books.
Do you love dragons? Yes? Well, then you'll know that they love tacos. But not spicy and hot tacos. They hate hot and spicy tacos. Dragons also love parties.
This is central to Dragons Love Tacos, the story of a boy who wants a friendly relationship with dragons and plans a party.
When hosting a party for dragons how do you decide what kind of tacos need to be on the menu?
Dragons love tacos of all sizes, so big and little tacos are good. But their contents are another matter.
This is the story of her attempts to find them when they don't return from a flight on the Wing-Thing she made.
Shona is a princess, dubbed the fix-it princess by her father. Her parents are known to Shona as Dad-King and Mum-Queen. And the three of them live together in the Castle-By-The-Woods. There's also Shona's horse Wildfire, and a bunch of escaping chickens.
The Fix-It Princess, written by Janeen Brian and illustrated by Cherie Dignam, is a fairytale-like story, with Shona off on a royal quest.
First she needs to wrangle the escaping chickens into some kind of order, and get a 'disagreeable drawbridge' working.
Set in the mountains in China, the story starts with the mysterious line, ‘Mountains always have secrets’. This sets the scene for 12-year-old Billy Chan’s entry to Camp Dragon. Billy would rather be back home in California, surfing, but instead he is on a summer camp, learning about his Chinese heritage and improving his limited Mandarin.
Once settled, Billy is paired with three campmates Dylan, Charlotte and Ling-Fei. He soon learns that Dylan is funny and pessimistic, Charlotte likes to win and has fierce determination and Ling-Fei loves nature and is kind.
After the first activity, the four children stumble upon a secret entrance into a mountain. There they find magnificent dragons who have been trapped in the mountain for over a hundred years. And what’s more, the dragons have been waiting for them … Billy and friends are then thrust on a nail-biting quest to save both the dragon and human realms from destruction.
Dragon Mountain is the first book in the Dragon Realm middle grade series and is written by Katie and Kevin Tsang, a wife-husband team. The Tsang pair have written a thrilling quest tale and have cleverly used humour to cut through the high tension. The characters hurtle through the action and must keep growing, being flexible and adapting to what’s happening to them, to ensure that they have a chance of succeeding. It is through this growth that the authors have highlighted important themes of friendship, loyalty and individual strengths.
The story leans more towards action than complexity, suiting younger readers, but there is room to develop the characters further in the rest of the series. I, for one, am looking forward to the next instalments of this suspenseful story.
Readers who like fast-paced action will enjoy this book. I read it aloud to my ten-year-old daughter and my eight-year-old son is eagerly awaiting a reserved copy of the audiobook on Borrowbox. Further, in the classroom, the moral dilemmas embedded in the story will raise interesting debate.
Dragon Mountain was shortlisted for the Sainsbury's Children's Book Awards. It was also shortlisted for the Children's Book of the Year (British Book Awards) and longlisted for the Diverse Book Awards.
I highly recommend this story. It’s heart-pumping stuff, making you feel alive. It certainly left me feeling wired for more.
It’s 1957 and a different world. Sarah, a 16-year-old girl has been living on her father’s farm for all her life. With World War 2 on the horizon and the launching of Russia’s satellite, Sarah’s life starts to slowly morph into chaos.
This first in a new series is like a glorious pudding
filled with many delicious ingredients: witches, ghosts, dragons and other
magical creatures, sinister villains, secrets, adventure, mystery, magic, lots
of humour, and touches of history, folklore, and legends. Clearly, this is going to have wide appeal and capture the imaginations of even your more reluctant readers.
Egg (Meghan) and Spel (Elspeth) are orphaned sisters who have been raised since their earliest years in the austere and severe Miss Mouldhell’s School for Wicked Girls.
The girls are not even allowed outside the school let alone out in the wider world and their meagre information about a normal girl’s life in 2021 has been gleaned from one illicitly obtained teen magazine.
Patrick Ness’s
latest young adult novel takes place in the 1950’s during the heart of the Cold
War. In this
reality, tensions are frostier than depicted in history. There is an imminent
threat as Russia (USSR) is sending a satellite into space which is regarded to
be the ultimate in spying technology.
Sarah Dewhurst
and her father Gareth hire Kazmir the dragon to help perform chores that help
keep the family farm operational. But this dragon is not what he seems and has
his own agenda. One that involves a world ending prophecy.
Malcolm is an agent, sent by the religious sect he grew up in, known as The Believers. He also has his own agenda that conflicts with the mission he has been sent on.
Or is it? Are dragons real?
Only one knight believes that dragons exist, and he is out to prove it, and perhaps he'll find some treasure while he's at it.
The trouble is, he doesn't seem to have much experience. This knight has a map, and it says where to find dragons.
So it should be easy, right? Well, maybe, if he can spot the clues.
To find dragons, you need to be looking closely all around you.
Although I had not read the earlier book, Tiger
Heart, there was no difficulty in reading this second which continues the
stories of guttersnipes in a London that blends Georgian and Victorian times in
a chaotic and colourful adventure.
Stick is a tumbler who performs in the streets with his chums, Spud and Sparrow. At night they take refuge with other street urchins on Pickled Herring Stairs and scratch their meagre livings as best they can. Usually, the Bartholomew Fair would be an occasion where there is money to be made easily but there is something very amiss (or more than usual) with the streets of London.
After weeks of stifling heat which has created the ‘great stink’ it now seems the very ground is breaking up beneath the citizens’ feet.
Now was not the time for Willow’s magic powers to
misbehave. After receiving an urgent leaf mail delivered by a friendly oak
tree, Willow is alerted to the news her friend Nolin Sometimes has gone
missing.
Nolin has been experimenting with cross pollinating
a memory flower with a Great Wisperia tree and can now successfully see 10
minutes into the future. What he sees is not good, it’s his own kidnapping and
his letter requests Willow, if she wouldn’t mind to come and rescue him.
Young witch Willow Moss has the ability to locate anything that is lost.
Unfortunately, at the moment Instead of finding things,
Willow’s magic is making things disappear including her kitchen and her sister
Camille – her mother is not impressed. They did reappear eventually but that
wasn’t the point.
