The Dragon that Ate Summer
Brenda Seabrooke
Scholastic
Fiction, YA Fantasy
****
DESCRIPTION: Alistair's summer plans - going to summer camp with his friends, skateboarding on his newly-devised dog-powered skateboard train, and generally enjoying the freedom from school - came to a crashing end when he broke his collarbone. Now, he's stuck at home while all his friends are away at camp, under doctor's orders to do nothing strenuous. His best friend Josh hasn't even written him a postcard! It looks like a long and miserable summer... until something starts eating his mother's flowers. Alistair investigates, finding a most unusual culprit: a little blue dragon! He's never been allowed to have pets before because of his sister Claudia's allergies, so how is he going to keep his new best friend a secret? The worst summer of his life is going to turn into the most interesting one ever... unless he gets caught with a dragon in his bedroom.
REVIEW: I may be cutting this tale more slack than I should by giving it a Good rating. It was light and fun, and Alistair learns some important lessons about responsibility, pet ownership, and thinking things through. The ending felt abrupt to me. It's certainly worth a place on any young dragon-lover's reading list.
You might also enjoy:
Tales of Great Dragons (J. K. Anderson, YA Fiction - A good introduction to dragon lore, with pictures to color)
Dragon (Jody Bergsma, YA Picture Book - A peaceful prince meets an angry dragon)
Faerie Wars (Herbie Brennan, YA Fiction - A boy finds a faerie prince in the garden)
Do-It-Yourself Magic (Ruth Chew, YA Fiction - Two kids buy more than they bargained for when they find a clearance "Build-Anything Kit" at the store)
Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher (Bruce Coville, YA Fiction - A boy buys a dragon's egg at a magic shop... never expecting it to actually hatch)
The Spiderwick Chronicles (Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black, YA Fiction - A boy discovers a field guide to an invisible magical world around us)
Hatching Magic and The Dragon of Never-Was (Ann Downer, YA Fiction - A modern Boston girl finds a wyvern hatchling, and later investigates a mysterious scale found in Scotland)
Dragonsdale (Salamanda Drake, YA Fiction - At a dragon riding academy in magical Bresal, the stablemaster's daughter is forbidden to fly)
Dragon Rider (Cornelia Funke, YA Fiction - An orphan boy and a brownie accompany a dragon to a hidden sanctuary in the Himalayas)
Step Inside Dragons (Gaby Goldsack, Nick Harris, and Richard Jewitt, YA Picture Book - A 3D exploration of dragons)
The Dragonling series (Jackie French Koller, YA Fiction - A boy finds a newborn dragon in his slain mother's pouch)
The Harper Hall trilogy (Anne McCaffrey, Fiction - On the world of Pern, a girl discovers legendary fire lizards, ancestors of Pern's great dragons)
The Fablehaven series (Brandon Mull, YA Fiction - Two kids discover a magical sanctuary on their grandparents' vast estate)
Eragon (Christopher Paolini, Fiction - A farmboy finds a rare dragon's egg)
Avalon: Circles in the Stream (Shelly Roberts, YA Fiction - Three girls find magical creatures from another world in an old wildlife sanctuary)
The Dragon of Lonely Island and Return of the Dragon (Rebecca Rupp, YA Fiction - Children find a three-headed dragon in a cave on their great-aunt's private island)
The Dragonology books (Dugald A. Steer, editor, YA Fiction - The notebooks of a 19th century "dragonologist" describe the world's threatened dragon population)
How to Raise and Keep a Dragon (John Topsell, Joseph Nigg "editor," YA Fiction - How to choose and keep a pet dragon)
The Dragons of Ordinary Farm (Tad Williams and Deborah Beale, YA Fiction - Two kids find very unusual animals living on their great-uncle's California farm)
The Pit Dragon Chronicles (Jane Yolen, YA Fiction - On Austar IV, a slave boy steals a hatchling dragon from his master)
The Dragonback Adventures (Timothy Zahn, YA Fiction - An orphaned teen thief reluctantly teams up with an honorable dragonlike alien)
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