Dragon Keeper
by Carole Wilkinson
Junior
Macmillan
£8.99
ISBN: 0330441086
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The Coming of Dragons
Buy this book from Amazon UK
Buy this book from Amazon UKTo adapt Wallis Simpson's view of being rich and thin, I believe that you can't have too many dragons. I've loved a wondrous variety of them in fiction, from The Hobbit through Anne McCaffrey to Shrek. Ive even perpetrated a few myself. Now Carole Wilkinson makes a notable addition to the roster.
It's a lovely tale about little unworldly Ping, a slave girl in a fictionalised Han empire, who rescues and befriends a grand old dragon. Falsely accused of sorcery, she flees with him, seeking the Ocean that will renew him and his mysterious dragon stone. They are delightful characters, their adventures are thrilling and fast-paced but also deliciously absorbing. Irresistible enchantment.
From ancient China to Dark Ages Britain with A.J. Lake, whose book features two children - strangers to one another - who survive shipwreck at the same time as a fearsome dragon called Torment is freed from captivity by dark sorcery.
In their travels and adventures afterwards, Edmund, a king's son, discovers a scary psychic power within himself. And Elspeth, a sea-captain's daughter, unwillingly acquires a magical, invisible sword. Though the dragon doesn't reappear till the end, the dark sorcery does, along with other terrors aplenty. And Torment will surely return in the rest of the trilogy, which will keep many young readers reading with torches under the bedclothes.