This book looked interesting and the way it read was certainly a different way all together that made me smile. The way the story was portrayed was certainly different. But in the end it was a very bland and predictable story, especially since in the beginning you are told right away that everyone lives and is just fine. In the end you don't have the suspense, the worry the hint of danger that you'd get with any other book. It's sort of like I flipped to the last page and read it, then read the book. I'm sitting safe and comfortable knowing all will be well and so don't feel any 'big' or serious emotions. I’d explain this book to someone with a wiggly hand gesture and a ‘meh’ noise with a smile. An amusing book but nothing but a time waster for those who are quick readers (it’s only 250ish pages after all).
Jude wants to be a man, destined for greater things than watchign the four plagues (his little sisters) and the swine his family raises to survive. He sets off to buy a new bow - he's saved for years - and returns to his village that night, tired from the ten mile walk to town. His village is gone. Fire and ash still burn and drift where once there were homes and people Everyone is dead. Everyone. His family, the kids who made fun of his big size and clumsy ways.A stirring of air - the noise of wings - and Jude cowers in the forest, hoping the dragon - a creature supposedly extinct fifty years ago - will leave the wreckage. So begins Jude's tale - a boy become a man, a dragon on the wing - and did I mention a girl? Jing Wei - a tiny girl locked in a tiny cage, with tiny feet.
Do You like book The Hunting Of The Last Dragon (2003)?
I am a huge fan of Sherryl Jordan books. I resisted picking this one up and it was different from other things she had written .... Younger kids and dragons was really not what I wanted to read about. HOWEVER ... I got desperate for something of hers to read and thought this was better than nothing .... I am so glad I did. The writing is great again! This is like the kids view of epic stories. What did I love about it? The care he took of his new companion, the very grown up life he had to take on when discovering his burned down village, his bravery, the telling of the story to the monk .... the superb writting!! Just loved it all. I have boys and girls from Year 7-13 reading and they then move on to her other books. Great piece of fiction.
—Eileen
