Calder - Book Reviews

***** - Excellent
**** - Good
*** - Okay
** - Bad
* - Terrible
+ - Half-star

Dragonslayer's Apprentice
David Calder
Point (Scholastic)
Fiction, YA Fantasy
***
Dragonslayer's Apprentice

DESCRIPTION: The Dragonslayer and his assistant of few words, Ron, have picked up a new apprentice. Her name is Jackie, and though she isn't forthcoming about her origins, she is determined to become a dragonslayer herself. The three wander the countryside facing all sorts of rampaging beasts, all while Jackie works toward her ultimate goal.

REVIEW: This is a light book. Light in heart, light in plot, light in tension, light in characterization. It reads more like someone telling you about a story than a book where you are actually involved in the story as it unfolds, if that makes any sense. There is never any indication that anyone or anything would fail, or that anything unexpected would occur. It reads fast, largely because there's not much to it.

You might also enjoy:
Dragon's Keep (Janet Lee Carey, YA Fiction - A princess with a dragon-claw finger faces malevolent dragons)
The Dragonslayers (Bruce Coville, YA Fiction - Unlikely heroes hunt a menacing dragon)
The Hero and the Crown (Robin McKinley, YA Fiction - A princess discovers a talent for dragon slaying)
Dragonheart (Charles Edward Pogue, Fiction - A cynical dragonslayer teams up with the last dragon to defeat an evil king)
Deltora Quest (Emily Rodda, YA Fiction - Young heroes in a fractured land undertake a dangerous, monster-filled quest)
The Hobbit (J. R. R. Tolkien, YA? Fiction - A reluctant hobbit joins a company of dwarves in a quest to the lair the great dragon Smaug)
Here, There Be Dragons (Jane Yolen, YA Fiction - Anthology of dragon stories)

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