The Boy Who Dreamed of Dragons – at a glance
The School Reading Lists’ five word review: Dragons, adventure – a real winner.
Children’s book titles: The Boy Who Dreamed of Dragons (The Boy Who Grew Dragons, book 4).
Children’s author: by Andy Shepherd.
Genre: Children’s fiction.
Illustrated by: Sara Ogilvie.
Published by: Piccadilly Press.
ISBN: 9781848129252
Recommended for children aged: 7-11.
First published: Paperback June 2020.
This children’s book is ideal for: children who enjoy adventure and escapism.
To see the latest price or order, click on the book cover image.
Our review:
There are two types of people in the world: those who assert that only the surfaces of things have any meaning or value and those with imagination.
William Blake saw angels in the leaves of the trees as he walked through Lambeth. T S Eliot created a vision of London inhabited by other-worldly creatures with names like Madame Sosostris. All religions claim that the real world is not the one we see around us every day.
Fairies, goblins, pixies, dragons….we ‘know’ they’re not there, but some part of our psyche leaves a place for them.
The latest in the series of dragon books by Andy Shepherd is a real winner. Tomas has a dragontree at the bottom of his grandparents’ garden. Young dragons grow up there, before leaving for their home in the far north. Zing, a tiny dragon with wings far too big for him, causes mayhem and chaos with everything he touches. When Tomas makes friends with Aura at school, one adventure follows another.
This is a ‘believable’ story, not just because it takes place in a familiar and homely world, but because a young reader will feel assured from the start that the author is tapping into memories and feelings from her own childhood.
As with people, there are two types of writer for children. The first, more authentic, type can inhabit the world they knew when they were still growing, without any effort. A A Milne is such a writer; children know he’s a ‘grown-up’ but they see that the world he creates, or re-visits, is there for everyone, all their lives.
The second type sits down at the computer with one ambition: to get some sort of media deal and make a load of cash. If I can see this after slogging through the first twenty pages, I’m sure any ten-year-old can as well.
Andy Shepherd is a Type 1. Sara Ogilvie is an A-grade illustrator.
Many thanks to Bonnier Books for the review copy.
If you like these books you might also like The Boy Who Grew Dragons by Andy Shepherd (our book of the month from July 2018), The Boy Who Lived with Dragons by Andy Shepherd and The Boy Who Flew with Dragons by Andy Shepherd.
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