Dragon's Green

NOT SPOILER FREE

Dragon's Green is a joy to read with a writing style that reminded me of why I fell in love with reading in the first place. Throughout the story Thomas gave plenty of clever hints to allude to the importance of books and last editions in a way that could be understood by young readers. My favourite by far is the set up for Laura Wilde's series to become a last edition. Thomas does a great job of capturing the childish and fun feeling of magic while still giving it reasonable limitations.

If I didn't know it was the first book of a series I would've easily realized it was while reading it. It's greatest flaw is probably that it's so clearly a set up for the rest of the series. It's mostly just a book of worldbuilding with not much in the way of plot and the problems are solved with quite a bit of ease.

A great book for young readers, something I'm looking forward to reading with my niece.

Memorable Quote(s):

"You knocked on my door, which means you must have some questions. People without questions do not go knocking on strange doors." pg. 234

Potential Content Warnings:

There was a lot more child abuse than I was expecting and two cases of heavily implied adultery. None of these are described explicitly and are treated with a suitable level of seriousness given the likely ages of the readers. I don't see these as being justifiable reasons to not let children read these books but that might be a deal breaker for some parents. Considering I grew up on Guardians of Ga'Hoole and Silverwing I might not be the best judge of "child friendly."

The dragon was also written in a very uncomfortable way. He was often described as a "handsome man" and all he wants in life is to chat, have dinner, and eat with girls ages 11-16. He picks them from a catalogue and the girls are drugged in the morning so that they don't experience any pain when he eats them. It's never implied that he's doing anything sexual but it's very hard not to make that connection as an adult. I don't think any children readers will think much of him though and luckily the dragon portion of the story is relatively short.

Started: Sunday July 14 2024

Finished: Saturday July 27 2024

There weren't as many character interactions as I would have liked. And this is most likely due to the world building. So since that's out of the way, I look forward to seeing the friendships grow in the next books. I would love to see the characters grow up a little more with each book if this series goes long enough.

I picked this up because I've enjoyed Scarlett Thomas' adult books, and I have a magic obsessed nine year old. I read it it through first, and I liked it. It captures the minutiae of school life well, as well as having enough excitement and adventure to keep the attention. The principal characters feel like a real gang of school friends, and I think it will really appeal to young readers who want a bit of fantasy and magic. There are certain sequences and passages that as I was reading I was thinking “this would really hit a chord with my little girl. She (nine years old) is 20% through so far, and says it is “epic”and “awesome”.