The Boy Who Dreamed of Dragons (The Boy Who Grew Dragons 4)

By Author / Illustrator

Andy Shepherd

Genre

Magical Realism

Age range(s)

Publisher

Templar Publishing

ISBN

9781848129252

Format

Paperback / softback

Published

11-06-2020

Synopsis

Eleven-year-old Tomas has a secret friend like no other: Flicker, a dragon with glittering eyes and scales that flicker from fiery orange to ruby red. But Tomas is also having to get used to Flicker being away, now that his dragon's home is back in the frosty North. Adventure is never far away for Tomas, though - as he finds out when another dragon hatches on the dragonfruit tree at the bottom of the garden, a dragon who quite quickly decides he is sticking firmly with Tomas! Zing is a tiny dragon with oversized wings, who causes havoc wherever he goes.

When a new girl, Aura, starts at school, proclaiming herself to be a dragon expert, Tomas is thrown into confusion. He is the one with the dragons and the dragonfruit tree, after all! Before he knows it, Tomas has blurted out his secret to Aura, and sets in motion a chain of events which will lead to adventures and mayhem aplenty...

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Reviews

I completely love this series of books and have been waiting eagerly for this next installment. It is such a pleasure to be back with Tomas and his superhero squad of friends and to be reunited with their mischievous, mesmerising dragons.

Tomas and Flicker's relationship is as tenderly and affectionately depicted as always and it really does warm the reader's heart. In The Boy Who Dreamed of Dragons (book four), the story brings in a new generation of small but chaos-causing winged wonders. Change is on the horizon as some new, very unusual dragons, hatch, friends find their own paths and Tomas feels the weight of tending to the precious dragon fruit seeds to ensure the future of these magical creatures.

Tomas's newly hatched dragon is huge fun to meet - bringing mayhem and mixed emotions (and the smell of burning !). Andy Shepherd gently and sensitively explores Tomas's conflicted sense of new loyalties to his original, much loved dragon Flicker and his new, hard to handle bundle of energy (literally), Zing. The introduction of new, self-proclaimed 'dragon expert' Aura moves along the action in a new (hopefully ongoing) direction as again, the reader gets to share the pure joy of a character discovering the delightful secret of the dragons' existence.

I love the sense of wonder and imagination that soak through these books and the absolute joy and inspiration for creativity I think they give the reader. Looking forward to book five already!

272 pages / Ages 6+ / Reviewed by Jenny Caddick, teacher