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Read The Dragon's Boy (1990)

The Dragon's Boy (1990)

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Rating
3.58 of 5 Votes: 2
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ISBN
0060267895 (ISBN13: 9780060267896)
Language
English
Publisher
harpercollins publishers

The Dragon's Boy (1990) - Plot & Excerpts

Young Artos lives in Sir Ector's castle and is shoved around by the other boys. One day, while tracking down a wayward hound, he discovers a cave that has a dragon living in it. The dragon offers him wisdom in exchange for pots of gravy and meat.It's a grand tale of young King Arthur with some familiar characters. He doesn't become king by the end of this book, but he's well on his way to understanding how to lead people. He gains some understanding of himself and the people around him as well. I enjoyed it and found it clever and engaging. The character of Artos changes quite a bit over the short length of the book and Yolen is a masterful storyteller. There are some nice surprises in the lessons that Artos learns throughout the book. Included in the ebook is a note by the author about how the book got written along with a nice personal history of Jane Yolen with photographs. According to the author, she has a sum of books of 335. If you've never read anything by her, you owe a look at her work.I was given a review copy of the book by Open Road Integrated Media and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for letting me review this book.

I checked this out for my nephew because I was tired of reading his Animorph reviews. Now that I have finally read it I feel embarrassed that I pushed this book on him. Not one of Yolen's best. It wasn't a bad book really, but when reading it as if I was 9 years old I realized that it was a very confusing and dull book. The language and subject matter was more for a teen-ager. So my gripe might be more with the library system for putting in the Juvenile section when it should have been put in the Young Adult section.So, one thing I could not tell was whether this book was pro- or anti- Christianity. And was it pro- or anti- the existence of dragons? I am not sure. A fantasy book that included Christian references and faeries but twisted it all up in such a way that it made me wonder what the motivation for this book might really be since it wasn't fun and exciting and creative enough to be a purely a fantasy book about dragons.

What do You think about The Dragon's Boy (1990)?

13-year-old Artos stumbles across a cave while searching for Sir Ector's hound, and the thundering voice of a dragon ropes him into stew in exchange for wisdom each week. Slowly Artos begins to rethink his world and his place in it, just as he finally wins the respect of larger knights-to-be who have been pummeling and teasing him for years. This is a great book to hand to readers who can handle advanced vocabulary but aren't ready for mature content (or middle school boys). A short read that can easily be mistaken for an early reader, Yolen's story is an original tale of King Arthur that gives a nod to the traditional stories and preserves the same flavor, but has almost none of the same events. A good story in its own right, it would make for good classroom discussion on how it compares to the original legends as well.
—Corinne

When I agreed to review The Dragon's Boy for Open Road Media, I checked off the book due to its title. I did not know Jane Yolen, so this the first book of her's I read.Turns out Jane is a prolific writer in both SF & Fantasy and a self confessed Aurthur-holic.This is a charming tale about the boy Artos and his longing for more from life. Old Linn wants to give it to him but chooses a unique way of doing so. Artos discovers a cave in a lonely tor with a resident dragon. he trades lessons in order to gain status within the castle.This is an old fashioned page turner that you will not want to put down till the end.
—Bill Tillman

THE DRAGON'S BOY is a sweet, short retelling of the King Arthur mythos. It's similar to the Disney movie "The Sword In the Stone" but it reshapes things like Merlin and that sword in subtly different ways. For such a short book, there's quite a large twist at the end, but it's an interesting one. Sick of being bullied by the older boys at Sir Ector's small castle, Artos is happy to find a dragon who offers him wisdom in exchange for pots of gravy with meat. Artos complies, and learns, but soon is able to take his place with the other boys and ignores the dragon and its wisdom for a while. Of course, Artos eventually wants the dragon's help, but what he finds there is not what he expects. This is a short story, so we don't see how Artos incorporates his hard-earned lessons, but they are good ones, presented in novel ways. If you are a fan of King Arthur mythology, you'll enjoy this quick reimagining of how he gained the wisdom to become great.Received as a free digital ARC via Netgalley and the publisher.
—Jennifer

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