“He grabbed the old woman and shoved her in the direction of the food store. ‘You go with her, rat-girl,’ he shouted.”

The novel Dragonkeeper is about a slave girl, a dragon and a mysterious stone. Ping, the main protagonist, finds herself in a village with an evil master, Master Lan. Master Lan makes her a slave to look after the dragons though Ping is not interested in feeding the dragons and usually takes their food for herself. After one of the dragons dies a cruel death, Ping realises she needs to look after the last dragon in the village. Ping and the dragon start to grow fond of each other and she finds a stone in the dragon’s pen. After Ping lets the dragon out of the pen, Ping gets in huge trouble. She needs to escape or she will be executed but then she realises that the stone means heaps to the dragon and it won’t leave without it. Ping and the dragon named Danzy escape with the stone on a big journey across the land to the sea.

The book is an unbelievably great fictional fantasy/adventure novel. It as an amazing story of Ping. The start of the book drags you into the story, which you cannot leave until you have read the whole book. The story leaves you in suspense making you want to read on and on. I cannot tell you enough how good this book is. Even without illustrations the book is so well worded that you can just imagine everything happening. This book has been extremely thought out. It leaves me wanting to read more of Carole Wilkinson’s books. I would recommend this book to everyone because every age and gender would love this book.

Max D. Year 8

———————–

‘“Dinner time,” she said. One dragon stirred. She could barely make out its shape. It lifted its snout to sniff the food, then turned its head away.’

Did this sentence sound interesting? This book is called the Dragonkeeper. It is a fantasy tale of a nameless slave girl and a dragon who travel through ancient China to reach the ocean, carrying a purple dragon stone with them and encountering many dangers on their strange quest, a journey of friendship and self discovery.

Danzi (the dragon) gives Ping her name and they escape together with Ping’s friend Hua who is a rat and they make their way out of palace of Huangling carrying the dragonstone towards the ocean. They face many trials, dangers and distractions along the way. Pursued by both Diao and The Necromancer on their journey, they overcome these evil men, and also meet The Emperor.

The protagonist Ping is brave, kind and courageous. I think Dragonkeeper is an amazing written book. Its vocabulary is very rich and full of descriptive language that helps build an image of the towns and villages of ancient China, where the story takes place. I recommend this book because it is a terrific book, and I want to share the joy it gave me. It is an exciting book and it is hard to put down, and it makes you want to read to the bitter end. I think that this book is well suited for people who like fantasy and fictional novels, I believe it is suitable for readers aged 10 and above because of the difficult vocabulary. And I rate this book 8/10 because I enjoy the way the characters act and have emotion and I enjoy the setting of the book.

Ethan P., Year 8

—————————-

” A bamboo bowl flew through the air, aimed at the slave girl’s head.”

The book is set in the far western mountains of the Han Empire in ancient China, where an ageing dragon and a young slave girl named Ping are abused and neglected by the cruel Master Lan. Nameless and alone, the slave girl is without hope. Ping’s only friend is her pet rat, Hua. Long Danzi gave Ping a stone which he said to keep safe. After that Hua, Long Danzi and Ping escape the Palace. Master Lan is Ping’s master. He is a lazy and cruel man and he lies about himself being an Imperial Dragon Keeper. Ping is a slave girl who gets abused by Master Lan and has a friend called Long Danzi. Long Danzi is an ancient green dragon; the last wild imperial dragon in the Han Empire. He travels with Ping.

This is a good read for people who like fiction books because it is about a dragon and a slave girl Ping. Ping has to look after something that looks like a stone. I have enjoyed reading Dragonkeeper because I like fictional books with weird and amazing things and plot twists. I don’t like reading books but this book was a great book. I don’t read books but l liked this book. I just got stuck into this book like I do with caramel chocolate. This book is not like any other book I have read. This book was amazing. I definitely recommend this book to young adults or elderly between the ages of 13 to 25 and 60 and over. If you read the first paragraph you will want to keep reading it. I’d rate this book ‘Dragon keeper’ 7 out of 10.

Lachlan H., Year 8