"If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales." Albert Einstein

14 July 2014

The Last Dragonslayer


Fforde, Jasper. The Last Dragonslayer. HMH BFYR, 2012.

Jennifer Strange is running a company that employs wizards and sends them out to fix problems for people. Then everyone starts predicting that the last dragon is about to die, and Jennifer is forced into a complicated relationship with the current dragonslayer and the dragon. She has to make a lot of adult decisions even though she's still a teen. This is an interesting fantasy story with a foot in the real world.

I listened to the audio version of this book, and there were certain aspects of the story I enjoyed a lot. I loved the Quarkbeast and how all he did was say "Quark" every once in a while. I was glad that Jennifer was the hero, and that it wasn't really a big deal that she happened to be a girl. I thought the personalities of the different wizards were very well developed. Overall, this is a great story. I don't know that it will be very popular with my middle school students, no matter how interesting I found it, though.

Recommended for: young adults
Red Flags: fantasy violence
Overall Rating: 4/5 stars

Read-alike: Terry Pratchett, especially his Tiffany Aching series

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