Book Review: The Dragon With a Chocolate Heart by Stephanie Burgis

The Dragon With a Chocolate Heart
by Stephanie Burgis (j Burgis)

Even though her dragon scales aren’t developed enough to give her adequate protection against humans, the young dragon Aventurine sneaks out of her family’s mountain cave to explore the world by herself. Her elders say she isn’t old enough to survive alone, however she wants to prove them wrong and catch a human.

But it’s not the thickness of her skin that turns out to be Aventurine’s downfall—it’s her stomach. A clever human food mage prepares Aventurine her first taste of chocolate, turning her into a human girl. Aventurine has to figure out how to survive without her scales, claws or fire breathing, and especially without her protective family. She sets out to find chocolate, in hopes that she can return to her dragon form.

After a series of trials and tribulations, Aventurine becomes an apprentice in a chocolate house. She doesn’t return to her dragon form upon her next taste of chocolate. But in the end she becomes something quite stronger than she imagined. It turns out dragons are not so different from humans. They both have annoying siblings and disapproving parents. They can be intelligent, have passions that make life worthwhile, and fiercely defend their families.

The Dragon With a Chocolate Heart is a wonderful fantasy story for kids from fourth grade to adult that teaches that life doesn’t always turn out how you expect. Aventurine discovers that if you face your fears and learn from your mistakes, in the end you might be able to live the best of both worlds.

And if you enjoy this book, you can read the sequel to the book called Girl with a Dragon Heart and the final book in the series The Princess Who Flew with Dragons.

(If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try Spark by Sarah Beth Durst or Wings of Fire series by Tui Sutherland.)

( official The Dragon With a Chocolate Heart page on the official Stephanie Burgis web site )

Recommended by Cindy K.

Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Service

Book Review: A Natural History of Dragons - A Memoir by Lady Trent by Marie Brennan

A Natural History of Dragons: A Memoir by Lady Trent
by Marie Brennan (Brennan)

A Natural History of Dragons begins a completed 5 book series in the voice of an old woman correcting the public record on her earlier, world-changing adventures.

 

Isabella is a girl born to minor nobility in a sort of fantasy world British Empire. She’s obsessed with dragons, which have not been studied thoroughly because they live in harsh environments and their enormous bodies decompose within a matter of hours. Isabella had little hope of even being permitted to discuss dragons until her sympathetic father put together a list of eligible young nobles with the right kind of scholarly bent to at least give her a proximity to her dreams.

 

Unsurprisingly, she doesn’t stay on the sidelines. When she and her husband accompany an expedition to a fantasy version of Slavic Eastern Europe to study dragons, they find that dragons have recently started seeking out humans for attacks. Isabella is forced into playing amateur detective as much as naturalist to cope with the strange happenings in a town that’s not friendly to outsiders, even as the locals are desperate for an end to the attacks.

[If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry.]

[ official Memoirs of Lady Trent series page on the official Marie Brennan web site ]

Check out more books like this in the Here There Be Dragons booklist on BookGuide!

 

Recommended by Garren H.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Service

 

Have you read or listened to this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide Blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!

Book Review: Dragonsong by Anne McCaffrey

Dragonsong
by Anne McCaffrey

First things first, there are dragons. I mean real, fire-breathing dragons that people ride. Second thing, Menolly, the main female protagonist is quietly strong in the face of adversity, pursuing her musical dreams over her family’s fishing dynasty. This world is set in an older time period, with wooden boats and no electronics yet, but with women in powerful roles. Menolly was, for me, a guide to reacting to life in a graceful manner, as opposed to righteously fighting against all troubles. She fought, don’t get me wrong, but not by flying off the handle. She used subtlety and grace to win her battles and showed me the value of a strategic retreat. This, for Menolly, resulted in some unlikely dragonet friends, whom she discovered, loved music as much as she does.

[If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try Dragonsinger, Dragondrums, or The Girl Who Heard Dragons, all by Anne McCaffrey, or Arrows of the Queen, The Black Gryphon, or Joust, all by Mercedes Lackey.]

[ Wikipedia page for Dragonsong ] | [ official Anne McCaffrey web site (archive) ]

Recommended by Rio B.
Bennett Martin Public Library

Have you read this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!

New Booklist: Here There Be Dragons

Fantasy fans, and lovers of classic literature -- you're invited to check out the latest new thematic booklist on the libraries' BookGuide readers services web pages --

Here There Be Dragons

This booklist features a hefty sampling of fiction (mostly "adult" titles), featuring dragons as characters or principle plot elements -- from antiquity to the modern era.

What is your favorite dragon-related story?

Blood of Tyrants

Blood of Tyrants
by Naomi Novik

This is the eighth book in the Temeraire series by author Naomi Novik. This story starts out with a shipwreck which leaves our hero with amnesia on a foreign shore. Separating Captain Laurence from his beloved dragon, Temeraire, and putting him into a dangerous situation from the beginning of the book made this novel stand out as one of the best in the series for me. We are drawn back into the Napoleonic wars and thrown into battle once more -- with a Captain who doesn't remember how to fight with dragons anymore! The book ends with a cliffhanger which will undoubtedly be followed by more books in this series. -- recommended by Kim J. - Bennett Martin Public Library

[If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try His Majesty's Dragon by Naomi Novik, plus any books in the Hornblower series by C.S. Forester.]

[ Fan-created Wiki for the world of Temeraire ] | [ official Naomi Novik web site ]

Have you read this? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewers recommendations!

The Dragon Business (audiobook)

The Dragon Business
by Kevin J. Anderson [Compact Disc Anderson]

The stylistic tone of this fantasy novel by Kevin J. Anderson is a little extreme, but if you like absurdist fantasies, you'll probably enjoy this one. Imagine Monty Python meets J.R.R. Tolkien. The Dragon Business (and at this time the libraries only own this in book-on-cd audiobook format), is a story told on two levels. In an extensive framing sequence, King Cullin "the Dragon Slayer" is taking his bookish young son on a father-son outing to a local tavern to introduce him to some of the commoners in the kingdom. While enjoying their boys' night out, King Cullin shares with Prince Maurice some tales of himself as a young lad, swept into service as a squire an apprentice dragonslayer. Only, young Cullin worked as part of a small crew of con artists, manufacturing fake dragon attacks and offering up their services to rid small kingdoms of the supposedly fearsome creatures. Until the scam crew finds themselves facing the responsibility of eliminating an actual dragon. The dialog is at times hilarious, the situations that Cullin, brave Sir Dalbry and gravedigger Reeger find themselves in are both silly and serious. And you'll find yourself rooting for young Princess Affonyl, who'd rather fake her own death by dragon attack and go on the lam than face a marriage arranged by her father. Anderson puts a lot of "modern" twists on the terminology and scenarios in the book, and those who prefer their their fantasy novels "pure" and/or realistic will want to avoid this one. But if you're looking for some laughs, give it a try! -- recommended by Scott C. - Bennett Martin Public Library [ see Scott's Reviewer Profile and more of his reviews ]

[If you enjoy this, the closest match I can think of, stylistically, to this novel is the film Monty Python and the Holy Grail, and/or the stage musical inspired by that film, Monty Python's Spamalot.]

[ Audio publisher's official Dragon Business web page ] | [ official Kevin J. Anderson web site ]

 Have you read this? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?
New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewers recommendations!

Customer Review: How to Break a Dragon's Heart

How to Break a Dragon's Heart
by Cressida Cowell [j Cowell]

I really like this book because it has a very good story line and if you have read the previous books,it fills in some of the blanks. Plus, the characters are very real and you will have a hard time forgetting them. There is Adventure and Mystery. I reccomend this book to anyone who has a heart. -- review submitted by Felicity N. - a customer of the Gere Branch Library

Have you read this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New Customer Reviews appear regularly in the pages of the BookGuide web site, particularly during the Summer Reading Program. You can visit the Customer Reviews page to see them all and/or submit your own, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide blog individually as we receive them.

Customer Review: How to Ride a Dragon's Storm

How to Ride a Dragon's Storm: The Heroic Misadventures of Hiccup the Viking
by Cressida Cowell [j Cowell]

I thought this book was really funny and well writin. The characters are unforgetable and lovable, especialy Hicup Horrendus Haddock 3rd. I have already read the story numerous times and it never gets old. I recommend this book to anyone ages 7-1007. -- review submitted by Felicity N. - a customer of the Gere Branch Library

Have you read this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New Customer Reviews appear regularly in the pages of the BookGuide web site, particularly during the Summer Reading Program. You can visit the Customer Reviews page to see them all and/or submit your own, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide blog individually as we receive them.

Customer Review - Eragon

Eragon
by Christopher Paolini [j Paolini]

The book starts out with a discription of an elf named Arya riding through the forest and she appears to be carring a very important object. A shade, or a bad warlock, named Darza attackes Arya and trys to take the object but she uses magic to transport it far away. On the other side of the country a boy named Eragon is tracking a deer when a burst of blue fire scares the doe away. When the smoke clears he sees an oval shaped blue rock. He goes around trying to find out what it is but no one seems to know. One night the rock began to move and out popped a little baby dragon. As Eragon raised Saphira, his dragon, a local storyteller named Brom started to take a particular intrest in what happened to his rock. After a while the town started to become suspitious of Saphira and two creatures called the Raz'zac came and scared Eragon and Saphira enough to leave. Brom came with them after explaining that he could help. So they set off on a journey to kill the Raz'zac but there are a few complications, Eragon feels compelled to rescure a beautiful elf from a near by town, Brom doesnt think that is a good idea. When they go to resure her Brom is stabbed and a man named Murtagh saves Eragon. After a few days Brom ends up dyeing and since Eragon doesnt know exactly what to do he ends up headed to find the Varden along with Saphira, Murtagh, and the sick elf. It takes a long time but they finally reach the Varden and for some reason Murtagh is put in prison. When Eragon askes why they say its because he is the son of an evil man named Morzan. There is little down time though because almost as soon as they get to the Varden a bunch of creatures called the Urgals attack. The only way the Varden ended up winning was because, with the help of Arya (the elf Eragon had saved) and Saphira, Eragon killed Darza whom seemed to be controling the Urgals. -- review submitted by Whitney L. - a customer of the Gere Branch Library

Have you read this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New Customer Reviews appear regularly in the pages of the BookGuide web site, particularly during the Summer Reading Program. You can visit the Customer Reviews page to see them all and/or submit your own, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide blog individually as we receive them.

New Customer Review - Eragon

Eragon
by Christopher Paolin [j Paolini]

This book starts out with the main character in a forest called the Spine where he finds a blue stone that appears out of nowhere and he is soon to find out it is a DRAGON. The long gone Dragon Riders have been gone for so long that Eragon is the only Dragon Rider who is free of the control of Galbatorix the mad king. -- review submitted by Tyler P. - a customer of the Gere Branch Library

Have you read this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New Customer Reviews appear regularly in the pages of the BookGuide web site. You can visit the Customer Reviews page to see them all and/or submit your own, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide blog individually as we receive them.

Tongues of Serpents

Tongues of Serpents
by Naomi Novik

This, the sixth in the popular Temeraire series, by Novik, was probably my least favorite so far. However, I'd still rather read an "average" Temeraire novel than one from almost any other series. The Temeraire books, equal parts historical adventure and fantasy, are styled after the Horatio Hornblower novels of C.S. Forester, but with intelligent (and often quite cultured) dragons as the "sailing vessels". Former British naval officer Will Laurence, convicted of treason in the previous volume of the series for his actions in battle against Napoleon's forces, is sentenced, with his free-thinking dragon Temeraire, to an 8-month journey by sea to the British penal colony of Australia. Once there, in order to try to remain outside the political fray of a rebellion in the colony, Laurance, Temeraire and their fellow dragons and aviators take on the task of tracking smugglers in the interior of the Australian continent. Though this volume in the series has almost no outright "action" and "adventure" it is filled with character development and changes in the political landscape that forms the backdrop of this Napoleonic-era plot. I've seen it mentioned in other reviews, and I'd have to agree -- in the complicated gameboard of Temeraire's world, Tongues of Serpents felt like Novik moving the playing pieces into place for their next big encounter, but never quite getting to that encounter. A tasty treat, but a bit too much of a tease for the next volume. -- recommended by Scott C. - Bennett Martin Public Library

[ official fan-created Wiki for the world of Temeraire ] | [ official Naomi Novik web site ]

Have you read this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide web site. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide blog individually over the course of the entire month.