#BLOGTOUR: Dragon River by Rob Saunders #MiddleGrade #DragonRiver @RandomTTours

Welcome to my stop on the blog tour for Dragon River by Rob Saunders with illustrations by Gillian Martin.

Book Blurb:

This story has everything:

A boy who turns into a dragon… and back again.

The longest most boring train ride ever.

Bully boys, making stuff and a near disaster on the river
There’s even magic, 2 court cases, a plane ride and a song.

Join the Drakko family, the nasty Purkisses, teacher Hippoltya Scythe, singer Solange Luna and Percy the phenomenal child artist, along with Gallo the superhero dragon!

• 

• 

Sounds good, right?!?!

And when I read the blurb to my daughter she was excited. The title had her hooked, the blurb just sealed the deal.

Dragons are always a big hit in our house. ALWAYS. And not only did the book arrive but we were also sent a lovely little silver dragon – My daughter was delighted! Thank you. She has plans to paint him.

• 

• 

• 

Dragon River was ok, and great in parts but my daughter who is 7 struggled a little with the writing. She’s not entirely reading chapter books by herself so we are still very much reading together, but a lot of the sentences were long, a little stilted and had more punctuation than she is used to. The short chapters did help to speed up the pace of the story and I love short chapters in a child’s book – so important for bedtime reading!

My daughter loved the theatre aspect – she wants to write her own play about dragons and she will probably throw in a pirate or two, some villains and definitely some singing. Always a good sign when a book inspires!

The illustrations are fantastic.

I loved them. My daughter loved them! And I am sure you will love them.

The dragons were our absolute favourites.

• 

• 

Overall, my daughter liked parts of the story but she didn’t always reach for it. She thought “Dragon River was good but not my favourite” We have read quite a few amazing books lately and as much as she loves dragons they can’t quite compete with Slime monsters or superhero cat burglars. But she was more than happy to pop the book on her to keep bookshelf.

We received a copy of Dragon River by Rob Saunders for review from the author, which was all arranged by the blog tour organiser – Thank you! And thank you for our little silver dragon.