Dragonrise

We're told early on in this book that 'interest in dragons is the beginning of all wisdom': they do seem eternally gripping story characters. This one is discovered by Tom who makes a secret friend of him. He is full of advice and wise sayings, has an appetite for sisters and, I should warn you, an extreme way of dealing with Tom's nagging teacher! A 'well-told story in which there's a genuinely suspense-laden plot: the writer has a very good ear for school scenes --- children and teacher are excellently-depicted. There's a musicality in the writing ('Dragons whose fire was quenched before I ever hatched once sat watching these same stars at the dark of the moon drinking the dark as we do ...') too rare in books for seven to tens. Attractive cover and generous page-spared pictures, too.