Carole Wilkinson

Reading Dragon Keeper, I was automatically caught up in the spirit of the time period it is set in. But it wasn’t just the Chinese culture that struck me as true and genuine, it was also the Dragon culture, which was well thought out and wonderfully blended into the story. While reading I realized just how connected the Chinese culture was with the Dragons. It is almost a case of the chicken and the egg; did the use of gongs and chimes attract dragons to the humans or did the humans seek a show more way to replicate what they heard come from these majestic creatures? Who knew of qi first? Who first knew of herbs and healing? None of these things are brought up so obviously in the book, but as someone who thinks highly of the idea of the dragons having shared knowledge with humans and having lived among peoples of the past and taught them, these things easily crossed my mind as I was reading.

The story is well thought out from its humble beginning to the ending that isn’t as much of an ending as it is a continuation of life. Our lives aren’t split up into chapters and our memorable moments in time don’t necessarily have sharp, clean endings. A person may lose their job but the story doesn’t stop there. Will they find another one? Will they find themselves in the same line of work as before or has that person learned a lesson that has pointed them on a different path? What will the new job bring? So many books simply end instead of allowing the mind to continue with these questions and I found the end of Dragon Keeper both fitting to the culture of the Dragons and refreshing in it’s final non-resolution. “Who knows how things will end? Perhaps there is no end.”

Dragon Keeper is not only a well planned story, but it is well told. The plot will keep your attention, but it is the attention to details that makes you thirst for even more. I admit to knowing little of Chinese history, but the book seemed well settled in its time period and I found nothing to jostle my mind from the story in that regard. Chinese words and concepts are easily sewn into the story, teaching readers the powers of qi, the mathematics of counting, the geography of an area and its distances or types of money, all without jarring you away from the tale being told. It all comes naturally, even without the dictionary and pronunciation guides at the back, because as Danzai teaches Ping about life beyond slavery, you realize that you heave learned as well.

In fact, the entire story is not just Ping’s journey to learn about herself and her country, it is the story of the reader’s journey as well. While holding the book, you travel the countryside with a girl and a Dragon, share their joys and sorrows, participate in their adventures and reach the ocean with them as they begin new parts of their lives.

If you are a fan of the Neverending Story or DragonHeart, you will probably find yourself as desperate for the rest of the series as I have become. I would also highly recommend this book to anyone who has pet rats, as I found great joy in reading about Ping’s rat, the most honorable Hua. show less

Historical fiction for middle grade readers at its compelling, shocking, fascinating best.

Nic is left in the care of her grandfather at the remote family property that was once her mother’s childhood home; a place with thirty rooms, three dogs and no mobile reception. Left to her own devices, she searches for clues about her mother – who died the day Nic was born. But when Nic learns how to slip through time, she discovers more than she could have imagined. The past holds a dark and show more shocking secret that haunts the land and the people who live there.
Booktopia show less

This is a really nice book - in the beginning.

The idea of everything is amazingly old, and yet so fresh. The way the author portrays things isn't so special, and yet you really do end up feeling connected to the characters - sometimes.

I guessed a lot of the plots pretty much before they'd started. I guess after a month or so of reading the pretty much unpredictable (for me, anyways) HP series I am ready for a lot of things. I guessed that the dragon stone was an egg even when Ping found it show more in the dragon pit.

I felt personally that the end was unsatisfying, simply because I'd guessed everything before it happened. The things I hadn't guessed seemed to have been made up on the spot and difficult to comprehend, and though the book ended as if to say "That part's over, now for the next", I didn't really feel as though many loose ends had been tied up. As I was reading I was simply stacking up little mysteries, such as the Emporer biting his fingernails being mentioned more than once. Unless I just missed the cause of this in a moment of haste, or failed to read between the lines when the reason was indicated, I couldn't figure out why this was so. As for a lot of the other little things in the book, I thought the same.

But through and through the book, reading it until the last few pages, I really thought this was a nice, heart-warming tale. Gruesome in some parts, and some things unexpected apart from the author's want to make everything predictable due to Ping's abilities, I loved it. I love reading about different people's take on dragons especially, but unicorns, pegasus, pheonixes etc. and this Chinese Dragon Keeper take on it all was an interesting and enjoyable read.

Overall I recommend this, for the beginning and middle. I don't doubt the next book will be great as well, and I can't wait to read it! show less

Book series continues to be incredibly cute. Thought I missed Danzi in this book, Kai is also a pretty good dragon ... although the fact that it'll be several hundred, if not thousand, years before he can be a proper dragon and fly and stuff is a bit sad. Oh well.

Good twists in this one, they weren't super-obvious but were still set up in a way so that you could kinda see them coming. Ping's life really isn't easy though, is it? I kept waiting for her to run away with the princess and let's show more just say I was't too disappointed on that part.

Though do I believe Hua is gone forever after this book? I sure hope not, because that is one crafty rat. I also thought that Ping and Jun might go off on adventures together, but it turns out he was just a fake geek boy so she dropped him like a potato. Good going, Ping.

Based on the description of book three it sounds freaking awesome, so I hope it delivers! show less