The Last Dragon

I found it too frustrating not to be able to make out the dragon in the blotch of faded colors. I mean, I get it, the point is that it takes a neighborhood to turn such a large bundle of trash into such an important treasure. But the boy saw the dragon right away, even covered in cobwebs... Ah well. I also am not comfortable with the jumpiness of the story; it seemed like I was continually missing paragraphs or pages. Again, that was intentional, to keep the concise focus on the boy and the dragon, and to let the art tell part of the story, but I just kept getting confused/ frustrated.

The illustrations of Christ Soentpiet never fails to accompany the story in a wonderful manner. A young boy is sent to spend his elderly Aunt in Chinatown. originally bored and not wanting to be there, he notices a dragon kite in an old shop window. He talks his auntie into letting him bring the raggedly kite to her apartment. Soon, her extended group of friends also become excited about fixing the kite as together they solicit the help of others to make it new again.

This is a beautiful story of generations and the importance of culture. Highly recommended!

This book was great for its cultural part of it concerning the Chinese culture, as well as the importance of dragons in their culture. Determination was evident in the boy, which also showed how earning and working towards something is better than expecting things to be given to you.

The Last Dragon is a wonderful tale about how a little boy enlisted and brought together people of different professions to restore a ten-man Chinese dragon that the boy sees in a thrift store window. The illustrations by Chris K. Soentpiet are rich and vibrant, and effectively portray how ornate this Chinese dragon is. The story is excellent too, emphasizing unity and togetherness and ultimately, community.

I lost interest in this book pretty quickly. I read it because it was multicultural and the cover looked fun, but it proved to be dry and boring. It was about a boy named Peter who was staying with his Great Aunt in China town for the summer. He was bored one day so he decided to go look around China Town. He found this old dragon in a store that needed to be worked on. His Great Aunt let him get it and for the next few weeks Peter went around and asked for favors from some people in town until his dragon was complete and ready to be shown off in a parade. The illustration was very detailed, but I felt that the story was predictable and typical because Peter ended up really liking China Town and staying with his Aunt, and his Aunt show more changed her opinion about the dragon and ended up liking it as well. I could tell what the story was going to be about once I saw that old dragon in the window. I also didn't enjoy how the book was very long and dragged out, that made it less interesting as well. show less

An old ten-man dragon in a Chinatown shop window turns Peter Chang's summer visit to Great Aunt, which he had been dreading, into an exciting adventure

Cultural diversity