Horrible Harry and the Dragon War

Genre: Realistic Ficiton

Plot: This book has a very good plot. It has an excellent development of events in the story that teach a great lesson in cause and effect by showing how an argument between friends started and what the consequences of that argument could be.

Review: This is a great realistic fiction book. It is set in a classroom in which Harry and Soon Lee get in an argument that is probably not uncommon in most classrooms. They find a way to solve it and it is a great book that younger students can relate to.

I do enjoy this series.  Though the word 'sweet' is applicable, it's not too saccharine - there are references to snot and fights, too.  It is aimed squarely at 3rd grade, and would probably not appeal much beyond that.

This book is a great example of realistic fiction, as cultural misunderstandings and hurt feelings happen all the time when different cultures don't understand each other. When this happens, feelings are hurt on both sides when sides are not open to understanding each other. The action and conflict of the plot pulls kids into the drama of the story.

Age Appropriateness: Primary
Genre: Realistic Fiction, multicultural
Media: Pen and Ink
Review: This book is realistic fiction because the story is made up, but the story is also believable and could possibly happen in a real classroom. Students really could be doing a project on animals and there could be two students who cause a division of the classroom over who's animal is best, so it is realistic. This classroom of students are assigned to create an animal that they have been reading about and two of the students decide to make a dragon. Each of them think they know all about dragons and decide what a dragon does, not leaving room for the other to also be correct. This contradiction is caused by the two students different cultural show more backgrounds, one Asian and the other Western European, which also makes this book multicultural. This causes a war between the students in the class, but finally someone points out that they are both right and they just have two different types of dragons and all is well again. This is a good story and would probably be beneficial for students to read, but I really cannot think of a unit that it could be incorporated into, such as the core subject areas; it may just have to be for fun. show less

This book is an excellent example of realistic fiction, because the characters and plot are very believable. Readers could also relate to the characters and the story. The book also contains good characterization. For example, Harry is a dynamic character. In the beginning of the story he was to prideful to say he was wrong. However, at the en of the story he changed his ways and realized his error.

Genre: Realistic Fiction

Critique of Genre: This is an excellent example of realistic fiction because it talks about two friends who are working on the same dragon project but get into a fight regarding the characteristics of their dragons. The incident described is something that certainly could happen in real life, especially in a third grade class.

Age: Primary, Intermediate

Critique of Point of View: (See star rating above)

Age appropriateness: Elementary
This book is realistic fiction because the events that occur in the story are liekly to happen in reality (in a classroom), even though the characters are made up.
Character: Harry. Harry is a flat dynamic character. In the book we don't know much about him, except that he thinks his dragon (and opinion) is better and he is stubborn. He is also dynamic because changes his view/ opinion that his dragon is the correctly made dragon to accepting Song Lee's dragon. He learns to apologize and become accepting.
Media: pen/ink (inside), cover: color pencil/water color