REVIEW - "Raising Dragons"

Raising Dragons by Bryan Davis

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



A boy learns of his dragon past; a girl has known of hers for years. They combine their faith, courage, and love to overcome an evil slayer who seeks to bring an end to dragon heritage, forever. The kids at school call Billy "Dragon Breath" for good reason. His breath is bad! It isn't the normal, morning-mouth bad; it's the hot-as-fire, "don't-you-dare-get-near-me" bad. And hearing "Dragon Breath" ringing in his ears, he constantly tries to cool his oral volcano. Trouble erupts when his hot breath sets off the fire sprinklers in the boys' restroom at school, and his parents learn that they've kept their secret for too long. Billy finally discovers the secret. His father was once a dragon! Now that's a piece of news a guy doesn't deal with every day! Billy feels betrayed, alien, lost. When his father reverts to his dragon form, and they're both chased by dragon slayers, he learns to trust his father again, battling the slayers with weapons of steel and spirit. Bonnie, an orphan, tries to find a home, someone to love her, even though she feels like a freak because of a body feature that she calls a deformity, her dragon wings, inherited from her now dead dragon mother. She discovers that her love for others and her faith in a Creator hold the answers she is looking for. Raising Dragons is a contemporary fantasy novel that inspires young people to dig deep within to find their God-given strengths and use them to overcome any obstacle. description from Goodreads

My take:

Billy is stunned to learn that his father is a 1500 year old dragon walking the earth as a mortal. He must overcome the plots of the descendants of a wayward knight and save the future of dragons.  To do this he enlists the help of an orphan girl, also half dragon, his best friend and a teacher.  There is plenty of action, and Billy and his friends are very smart young people. 

I really liked this story. There is bits of the legend of King Arthur and his knights, how Merlin helped save the dragons from an evil knight.  I grew up with my mother who was fascinated with Arthur, and I must admit, some of that has passed to me.  I love fantasy stories and I would have loved to read this one as a middle grade reader.  There are biblical references in this book and it works really well.


This is a book that I would really like my children to take an interest in.  That will be my goal, to get them to read this book and like it.  :-)



I downloaded a copy of this book from Netgalley to review.

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