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Friday, 8 May 2020

ReadItDaddy's Chapter Book of the Week - Week Ending 8th May 2020: "Rise of the Shadow Dragons" by Liz Flanagan (David Fickling Books)

Posted by ReadItDaddy at May 08, 2020 Labels: , , ,
This week's Chapter Book of the Week has been hotly anticipated by all of us at ReadItDaddy Towers.

We read Liz Flanagan's fantastic "Dragon Daughter" way back in 2018 and instantly fell in love with Liz's amazing worldbuilding, awesome characters and of course her brilliant dragons.

Now it's time to catch up with that world again in "Shadow Dragons" and though our copy looked like it'd been mauled by dragons, we could still dig in and read it. In fact little miss devoured this book in the space of a few night's reading (I didn't get a look in until some time afterward as she likes to read books she loves through a couple of times - but it was worth the wait when I did finally get hold of it!)

This time the story begins with a young boy named Jowan who dreams of one thing, and one thing only - having a dragon all of his own. 

But Jowan's life is about to take a turn for the worst, a darker more dangerous turn leaving Jowan to survive on his wits alone. Well, not quite alone as a new found ally might be the key to Jowan fulfilling his most heartfelt desire.

Amidst the backdrop of a natural disaster, a fiery volcano that threatens to erupt at any moment, Jowan is given a mysterious egg...

Liz leaves you gasping for more as each chapter hangs you off a cliff, and I could fully understand why C read this one long into the night (quite often way past her bed time, thankfully it was the easter holidays which was fortunate - no school the next day so we let the late nights slide!)

Liz's world-building is once again just so brilliant and atmospheric, her characters are beautifully observed and despite the fantasy setting, entirely believable and easy to identify with, possessing all the same strengths and frailties we all remember having as brash, outspoken youths!

"Legends of the Sky" is turning into one of the best fantasy series in middle grade / early YA fiction, and we cannot wait to find out what happens next. 

"Rise of the Shadow Dragons" by Liz Flanagan is out now, published by David Fickling Books (kindly supplied for review).