Grown-ups Can't be Friends with Dragons by Antony Wootten
| Grown-ups Can't be Friends with Dragons by Antony Wootten | |
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| Category: Confident Readers | |
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Reviewer: Sue Magee
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| Summary: The perfect book for the child who struggles with childhood and can't seem to do anything right. It touches on some serious issues in a non-preachy way - and it's a good story. Antony Wootten popped into Bookbag Towers to chat to us. | |
| Buy? Yes | Borrow? Yes |
| Pages: 195 | Date: November 2012 |
| Publisher: Eskdale Publishing | |
| External links: Author's website | |
| ISBN: 978-0953712335 | |
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Brian finds home a bit of a trial these days. Since Mum went, Dad seem to have spent as much time as he could down at the pub. Big sister Emily does her best to keep them all fed and the washing done, but she's not that old herself and her only support is her boyfriend Mark. School's not going too well for Brian either. Whatever he does he seems to land in trouble, even when he doesn't mean to and his teacher sometimes despairs of him. What that boy needs is a good listening to. Brian does have a secret though - his cave.
It's just off the beach near the harbour and above the high water mark. It's where Brian goes when everything gets too much for him. He's drawn on the walls and it's when he's exploring a tunnel he's never been into before that he hears a small, calm voice calling his name. And that's how he finds Dragon - a pale-skinned creature whose eyes hurt in the light from Brian's torch. He's been in the cave, on his own, for a long time. But it seems that Brian and Dragon have been brought together for a reason - and it's not just that Brian can actually talk to Dragon about what's happening in his life. There's the matter of Isabelle (who might be a witch) and her pigs - but that was hundreds of years ago.
You'll love Brian. Anyone who has struggled with childhood will recognise how he's feeling. Even when he tries really hard something goes wrong, such as in The Incident of Laura Godley's Socks, which left him standing outside the staffroom struggling not to cry. He's an innocent too. When he hears Emily and his father having a row and Dad asks her How the hell are you going to afford to look after it? his first thought is that Emily is going to get the dog he's always wanted.
It's good to see that there is redemption too - in the most unlikely form, if truth be told - for Brian and for his father. Dragon has one final Hurrah! But I'll confess that I cried when I realised that line about Dragons living forever in Puff the Magic Dragon isn't true.
It's a lovely story, particularly for the older tweens and younger teens, touching, as it does, on some serious issues - the loss of a parent, teenage pregnancy and the child who feels isolated. It's all done in a non-preachy fashion and I'd like to thank the publisher for sending a copy to the Bookbag.
It doesn't have the fantasy element, but if this book appeals then we think that you might also enjoy another book by Antony Wootten - A Tiger Too Many.
You can read more about Antony Wootten here.
Antony Wootten was kind enough to be interviewed by Bookbag.
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You can read more book reviews or buy Grown-ups Can't be Friends with Dragons by Antony Wootten at Amazon.com.
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