Book Reviews and More: Bloom of the Flower Dragon - Tracey West and Graham Howells

Wednesday 10 August 2022

Bloom of the Flower Dragon - Tracey West and Graham Howells - Dragon Masters Book 21

Bloom of the Flower Dragon

Dragon Masters Book 21
Tracey West (Author)
Graham Howells (Illustrator)

Scholastic

ISBN 9781338776874

eISBN 9781338776898

ASIN B08ZJ1KDR4

These books are now well below my youngest daughters reading level. But she loves them so much. She reads for 20 minutes 5 days most weeks and a book in this series use to take her 10-12 days to read. This one she read in under three sittings. And she has insisted that we pre-order the two volumes Guarding the Invisible Dragons and Curse of the Shadow Dragon. I have said it before and I state it again, this series gets better and better. It has serious staying power. And in this volume we get a few surprises! This is book 21 but we have reread a few of the volumes, making it the 31st time we have read a book in the series. As a family we eagerly await the new volumes that have been announced. And this volume Graham Howells is the illustrator, just like the last volume, I believe this is the 6th he has illustrated. We checked and he does not illustrate the next volume but does the one after that. But let us return to this volume.

The description of this volume is:

“Drake and Worm must help a Flower Dragon protect his home in the latest action-packed installment of this New York Times bestselling series!

Pick a book. Grow a Reader!

This series is part of Scholastic's early chapter book line, Branches, aimed at newly independent readers. With easy-to-read text, high-interest content, fast-paced plots, and illustrations on every page, these books will boost reading confidence and stamina. Branches books help readers grow!

A Flower Dragon named Wildroot has come to Bracken! He needs help because his home is in danger. The Dragon Masters must find this small dragon his own Dragon Master. The Dragon Stone reveals a boy named Oskar, who is disappointed that he does not have a big, fire-breathing dragon. Can Oskar and his dragon learn to work together in time to save the Flower Dragons from a terrible monster? With engaging black-and-white artwork on every page, kids won't be able to put down this action-packed adventure!”

This story picks up shortly after the previous one. And in this one the Master Dragon Stone shows Drake and Bo the next new dragon master. My daughter reads through the chapter titles before beginning, and guesses what might happen. The chapters this time are:

The Dragon Visitor

Wildroots Tale

A New Dragon Master?

To The Village!

Oskar

A Mystery

The Valley of Starflowers

Legend and Werewolf

Dancing Dragons

The Finsterbuns!

Night Falls

Under Attack!

Bloom

The Traveller’s Tale

Diego’s Idea

This story was fairly different. It was not action from beginning to end. The new dragon master was underwhelmed with his dragon. And there are some strange goings on. My daughter listed many things she loved about this book. She loved Oskar’s turning point. Even though we had figured it out with a few chapters to go she loved the twist or surprise and that we had both guessed correctly about what was to happen. She absolutely loves the idea of the little dancing flower dragons, kind of in a murmuration pattern. And she was very excited that we encountered Diego again after a few books, and that it looks like he will be a main character in the next one. I loved the Finsterbuns, not to spoil but they remind me of a hybrid with another legendary creature or hoax.

This was a really fun read. We both enjoyed it immensely. We both give this volume a solid 5/5 stars, it is a great read in a wonderful series. West and Howells have hit it out of the park again.