Dragon Keeper

[Adair McClain]

Dragon Keeper by Carole Wilkinson takes place in ancient China and is the story of a young, orphan slave girl named Ping and her perilous journey across the Han Empire with an elderly Imperial dragon. Long Danzi is the last of his kind and stubbornly determined to reach Ocean with his precious "Stone", and with Ping's help he escapes imprisonment at the hands of the incompetent and drunken Master Lan and the Imperial soldiers who would kill him. Along their journey, Ping learns knew and wonderful things she never believed possible (counting passed ten, how to use money) and soon discovers that not everyone with a smile is a friend. With a dragon hunter named Diao and even the Emperor himself dogging their trail, the pair had their work cut out for them to try and reach Ocean.

Ping is a compassionate character, although so naive in the ways of the outside world. Danzi continues to mentor her, but she isn't a perfect keeper by any means, which makes her a much more realistic character. She makes mistakes, but tries again and again to correct them. Danzi is a patient teacher, and his dry humor was continually amusing.

The writing style is simple, yet paints a vivid landscape of ancient China, and the characters are easy to love/hate as they were meant to be. All ages with a love of dragons would enjoy this Scholastic book.

[LivreAmour217]

Thanks for sharing! I think that both my son and I will enjoy this book!

[elfeezareads]

Thank you for sharing your review here. I've added this book to my to-read bookshelf on Goodreads.