Book Review: Dragons in our Midst: Raising Dragons

Dragons in our Midst: Raising Dragons by Bryan Davis

 

Recommended For: 13 and up

Rating: PG-13 (for violence)

A boy learns of his dragon past; a girl has known 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. Trouble erupts when his hot breath sets off the fire sprinklers in the boys' restroom in 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 the dragon slayer traps him on a cold mountaintop in West Virginia, Billy learns to battle with weapons of steel and spirit while relying on a power he doesn't understand, a power that helps him learn to trust again.

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. But this unusual feature becomes a life-saving attribute as she discovers that her love for others and her faith in a creator hold the answers she's looking for.

I have wanted to read this book for awhile, since I like other books by this author, and so after getting it for Christmas, I finally got to read it. The reason it took me a month to read it was just because I didn't have much time to read, not because I didn't like it.

Writing: 4/5
 
The writing is well done and exciting. It is also well done with how things are slowly revealed throughout the story. It is also written in a way in which you get to know the characters. The writing is not as good as in his later books, but it still is good and an author should get better at writing over time.

Setting: 5/5

This story is set in a town in West Virginia and a mountain in the same state. There are some scenes set in England during King Arthur. I have only been to West Virginia once, but it seemed like an ordinary American town. I assume that there are mountains in West Virginia, since it is by the Appalachian mountains, but I don't really know the geography of that area. Being a fantasy story, it was done in a way that fits well with it being set in the real world. The part with King Arthur didn't have anything that made the setting seem inaccurate.

Plot: 4/5

The plot in the first book is pretty simple, but I expect it to get more complicated as the series goes on.  The plot is interesting and I enjoyed reading it. One problem that I had with the plot was that at the beginning, the characters were learning in school about a subject that was important in the book. It is always a little unrealistic when that happens. There were some things that could never happen, but because it is a fantasy story it works.

Characters 4/5

The main characters were all done well and they each had things that they struggled with. They were on the side of being perfect but they did have faults. I think that the villains could have been a little more realistic. The villains are supposed to be crazy, and they are. I do like the characters and I expect to like them even more as I read through the series.

I enjoyed this book and I would recommend it.