What do You think about The Dragon's Boy (1990)?
13-year-old Artos stumbles across a cave while searching for Sir Ector's hound, and the thundering voice of a dragon ropes him into stew in exchange for wisdom each week. Slowly Artos begins to rethink his world and his place in it, just as he finally wins the respect of larger knights-to-be who have been pummeling and teasing him for years. This is a great book to hand to readers who can handle advanced vocabulary but aren't ready for mature content (or middle school boys). A short read that can easily be mistaken for an early reader, Yolen's story is an original tale of King Arthur that gives a nod to the traditional stories and preserves the same flavor, but has almost none of the same events. A good story in its own right, it would make for good classroom discussion on how it compares to the original legends as well.
—Corinne
When I agreed to review The Dragon's Boy for Open Road Media, I checked off the book due to its title. I did not know Jane Yolen, so this the first book of her's I read.Turns out Jane is a prolific writer in both SF & Fantasy and a self confessed Aurthur-holic.This is a charming tale about the boy Artos and his longing for more from life. Old Linn wants to give it to him but chooses a unique way of doing so. Artos discovers a cave in a lonely tor with a resident dragon. he trades lessons in order to gain status within the castle.This is an old fashioned page turner that you will not want to put down till the end.
—Bill Tillman
THE DRAGON'S BOY is a sweet, short retelling of the King Arthur mythos. It's similar to the Disney movie "The Sword In the Stone" but it reshapes things like Merlin and that sword in subtly different ways. For such a short book, there's quite a large twist at the end, but it's an interesting one. Sick of being bullied by the older boys at Sir Ector's small castle, Artos is happy to find a dragon who offers him wisdom in exchange for pots of gravy with meat. Artos complies, and learns, but soon is able to take his place with the other boys and ignores the dragon and its wisdom for a while. Of course, Artos eventually wants the dragon's help, but what he finds there is not what he expects. This is a short story, so we don't see how Artos incorporates his hard-earned lessons, but they are good ones, presented in novel ways. If you are a fan of King Arthur mythology, you'll enjoy this quick reimagining of how he gained the wisdom to become great.Received as a free digital ARC via Netgalley and the publisher.
—Jennifer
