Review: Dragon Mountain

Dragon Mountain is the first in the Dragon Realm series by Katie and Kevin Tsang. And as I love all things dragon, I was so excited to get stuck in to this middle grade adventure!

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Dragon Mountain by Katie and Kevin Tsang
Age: 9-12 yrs
Series: Book 1 in the ‘Dragon Realm’ series. Book 2 is out in March 2021.

Deep within the mountain, a great creature stirred in its sleep. Its eyes rolled back in its head, and its wings jerked wide open...

When 12-year-old Billy Chan finds out his parents are sending him to a summer camp in middle-of-nowhere China he doesn't know what to expect. There he meets fellow campers Dylan, Charlotte and Ling-Fei and together they stumble upon an age-old secret: four powerful warrior dragons, hidden deep within the mountain behind the camp. They have been trapped since an epic battle with the Dragon of Death and need the children's help to set them free before terrible evil is unleashed on the earth. Billy and his friends must set off on a dangerous adventure that will take them to the heart of the Dragon Realm. But can they save the dragon and human worlds from destruction?

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This was an absolute joy from start to finish! I love all things dragons and have done since I was a kid, so this whole book was like a journey back in time to primary school me’s favourite things. Dragons! Adventure! Friendship! Quippy dialogue! *side-eyes current WIP…*

I loved how you had the trope of unlikely friends banding together to help save the day, and watching them band together even when they didn’t like each other to start with was really lovely. For example, you are definitely mean to dislike Charlotte at the start, but the traits they dislike in her to start with become things they love her for later! Same with Dylan - he seems a bit of a scaredy-cat and is one giant walking NOPE to danger and threats, but actually is an invaluable part of the team.

What I also thought was lovely all through this is how the Mandarin is used - of course there are Mandarin-speaking characters, but the way it is included to mean young readers who might not be familiar with Mandarin can learn words alongside the characters was a really great touch. For example, one character does point out that Mandarin and Cantonese are different - something I would have had no idea about aged nine.

And the DRAGONS! Honestly, the absolute sass from these dragons was iconic and I was laughing solidly through the whole section where we meet them properly for the first time. One of my favourite quotes from the whole book was “Stop antagonising my human!”, and that really is the tone of the humour throughout, which I adored. (Also I absolutely loved that pockets are deemed absolutely necessary. We love pockets.)

An absolutely joyous adventure. I’m now so excited for March, and for the next instalment of the Dragon Realm series!

Have you read Dragon Mountain?

What other dragon-y books do you love?