Book Reviews and More: Call of the Sound Dragon - Tracey West and Daniel Griffo

Saturday, 26 December 2020

Call of the Sound Dragon - Tracey West and Daniel Griffo - Dragon Masters Book 16

Call of the Sound Dragon

Dragon Masters Book 16
Tracey West (Author)
Matt Loveridge (Illustrator)

Scholastic

ISBN 9781338540284

eISBN 9781338540307

ASIN B07Z7BVBR2

This is the 24th time I have read a Dragon Masters Book, and it show no sigh of slowing. The only thing that is going to slow us down is when we hit the end of the published stories and have to wait 3 or 4 months for the next one to release. To be honest I was thankful when my youngest wanted to return to these books. Seventeen of those reads have been in the last 6 months. As a family we love these books! A few years ago, I read the first eight books of this series to my son. Then his interest waned. I had purchased three of them but did not get around to reading them myself. Then my youngest wanted to return to them and we started over again. This year we also found out that my nephews have been reading them and that he was only 1 book ahead of us. He is reading the physical books and we are reading the eBook editions. This is another fun story in a great series. It is one of my daughters favorites. My youngest daughter is insistent that we will read the whole series. And she has spent her reading challenge money buying all the kindle editions that are available. Including Griffin’s Guide for Dragon Masters.

This series continues to have staying power. I have read some of the stories 4 or 5 times now. And have been reading them for over 4 years. And I still enjoy the stories as do my children. My son who thought he had outgrown these stories has been sitting in and listening to his sister read them to me. It is also great to know that my brother’s family loves them as much as ours. It is fascinating to watch the kids interact and compare notes about the books that they are both reading. And to predict what will happen next based on the endings of the book, or title of the next as we queue it up.

One of the great things about this series is that it is a true series. In that each story builds upon the last. The stories are strong enough to be read on their own, but as a whole we get to watch the growth of the group as they come together as a team and learn to work together and support each other. We see some characters come in and out of the stories. At the end there is usually a hint, or a hook for the next story.

In this adventure we travel to the land of Remus and we meet new dragon master named Tessa and her dragon Sono. We are informed upon their meeting that:

“Drake stared at the new dragon. A wavey pattern of rainbow colors rippled across her scales. She had 4 legs and no wings.”

Both the dragon and master have a bit of a hippy look and feel to them. And my daughter loved the cover and pictures of the two. This volume is illustrated by Matt Loveridge, who also illustrated volume 14. The illustrator seems to change every book or two, and this is the first time I recall an illustrator skipping a volume and then returning. The illustrations keep a consistent feel and look. But each artist leaves their own mark on the books they work on. Some illustrations stand alone and some wrap around the text and span two-page spreads.

In this volume the team is trying to stop a wizard battle. And it appears to be one of the riskiest adventures they have been on yet. One of the team is turned into a duck and not at all happy about it. But to find out which one you will need to read the book. They also have what appears to be an impossible task, to get a gem from the center of an unbreakable rock. This is the first time that we have encountered a Dragon Master with a physical disability. And what they do to overcome and compensate for it. It is great to have such a character in the story. And We hope it is sings of things to come. My daughter was looking forward to sharing with a classmate who has the same condition. And we hope she will get interested in these awesome books.

This is another great read in a really fun series. This one was not as dark as the last few, but we know that more trials are yet to come. They are fun books for readers both young and young at heart. They can be enjoyed multiple times. I am impressed with the staying power of this series. Even after multiple reads over several years I still really enjoy returning to the Dragon Masters. And look forward too many more reads in this series, as my daughter is insistent, she will read them all to me! This book was given a quick and solid it 5/5 stars from my daughter and I would have given it 4. We had a long discussion about why and settled on 5 for the review. A great read in an excellent series.