Dragonsdale

Dragonsdale by Salamanda Drake follows Cara, a girl who lives on a dragon farm.  Cara's mom died while flying a dragon so Cara's father has forbidden her to ride.  It is a nice combination of a dragon and a horse story.  You can read a longer summary here.

My daughter picked this one up at our local book fair and I wasn't thrilled.  The cover is very pretty and fancy and it was about dragons (the book she was reading at the time was also about dragons) and she thought it looked terrific.  However, this  book is huge (almost three hundred pages and the print is not large) and it was signifigantly more difficult than the usual things she reads.  I reminded her several times that she could quit if she wanted (it took her about a month to finish) and she had several other books she could read instead and she refused each time.  Even though this was a very long book with difficult vocabulary she was so interested in the story that she would not stop reading.  That tells me that this is an excellent book.  


Scholastic states the reading level for this book at 5.6 and a lexile at 900 (compare that with the young adult books I review!).  The book uses difficult vocabulary words but does a fantastic job of putting them in context so that young readers can figure out what they mean and there are pictures to help the reader visualize Cara's fantasy world.  I would recommend this book to upper elementary school students and to young advanced readers.  It would also be an excellent read aloud for younger kids who will enjoy Cara's story.