Author: Andy Shepherd
Illustrator: Sara Ogilvie
© Date: 2018
Publisher: Yellow Jacket
Pages: 207
Chapters: Yes
Illustrations: Yes, but many pages do not have an illustration
Publisher Recommended Age: 7-12
Bonus Activities at End of Book: No
Summary from Book: When Tomas discovers a strange old tree at the bottom of his grandfather’s garden, he doesn’t think much of it. But he takes the funny fruit from the tree back into the house and gets the shock of his life when a tiny dragon hatches! The tree is a dragon fruit tree, and Tomas now has his very own dragon, Flicker!
While Tomas finds out that life with Flicker is fun, he also finds that it is very…unpredictable. Yes, dragons are wonderful, but they also set fire to your toothbrush and leave your underwear hanging from the TV antenna. Tomas has to learn how to look after Flicker—and quickly! And then something extraordinary happens, more dragon fruits appear on the tree! Which makes it official: Tomas is growing dragons!
Note: This review is done from memory. I originally read this a short bit ago.
Page Pig Thoughts: This one is as much about dragon pooping habits as it is about actual dragons. I super wanted Tomas to tell his granddad about the dragons, so I was disappointed there. I was relieved that Grandad finds out about the dragons in the second story. The humor in this story is well done and delivered plenty of giggles in our home. This one gets Page Pup thumbs up.
Family Unit: Tomas (age 11, I think) lives at home with his mother, father, and younger sister, Charlotte (aka Lolli, age 2). His grandparents live a short walk away.
Conflict/Social Issues:
- Tomas keeps his dragon, Flicker, a secret. Even if it means keeping secrets from his Grandad.
- Tomas and his friends have continuous run-ins with Liam, who is determined to make them look bad all the time.
- Keeping Flicker a secret means that Tomas is not always being truthful.
Positive Items:
- Tomas and his friends stick up for each other and are supportive. His friends are even pretty nice when Tomas’s gym shorts have scorch marks and poop splatter on the backside courtesy of his dragon that is a secret to everyone at that point.
- Tomas and his younger sister have a good relationship. Tomas is a little extra nice because Lolli knows about Flicker and he is trying to keep the secret, but he does read to her and treat her nicely.
- I happen to love Grandad’s ability to always say something nice about someone even when they are being super unkind to his face.
Items of Interest:
- Tomas was helping his Grandad clear out a spot for a fruit and veg garden in his Grandad’s backyard. His Grandad keeps him going with a steady stream of toffee candies. Once the dragon hatches out of a dragon fruit, Tomas gets too distracted to hang out with his Grandad and help in the garden. Keeping his dragon a secret, also means that he has an uncomfortable wedge that starts developing between him and his Grandad.
- Tomas feels guilty that he is the cause of his Grandad’s heart troubles because instead of taking it easy and relaxing in retirement, his Grandad was busy chasing him about. Tomas was born with a hole in his heart, so his grandparents moved close to help take care of him when he was younger and his parents were busy with work.
- Tomas’s mother is a veterinarian and his father constantly has on headphones because he works in the music industry.
- Tomas and his younger sister, Lolli, don’t always get along, but he watches over her like a sweet older brother. They stick together to stay out of trouble.
- When the dragon fruit tree is discovered in Grandad’s garden (chapter 1), a fruit falls off the tree into Tomas’s hands. He takes it home and does some internet research to determine that it is a pitaya aka dragon fruit.
- Yes, Tomas was too distracted by the mystery fruit (he didn’t know a dragon would even hatch out at this point) to take the bath before dinner that his mother told him to take.
- A dragon hatches out of the fruit the first night and starts creating havoc in Tomas’s room. A big part of the chaos is dragon poop, which is highly combustible, particularly if it dries out. The poop also smells horrible. Future embarrassment for Tomas comes in the shape of his gym bag that Flicker pooped in. When Tomas takes his gym shorts out of the bag, the backside is scorched and smells awful. Tomas earns the nickname “Whiffy Liffy.”
- Grandad gets sad that Tomas will not come around and help in the garden much anymore, but he is more sad that Tomas doesn’t really talk to him anymore and is keeping secrets. Tomas is just really excited/busy/distracted with his dragon, that he names Flicker, to do much of anything else after school. Grandad has this amazing ability to say nice things about people that are treating him super poorly, and keep calm amidst something being rather rude.
- Grandad’s garden takes some extra work while he plans it out and learns how to tend to it. He works hard to keep it organic, so he could really use extra help from Tomas for weeds and bugs and such.
- Tomas takes Flicker to school. Naturally Flicker creates chaos and Tomas struggles to keep it a secret.
- Tomas is having a terrible time keeping his dragon a secret, particularly because Liam Sawston (class busybody) has been keeping a close eye on him. Tomas winds up telling his best friends about the dragon. Yes, he has to show them the dragon to prove it.
- Ted (always eating everything) and the twins, Kat and Kai, usually share everything. Tomas does not want to share Flicker. So the friends have a camp out in Tomas’s grandparents’ backyard so that the other friends can get their own dragons.
- Tomas would like to be called/treated as the Grand High Dragon Master by his friends because he has some dragon knowledge/experience. Once the other dragons hatch, he discovers that each dragon is unique. The new dragons have different eating habits, abilities, and personalities.
- The next door neighbor blames the children for destroying his garden and shed, but dragons had been hatching and eating everything in it before leaving. Some flaming cabbages, surprise sidewalk ice, and a mysterious flying tent make the neighbor run back to his house.
- Tomas lucks out that Grandad thinks the flame that shot out of the tent was from an old lamp. Tomas is able to keep the dragons a secret even longer.
Other Books in Series (At Time of Posting):
- The Boy Who Lived With Dragons (Book 2) – Tomas and his friends are struggling to keep their dragons a secret. The habits of the dragons mean that rooms and personal items are getting destroyed and parents are not overly happy. The foursome of friends take their dragons to school and on a field trip, which naturally leads to more chaos and puts the foursome in the wrong places at the wrong time. Trying to clean up from the mischief of their dragons means that the foursome look rather guilty. Tomas is concerned about the dragon fruit tree that looks like it is dying. He finds information in the old garden shed that indicates the previous home owner knew about the dragons and dragon fruit tree. Tomas is struggling with the barrier between him and Grandad because he has been keeping secrets and Grandad is sad that Tomas is not chatting or spending time with him anymore. Liam Sawston manages to sneak away with his own dragon. But Liam does not treat his nicely and is using the dragon’s ability to supersize produce to create a huge dragon fruit that he plans to hatch a giant dragon from. Tomas was relieved when his Grandad finds out about the dragons and helps hide a bit of their mischief. Although Tomas was not happy to have to make a deal with Grandad that he and his friends will let their dragons go free at the end of the summer, they are not intended to be pets.
- The Boy Who Flew With Dragons (Book 3)
- The Boy Who Dreamed of Dragons (Book 4)
- The Boy Who Sang With Dragons (Book 5)
- The Ultimate Guide to Growing Dragons (Book 6)
