168. The Flight of Dragons by Vivian French

The Flight of Dragons by Vivian French. Illustrated by Ross Collins. (Canada) - (US)
The Fourth Tale from the Five Kingdoms

Pages: 248
Ages: 8+
Finished: July 27, 2011
First Published: Jul. 12, 2011 (2010, UK)
Publisher: Candlewick Press
Genre: children, fantasy, humour
Rating: 4/5


First sentence:

"Dragons?" Professor Scallio peered over the top of his spectacles.

Acquired: Received a review copy from Candlewick Press.

Reason for Reading: next in the series.

Book 4 in this series returns us to the original delight of Book 1, Robe of Skulls.  Books 2 and 3 were very enjoyable too, but both1 & 4 have that special something about them.  This time around dragons are seen flying around the borders of the Five Kingdoms.  They were banished 8o years ago and this brings concern when it is figured that they may be looking for a dragon egg getting ready to hatch.  Prince Marcus and Gracie Gillypot go on another adventure to find the egg and return it to the dragons but there is an evil presence lurking just outside the border who plans on taking over the Five Kingdoms.  As he manages to infiltrate the border, he makes use of relatives, including the Canker twins to help him reach his goal.  On the hunt for the egg Marcus and Gracie meet up with the evil Granpappy Canker and must stop him before he finds out about the dragon's egg which could double his powers.

A lot of fun, this addition to the series.  Virtually every character we've met so far either makes an appearance or is referred and along with the new characters introduced for this book, we have an enormous cast of characters, therefore it is more than welcome that a Cast of Characters list has been included at the beginning of the book.  The plot of this book was one of the better ones since Book 1 and I really enjoyed the new evil characters along with the new good characters.  As always, the illustrations are a great accompaniment to the text and we have about one per chapter.  If one is so inclined, these books could be read out of order as there is no overall story arc.  Each book is its own adventure, except that there is a plot development between the main characters Grace and Marcus, a budding romance, plus the other regular characters also have a small story line that moves forward but these are not for the most part involved with the plot.  Reading them in order is recommended though as each book gradually adds more and more characters and the author tries to at least mention their existence, if not include them, in each story.  Gracie and her troll Gubble, plus the family of bats who help her out are all fun characters and I'm always excited to sit down with their newest book and "The Flight of Dragons" was a good-time read.