Dragonhaven
Robin McKinley
Penguin Group USA, Inc.
<p>Jake lives at the Makepeace Institute of Integrated Dragon Studies in Smokehill National Park. There are five million acres of the Smokehill wilderness, and the endangered dragons rarely show themselves. Jake's never seen one except at a distance. But then, on his first overnight solo in the park, he meets a dragon - and she is dying. More than that, she has just given birth, and one of the babies is still alive. . . .</p>From School Library Journal<p>Grade 7 Up—A novel set in an alternate contemporary world. Viewing dragons as fire-breathing, non-sentient animals with gigantic appetites for livestock, humans have hunted them for centuries, and now they survive only in a few wilderness havens. Jake Mendoza has grown up at one such haven, the Smokehill National Park in the American West, and has inherited his scientist parents' commitment to the park's secret inhabitants. When he rescues an orphaned baby dragon, he sets in motion a cascade of events that may eventually save these top predators from extinction. Readers will find the book to be less about the joys of the human-dragon bond and more about the challenges of raising an infant and communicating in a vastly different language. As an exhausted Jake explains, he is the first human in history to find out that a marsupial baby dragon out of its mother's pouch still expects a round-the-clock source of food, warmth, and company for over a year. Also, their telepathic communication gives Jake and his fellow Smokehill residents debilitating head-aches, and no one on either side is ever entirely sure they've got the message right. Once readers get through Jake's overdone teenage diction in the first few chapters, they will be engaged by McKinley's well-drawn characters and want to root for the Smokehill community's fight to save the ultimate endangered species.—<em>Beth Wright, Fletcher Free Library, Burlington, VT</em> <br />Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. </p>Review<p>“A sharply incisive, wildly intelligent dragon fantasy . . . Penetratingly insightful . . . Quietly magnificent.” —<em>Kirkus Reviews</em>, starred review “Readers will be engaged by McKinley’s well-drawn characters and want to root for the Smokehill community’s fight to save the ultimate endangered species.” —<em>School Library Journal</em></p></br>