Rebecca Freeman

Rebecca Freeman
Here There Be Dragons
James A. Owen
Fantasy
Just Right
262


1. Right now in my book John, Bert, the elves and the dwarves are fighting against the winter king on the Island at the Edge of the World. John's side is losing by a lot because they are very outnumbered and the winter king has many shadow born, which can't be killed. Because of these reasons they have no way do defeat them and are losing terribly. Recently, Jack decided to try find a way to get rid of the shadow born other than attempting to push them back with axes and swords. He found parts in one of the ships that could create a grenade. He uses it, although Nemo warns him not to and ends up blowing the right half of Nemo's body off. Meanwhile, Charles and Tummeler are trying to find Pandora's box so that they can put the lid on it and stop the winter king from making more shadow born. Also, at the same time, Artus is saying the summoning in the ring of power in the hopes that the dragons will return and help their side of the battle.

2. So far I like this book. I really like the plot and I think that the whole concept of an archipelago of dreams is very interesting. However, sometime James A. Owen is a little predictable. For example at the end of each chapter or right before a break in a chapter someone has an epiphany or suddenly finds something out. I don't think that discovering things is a bad thing but it is always written the same way at the same place of every chapter- it gets annoying after about 5 chapters. But, overall, I like the characters and the plot.

3. I think that a reoccurring theme in the book is trust. One time that I noticed this theme was at the very beginning when Charles, John and Jack follow Bert onto the ship. Even though they barely knew him, he had told them information that only a friend of theirs would know so they went with him. If they hadn't, they would have gotten killed and eaten by Wendigo. Another time that I noticed this theme was when Jack saved everyone on the Indigo Dragon from the Winter King. What he was doing was very risky and could have broken the ship, but since they (John, Charles, Bert and Aven) trusted him, they let him do what he wanted, and so, he saved their lives.

4. My favorite character right now is probably Tummeler, the talking badger. Although he is not a main character in the book, he is very likable. He is a friendly badger and always tries to do the right thing for the Caretakers ( John, Jack, Charles and Bert) and he is never selfish. Also, he is very funny because he is ignorant to human life and life in the real world.

5. My least favorite character at the moment is probably Magwich. He is always doing everything wrong. And no matter how often it is flaunted right in front of his face, he never realizes that working for the Winter King has never done him any good and he will only end up worse off after trying to help him. Also, he constantly complains and whines about everything that happens to him.

6. I think that the summoning will work when Artus says it and the dragons will come and kill all of the wendigo. Since shadow born can't be killed I think that they will either die or stop functioning when Tummeler and Charles put the cover onto Pandora's box- I am sure that they will succeed, even if they run into obstacles along the way because they have already failed in some areas (Nemo is dead, shadow born ate shadows of most of the troops) and I don't think that this is the kind of book that has a completely unhappy ending.