5 Stars
Jonah and the Last Great Dragon:
. . .Legend of the Heart Eaters
M.E. Holley
Our Street Books
149 Pages Ages: 8 to 12
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Back Cover: On the first morning of Jonah Drake’s summer holiday on the Welsh Border, an enormous dog attacks him, and then weird creatures appear. An old legend of the area comes true and the last Great Dragon of Wales wakes from beneath the Radnor Forest, The people of the valley discover that terrifying Night Creatures want to take over the modern world. Only dragon-fire can destroy them—and Jonah finds that he is the only person who can control the Great Dragon.
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Jonah has arrived to spend his summer vacation with his aunt and uncle. Something is not right in the little village where they live. Wolves, extinct in Britain, have returned. They are hunting down Jonah. The Earth has opened up. A creature from within grabs Jonah and attempts to pull him down into whatever the opening holds. Gargoyles are atop St. Michael’s, throwing things at Jonah. A stranger comes to the village seeming to know what is going on, but refusing to be explicit. What he does say is they need a descendant of the Families of Domination. Twelve-year-old Jonah is that descendant.
I loved this story. I had no idea that dragons were around . . . are around . . . were around (are around), to serve us. Did you know that dragons have (had), a purpose? Me neither. Dragons exist(ed) to serve us. No dragon story this year has explained this phenomenon, until now. This is good to know, especially for these people. Having the dragoneer—the dragon’s master—be a visiting twelve-year-old boy, is a bit daunting for the people who live in and around the village. If you read closely, the author lets on Jonah is the dragoneer when Erin refers to him as,
“Master Jonah Clever Clogs Drake.”
Yes, she said “Master.”
The writing is good, very good. The story starts with a big jolt as Jonah is chased from his uncle’s farm to Erin’s farm, up and over hills and mud, and everything else one finds on a farm. Then the writing slows us down, as we meet the well-developed characters, and then builds up to a wild climax that will have you turning pages as fast as your fingers can fly. I thought I knew what was going on and whom a stranger to town actually was, then I would turn the page only to be unsure once more. The writing will keep you locked on the story.
In many respect this is a scary story, but not as scary as it could have been. Kids can read about Jonah and not have nightmares or become afraid to leave the house. Older kids and adults will also enjoy Jonah and the Last Great Dragon. There are no illustrations—at least not on paper. Your imagination will illustrate the story as it unfolds. The writing is descriptive, logical, colorful, and perfectly paced. Jonah and the Last Great Dragon: Legend of the Heart Eaters is one of the best middle grade stories this year.
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Jonah and the Last Great Dragon: Legend of the Heart Eaters
Author: M.E. Holley facebook website Publisher: Our Street Books facebook website Release Date: November 16, 2012 ISBN: 978-1-78099-541-0 Number of Pages: 149 Ages: 8 to 12
Copyright ©2012 M.E. Holley
Kids Lit Review 
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Hi Sue, This sounds like a book that I would personally enjoy myself! As you were describing the story I was thinking to myself, “My children, ok scratch that, my daughter would be terrified of this book.” Although it’s mostly movies that scare her, so maybe the book would not be as terrifying. Sounds like a real page-turner nonetheless and I’m positive my son would love it!
Thanks for linking into the Kid Lit Blog Hop Sue! 😀
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This sounds fantastic….Wales…tick, dragons…tick, GARGOYLES!…tick, GARGOYLES THROWING THINGS…double tick! Thanks for recommending 😀
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Ah, yes. If there has been any book written just for you, Jonah and the Last Great Dragon is the one for you. All those gargoyles throwing this and later meeting their demise. Of course, they must meet this, right? Every gargoyle has meet his demise EXCEPT FOR YOU!! So glad of that and glad to see you here. 🙂
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Great review! I love the cover! 😀 I like dragons. I think you would like the Inheritance series Ms. Morris. It is really good! 🙂
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The Inheritance Series, huh? I’l have to gargoyle that, uh, um, I mean Google that one and check it out. That last comment is on my mind still. Sorry about that Erik. I’ll think about yours while replying to the next comment.;-)
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HAHAHA! You should write a jokebook! 😉
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I like dragon stories and I like the cover of this one, but the title makes my heart pound!
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Have you heard of The Inheritance Series? (just wondering)
I agree about the subtitle. It made me wonder what the heck I had agreed to review . . . until I read the book. The title means so much and gives a clue to something only true dragoneers would understand–and those that have read the book. But I just swore myself to secrecy, so I can’t explain it. You’ll need to read the book. It is a pretty fast read. You could read it on the run from the gargoyle of comment one.
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Yes, we have the Inheritance series on our shelves at home. The Mom Person likes those books. She read them to me some, but they are very long and I fell asleep and missed a lot of the story. A lot of the people in my family like dragons and we have all kinds of dragon books here. So I guess we’ll probably be looking for this heart pounding one!
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This sounds like a fun dragon story with a great hero. But – Yikes! A big dog attacked me once, and there was nothing fun about it – that includes the surgery, the cone, and the drains sticking out of my neck! I hope Mom reads this to me sometime. I can see how that dog bite SHOULD have gone down!! 🙂
Love and licks,
Cupcake
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Yikes, indeed! I forgot this is a pooch comment and not a human comment and it scared me for a moment. The cone part especially. But I am sorry to hear a big dog bit you so much it took surgery. That cone must have been awful. I have a brace on my leg, but a cone would be much worse. Maybe this is not the book for you. The dogs are really horrible. (shh(Actually they are not dogs but wolves. I didn’t want to give that away to everyone, so keep this to yourself, okay?)shh)
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Wolves! *shiver* Yikes!
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Yay for dragon stories! My favorite. Sounds like a really cool book!
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I am so glad this is your favorite book. And yes, Yay for dragons. This dragon’s name is Ffyrnig. The only other dragon I know is called Snarls (without an e, goofy huh?). Why is it dragons have funnily-spelled names? If only I could ask an author of a dragon story, but alas, I could not contact M. E. Holley, she was busy with this tour. If I only knew just one more dragon book author, maybe I could find the answer.
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Hi, Sue. Thanks for all the kind things you have said about ‘Jonah’. (Actually, ‘Legend of the Heart Eaters’ is the book title and ‘Jonah and the LGD’ is the series because I’ve nearly finished the second story about Jonah and Ffyrnig – Welsh for ‘fierce’ or ‘fiery as a furnace’, incidentally. All best wishes, M E Holley
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This sounds good! I bet my son would enjoy it. Thanks for the review.
Shannon at The Warrior Muse
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Hi Shannon. Welcome to Kid Lit Reviews. Since this is your first time I hope you enjoyed the review and some of the comments. I enjoyed them all, but that is just me. If your son likes real dragons, doing real dragon stuff, the only way dragons can do them, then he will like this story. It is a really good, no, great story, especially for a boy who is still a kid (guess that covers them all, but I meant the under 14 boys).
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