To celebrate the publication of The Boy Who Flew With Dragons, I’m delighted to share with you my review, a guest post from author Andy Shepherd and some exclusive inside illustrations from Sara Ogilvie.
‘Laugh out loud humour with a bond between a boy and a dragon that’s irresistible to read… this incredibly successful trilogy finishes on a huge high and has gone from strength to absolute strength.’
Rating: ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
Title: The Boy Who Flew With Dragons
Author: Andy Shepherd (@andyjshepherd)
Illustrator (Cover & Inside): Sara Ogilvie (Website)
Publisher: Piccadilly Press (@PiccadillyPress)
Page count: 256
Date of publication: 10th January 2019
Series status: Third and final book in the The Boy Who Grew Dragons series
ISBN: 978-1848127357
Perfect for Year 2, Year 3, Year 4 and Year 5.
#3Words3Emojis:
1. Dragons 🐉
2. Grandad 👴
3. Map 🗺️
We grow dragons.
Dragons that flicker, that frost, and some that fill the sky with fire.
We sit cross-legged round our dragon-fruit tree, waiting for our dragons to hatch.
But there’s something I need to tell you.
So keep listening, because you haven’t heard the whole story yet. And once you have, you might not be quite so quick to rush out and grow yourself a dragon…
Review: In the third and final book in The Boy Who Grew Dragons trilogy, it’s time to say goodbye to the dragons as we know them for Tomas yet Tomas can’t imagine life without his little dragon Flicker and neither can we. As Flicker and the other dragons grew in to Tomas and his friends’ lives, lived with them and as more dragons flew in to the pages of this series, they’ve become a part of our reading lives also as they’ve become more than pets and more like friends. However Tomas has a promise to Grandad to keep and he’s already delayed it more than he should…
Superhero Squad – Sara Ogilvie (The Boy Who Flew With Dragons)
But that isn’t going to stop the dragons appearing at Lolli’s party and creating a scene with thirty-three nursery children. Neither is it going to stop them from making more madness at Halloween. However the dragons’ causing of chaos changes in to the find of the century when searching through Grandad’s things in the shed, Tomas discovers the most mysterious of maps and when Flicker breathes on the map, all is revealed – La Ciudad Oculta de los Dragones: The Hidden City of the Dragons.
Floorboard – Sara Ogilvie (The Boy Who Flew With Dragons)
With a revelation this big, it means that Tomas is one step closer to working out where the dragons belong but there’s a slight problem before that in that he still has to work out how to get them to leave (oh, and tell his friends that the dragons have to go!). Can Tomas balance keeping his promise to Grandad, letting his friend in Flicker go and will the secrets of the city throw up more questions in answers and help Tomas to unearth the story of the mysterious dragonfruit tree that’s been nestled in Grandad’s garden for all this time…?
Flicker and Tomas – Sara Ogilvie (The Boy Who Flew With Dragons)
I’m so pleased that Andy finishes the incredibly successful trilogy on a huge high and to see the series go from strength to absolute strength. Not since The Dreamsnatcher trilogy by Abi Elphinstone have I felt so invested in a series as good as this. Closing the end pages of this story, I could feel the tinkles behind the eyes but I could also feel the corners of my mouth transform in to the biggest of smiles because that’s what this series has been truly about. Laugh out loud humour with a bond between a boy and a dragon that’s irresistible to read… a series that will be read and re-read over and over again for years and generations to come.
I’m so delighted to see ‘The Boy Who Flew with Dragons’ finally flying into the world. It’s been a long time coming. This story started life as a picture book eight years ago. Since then it’s been through many forms as I rewrote it over and over, coming back to it again and again through the years. I have a 1000 word version, a 5000 word version, a 12000, 20000 and finally the 35000 word version I ended up writing just for my sons that actually got me interest from my publisher.
And now it has become three books! I’m so thankful to Piccadilly Press for giving me the opportunity and space to develop the story. It’s been fun and exciting to see storylines and characters grow. But at its heart the overall arc of the story remains the same. And it was huge fun and quite emotional to write this third book and see that finally paying off.
This is probably my favourite book, not least because it’s the culmination of a very long writing journey. I hope readers enjoy it as much as I enjoyed writing it! (Though I hope it doesn’t take them quite as long!)
Andy Shepherd
Big thanks to Andy, Sara, Georgia and all at Piccadilly Press for inviting me to share my thoughts on this fantastic series-ender and for providing these illustrations!
Extra thanks to Andy for her guest post sharing her thoughts on the final book and the whole series. It’s been an absolute pleasure to support this series and to see my name in the final’s book’s acknowledgements has made my year.
🐉 Mr E 🐉
THE BOY WHO FLEW WITH DRAGONS by Andy Shepherd out now in paperback
(£6.99, Piccadilly Press)
Find out more at https://www.piccadillypress.co.uk/books/the-boy-who-flew-with-dragons/
and follow Andy Shepherd on Twitter @andyjshepherd
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