The last dragon roars to life in the dragon speaker series

        Cover of The Last Dragon by C.A. Rainfield

Do you have a young reader on your hands who loves dragons and fantasy? The Last Dragon (Dragon Speaker, 1) is the first book in the Dragon Speaker Series and takes young readers on an adventure in the year 1144.

Jacob is just a regular boy, despite the fact that he can hear birds talk. He has never told anyone except his best friend, Orson because he knows the other villagers would laugh and his father would think he was crazy.

Life in Jacob's village is hard as the evil Lord Manning has taken over and rules through fear. Lord Manning's wizard killed all the male children who had magic and set fire to Jacob's house. Jacob lost his mother and brother and he felt powerless to help them. One day in the forest, a crow lands at Jacob's feet and  says, "Help me, Chosen One." The crow warns Jacob that Lord Manning's soldiers are using black magic to kill them and are trying to call the last dragon. Jacob is confused, under the impression that no one had seen a dragon since the Dragon Wars, long before Jacob was born.

Jacob heads back to his village and seeks his friend's advice. Orson's father tells them of the prophecy: "When night skies blaze with Draco's fire, the darkest days shall come until the Chosen One will rise to speak in bird and dragon tongue." Thinking maybe, just maybe, Jacob is the chosen one, Jacob and Orson set out in search of the last dragon with hopes of saving the kingdom.

When the last dragon returns, Jacob realizes he's the only one who can speak with her.The dragon warns Jacob that Lord Manning has stolen her egg, the egg that holds the last male dragon. If he doesn't live, the dragon race will die out. Ultimately it is up to Jacob and his friends to rescue the egg from the evil Lord Manning. Will this unlikely hero be able to save an entire race along with his village?

Rainfield has written an intriguing fantasy that will have young readers dreaming of dragons and magic. Jacob may be an unlikely hero, but Rainfield has made him such a likeable one that readers will be intrigued to read the rest of the series to find out if he's successful against Lord Manning.

For more information, please visit the official website of The Dragon Speaker Books and check out the other two books in the series:
A Hero's Worth (Dragon Speaker, 2)
Draco's Fire (Dragon Speaker, 3)

Additional Information:
Paperback
Reading Level: Ages 10 and up
Publisher: High Interest Publishing; 1ST edition (2009)
ISBN-10: 1897039468
ISBN-13: 978-1897039465
Source of review copy: author