About the book

Author: Johnston, E. K.

Title: The story of Owen : Dragon slayer of Trondheim

Publication: Minneapolis : Carolrhoda Lab, [2014]. ISBN 9781467710664.

DAISY audio format. 305 pages in the paper edition; 8 hrs., 25 mins. as a recorded book. Not available through CELA.

About the story

This is a Canadian book, set in Southwestern Ontario on the shores of Lake Huron. Picture an epic battle between a dragon and its Slayer … on the Burlington Skyway.

Now, imagine that Slayer is the most famous dragon slayer in the country: Lottie Thorskard.

Meet Owen Thorskard, Lottie’s nephew and Apprentice Dragonslayer. Meet Siobhan McQuaid, book-loving musician by day, Apprentice Bard to a dragon slayer by night.

They live in Ontario, on the shores of Lake Huron, not far from Goderich. Their small town is prey to dragons. Buildings burn, cars get eaten, and so do people. Schools do dragon drills. Siobhan and Owen fear the towns they have grown up in will go the way of Michigan, uninhabitable to humans due to the increased dragon population lured by the irresistible pull of carbon emissions, to which dragons are irresistibly drawn.

It’s not your typical high school story. The author imaginatively retells history, but with dragons. The kids find themselves in a world where the adults are unwilling or unable to see past the status quo to a new way of doing things and, taking matters into their own hands, undertake the greatest challenge of their young lives.

I had no idea what to expect but this book is a deee-light. It’s funny and gripping and it treats teens like people instead of flouncing, bad-tempered bags of hormones.

Recommended.