The Dragon of Doom (Moongobble and Me #1) by Bruce Coville
Description:
Edward is bored with life in the little town of Pigbone. Then Moongobble the Magician and his faithful toad, Urk, move into the cottage on the hill.
Soon Edward has a job helping Moongobble. And Moongobble needs a lot of help because it turns out, he is not a very good magician. (His spells keep turning things into cheese!)
Edward has never been so busy — or so happy. But then someone threatens to stop Moongobble from ever casting another spell. Edward can’t let that happen. He’ll do anything to save his friend’s magic — even face the deadly, dreaded Dragon of Doom!
My thoughts:
We actually listened to this on CD and it lasted about an hour. Amber says Coville is her favorite author to listen to in the car. I think it’s because his stories are wacky and the CDs have a full cast, not just a single narrator, which makes them fun. This is the first in a series and it’s an enjoyable little story. Kids who like magicians and dragons will get a kick out of it. The back of the CD said it’s aimed at ages 6-9, which I would say is about right.
There are a couple good lessons snuck in. It’s important to stand by your friends, even when they’re facing something scary. Also, sometimes the scary monster isn’t that scary after all; sometimes it’s all just “smoke and mirrors.” We’ll probably pick up the next one in the series on CD sometime soon. I want to see what happens next to Edward and Moongobble.
The series:
You and I really live THIS close together???
Cool!!!
Yeah. It took me a while to realize “West of Mars” was Mars, PA.
It takes a lot of people awhile to realize that. Which is fine by me; I’ve got kids. But when people start telling me what their ruling planets are… it’s hard not to roll my eyes.