DRAGON KEEPER
by Carole Wilkinson
Hyperion
ISBN-10: 1423101715
ISBN-13: 9781423101710
Ages 8-12
352 pages

The year is 141 B.C. and a young girl with no name works as a slave at the desolate Huangling Place located on the edge of the Han Empire in China. The young girl serves a cruel master named Lan who is the Imperial Dragon Keeper. Master Lan's job is to feed and take care of the Emperor's imperial dragons, but he is lazy and makes the girl do his job instead. The slave is afraid of the two strange creatures that live in the dark pit, but puts aside her fears and tends to the dragons each day.

Then one day, one of the dragons dies. The girl feels guilty because the day before she had eaten a bowl of fresh food with her pet rat Hua that was meant for the dragons. She is then horrified when Master Lan decides to get rid of the dead dragon by pickling it. The girl knows that the pickling of an imperial dragon would mean death if the absent Emperor ever found out.

A couple of weeks pass, and while searching the Palace, the girl is greeted with the unexpected visit of the Emperor and his court. She accidentally ends up secretly watching an imperial banquet and overhears the Emperor making a deal with a greedy dragon hunter named Diao. She witnesses the Emperor and his wife unknowingly taste some of the dragon pickle. The girl reveals herself and tells the stunned court the horrible truth. She rescues the remaining imperial dragon and, along with Hua, is taken on a journey as the elderly dragon flies them away from the Palace.

The girl discovers that the dragon is named Long Danzi and that her own name is Ping. Ping joins the wise Danzi on a quest that will introduce her to a magical and dangerous world far greater than she has ever known. The only question is whether of not they will survive and complete their quest before it's too late.

DRAGON KEEPER is a unique and wondrous adventure that intermediate readers will want to continue and that will leave them believing in themselves.

   --- Reviewed by Sarah Sawtelle (SdarksideG@aol.com)

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