Tich is bored and his dad gives him an old board game to play. Playing slaying dragons is fine, but when game and reality overlap life becomes problematic. How do people react to a fire breathing dragon in the shopping centre?
This is the second "Tich" book I have 'read' (the first being Tich Vampire Hunter). I say 'read' because with children's books I have a tendency to read the first of a series and for sequels I tend to skim them to reacquaint me with the characters/author/style and just get the gist of the plot. I picked up Dragonslayer and started that and found myself reading cover to cover. I'm not sure if that says something about Tich, Barrett - as the author, or me! But I loved it!
I would say one thing about it though, of which I did not approve - whenever things go wrong (and what would be a kids book where they didn't go wrong?) he keeps saying things like "bollards, bollards, bollards". I just feel this encourages or normalises such speech patterns for young readers although it may offend some.
Putting that to one side, Tich is a grand character who's not exactly snow white in his behaviour but harmless and fun while Barrett's story telling really drags any reader in and compels them to read as he propels them to the end.
Publisher - Playbackbooks
Genre - Children's fantasy fiction 7+
Buy Tich Dragonslayer
from Amazon
from Amazon