Dragons at Crumbling Castle is a book of short stories. The title is from the first story in the book. It was the first book of short stories I have read and I really enjoyed it. It was very humourous and made me laugh out loud. Throughout the book are little illustrations that help tell the stories. Some of the pictures are quite funny and make you laugh.
My favourite stories were Dok the Caveman, The Abominable Snowman and Father Christmas goes to work at the zoo. Dok the Caveman is about a caveman called Dok who thinks he is inventing things although we know they have already been invented. The Abominable Snowman is about a group of adventurers that go exploring. Lastly, Father Christmas goes to work at the zoo is pretty self explanitory. He decides to get a day job at the zoo and finds that he has difficulties in the normal world rather than the North Pole. The sort of language he uses is fun for younger children. He uses lots of descriptive words in his writing and this helps with the fantasy. The worlds he creates are crazy, like on specks of dust and in carpets. His characters names are exciting and ridiculous, for example Jem Stronginthearm and Christopher Pilgarlic. There is good use of different font sizes to express extra enthusiasm into the sentence or sound effects. This book is good to read on your own or to younger children as a bedtime story. It is a great read and inspires you to write small fantasy stories yourself. I have written one already myself. If you are looking for a good book that will cheer you up then this collection of comedy stories is the book for you. I definitely recommend this if you have not read short stories before. I found that they are easy to grasp the storyline unlike long novels. This means that your reading is never boring and you never know where story behind the next page will take you.
Buy this book at the Guardian Bookshop.
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