Fourteen year old Jake Mendzoa has never had what could be called a normal life--not that he wants one--due to the fact that he lives in Smokehill National Park. Which, by the way, is a dragon preserve. Draco Australiensis, eighty feet long plus tail, flies, breaths fire, may or may not be intelligent, extinct in the wild, raises its kids in a pouch, nobody knows anything much about them, and nobody can agree on whether or not it's really a dragon. On his first solo overnight hike into the park, Jake comes upon a dead dragon, and a dead poacher. And the dragon's one surviving baby. Now, there is only one thing more illegal than killing a dragon, and that's saving its life. So what does Jake do? Picks up the weeny little squidgy bruise colored fetal baby dragon that really should spend a year or so in its moms pouch right about now except its mom is DEAD and sticks it down his shirt, is what. It really should have only lived a day or so outside of it's moms pouch, but somehow it survives down his shirt drinking deer broth or sheep broth or whatever. And since Smokehill is HERE to keep dragons from going extinct, now they have a hugely secret baby dragon that thinks Jake is its mom and won't stay with anyone else, AND a dead poacher killed by a dragon when supposedly their fancy high tech fence keeps poachers out and dragons are safe and don't kill humans mostly. So basically everyone is stressing out in their little (huge) crises and Jake is going nuts trying to keep Lois (the baby dragon) alive and healthy and a secret AND keep the social worker and home school checker-uppers off his back.
Sorry about all the run on sentences. I do that even whenever i talk about books. Anyway, this is a really awesome book. I love Jake, Lois, and ROBIN MCKINLEY!! this is one of my all-time favorite books. Funny, original, and really well written. Now go get it from the library or the bookstore or something and read it.
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