Susan Miho NunesRecensioni

Cultural diversity

An old ten-man dragon in a Chinatown shop window turns Peter Chang's summer visit to Great Aunt, which he had been dreading, into an exciting adventure

Retells the Aboriginal tale about what happened when the giant frog Tiddalik had such a great thirst that he drank all the fresh water of the world

The Last Dragon is a wonderful tale about how a little boy enlisted and brought together people of different professions to restore a ten-man Chinese dragon that the boy sees in a thrift store window. The illustrations by Chris K. Soentpiet are rich and vibrant, and effectively portray how ornate this Chinese dragon is. The story is excellent too, emphasizing unity and togetherness and ultimately, community.

I lost interest in this book pretty quickly. I read it because it was multicultural and the cover looked fun, but it proved to be dry and boring. It was about a boy named Peter who was staying with his Great Aunt in China town for the summer. He was bored one day so he decided to go look around China Town. He found this old dragon in a store that needed to be worked on. His Great Aunt let him get it and for the next few weeks Peter went around and asked for favors from some people in town until his dragon was complete and ready to be shown off in a parade. The illustration was very detailed, but I felt that the story was predictable and typical because Peter ended up really liking China Town and staying with his Aunt, and his Aunt changed her opinion about the dragon and ended up liking it as well. I could tell what the story was going to be about once I saw that old dragon in the window. I also didn't enjoy how the book was very long and dragged out, that made it less interesting as well.

This book was great for its cultural part of it concerning the Chinese culture, as well as the importance of dragons in their culture. Determination was evident in the boy, which also showed how earning and working towards something is better than expecting things to be given to you.

a young boy staring out his window see coyotes and begins to frolic and play amongst them. 2-4

A wonderful story which teaches about coyotes and the desert through the mind of a young dreaming boy.