Alex Neptune: Dragon Thief

LoveReading4Kids Says

Shortlisted for the Week Junior Book Awards 2023

There’s a wonderful dragon in David Owen’s thrilling new adventure story, but it’s not the fire-breathing kind; rather it’s a water dragon, a huge and gorgeous, sinuous creature with amazing powers.

Alex Neptune has grown up with stories of the Water Dragon which is credited with creating the strange shaped bay in his seaside hometown. He’s never believed them, and indeed, has always avoided the sea, convinced it wants him dead. But just as the waters of Haven Bay are most in need of help, choked with litter and polluted by chemicals from the town’s new industrial plant, Alex discovers that the Water Dragon is more than just a myth and that he has a special role to play in saving it, and thereby the oceans it protects.

Fortunately, he doesn’t have to do this on his own: best friends tech-mad, gadget-creating Zoe and under-water supremo Anil are there to help, plus his weight-lifting sister Bridget. Alex also has an amazing crew of sea-creatures onside – four otters, flocks of seagulls, and an extraordinary colour-changing octopus he calls Kraken. As Alex finds courage he never knew he had and together they stand up against wicked, power-crazed trophy hunter Callis, it’s all hands/fins/tentacles on deck! The story is full of adventure with battles raging on land, sea and in underwater caves, but there’s buckets of humour too not to mention a healthy helping of environmentalism. It will make the perfect beach read but will be just as unputdownable when you’re back home too.

One to recommend to fans of the Eerie-on-Sea stories by Thomas Taylor or Dragon Realm adventures.

Andrea Reece

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