The Fire Within
The Last Dragon Chronicles, Book 1
Chris D'Lacey
Scholastic
Fiction, MG Fantasy
Themes: Anthropomorphism, Creative Power, Dragons
**
Description
"Housing Available - Meals and laundry included - Must like children and cats and dragons," read the ad, and David Rain, a college student on a tight budget, answered eagerly, even if he was a little unclear on the last bit. Liz Pennykettle lives with her assertive daughter Lucy (almost eleven years old), an odd tabby cat named Bonnington, and a wide assortment of clay dragons, present in every room of the house. Liz makes them in her private workroom to sell at local craft fairs. Each dragon is a unique creation with its own special spark, each almost alive - or more than almost. The dragon she makes for David, clutching a notepad and chewing a pencil, seems to come alive in his mind, at least, compelling him to write a story about the one-eyed squirrel in the yard. Lucy has named the squirrel Conker, and he seems to be in danger from a number of threats, including the surly next door neighbor, natural predators, and starvation. Somehow, through the dragon and the story he writes, David and Lucy seem obligated to help.
Review
I hate books that squander great ideas. I also hate books that give away more in the dust jacket teaser than the book itself gives away for most of its length. That
said, I had a number of other problems with this story specifically. Though the writing seems pitched at an audience closer to Lucy's age, the focus is on twenty-year-old
David, who is not only a little old for the target audience to relate to (and technically a little old for Young Adult, even, where I've seen it shelved), but hardly
seems to behave like a normal college boy. (I would also think, in this day and age, that a single mother might think twice about taking in a stranger, no matter how many
dragons are lurking, but that's a minor quibble compared to the rest of the story's issues.) The stuff the dust jacket talks about doesn't come out in the story until very
close to the end, though it's painfully clear from the first few pages that the Pennykettles are hiding some big secret and the dragons have greater significance than mere
decorations.
Unfortunately, despite the title and the beautiful jacket and the blurbs, most of the book is devoted to Conker's plight, both the family's efforts to save the squirrel and
David's efforts to appease Lucy by writing - under his dragon's inspiration - the story of Conker in a distinctly Redwall-influenced manner. Now, I'm speaking as a
dracophile, but if I had a story that dealt with silly squirrels and dignified dragons - not just dragons, mind you, but clay dragon sculptures with the spark of life in
them - and I had to decide which one to focus on, I certainly wouldn't pick the squirrels. As for Conker's story itself, the latter part of it defies logic if you have any
knowledge of wildlife and veterinary practices.
I also found Lucy irritatingly pushy and rude. Most of the book boils down to a bunch of adults being manipulated by her whims, which take peculiar precedence over their own
lives or common sense. David himself is hardly the brightest bulb; he has several near-revelations concerning the truth about the Pennykettle dragons, but, in true
Plot-Extending Stupidity fashion, ignores them all until the very end, in a sequence that seemed crafted for another book entirely and raised more questions than it answered.
Once he does catch on, he seems very confused that his attempts to explain the astounding truth to others are met with mockery and disbelief. The entire dragon subplot seemed
better suited to another story entirely, one where the dragons wouldn't be playing second fiddle to stories about talking squirrels. Why bother with clay dragons at all if
the book was really about squirrels? Why didn't Liz make a variety of animal sculptures, so David could've at least been inspired by a clay squirrel? Why not make David a
cousin closer to Lucy's age, perhaps moving in after some family tragedy (and thus giving the title a deeper meaning, as his dragon helps him deal with post-traumatic
anger)?
This book is such a bizarre amalgamation of ideas that I have to wonder if the author, stuck with two or more half-stories he couldn't finish, finally decided to play
Frankenstein and stitch them together into one unnatural creation. Perhaps a younger kid wouldn't be quite so annoyed at the wasted ideas, often-annoying characters, and
pointless plot contrivances, but I suspect that any kid bright enough to try reading a book this size might catch on that the story promised by the title and jacket is not
the one being delivered.
At any rate, I have a suggestion to those who might see this book on the shelves and wish to buy it. Pick the book up. Appreciate the cover. Read the dust jacket teaser.
Close your eyes and imagine a story about what you've just seen and read. Then open your eyes, put the book back on the shelf, and leave the bookstore. I can almost guarantee
that whatever story you imagined made better use of the promised premise of The Fire Within than the actual book did, and it was much cheaper.