When we made the decision to homeschool our kids, I sat down and made a list of all the things that I felt were crucial to the success of their education. Very, very high on that list was a love of literature. I immediately started looking for new ways to expose them to great writing.
We had always read together, but now we read together every day without fail. Our history is literature based and our science includes as much literature as I can find for each topic. Also, I am working on building a home library for them so that they are never more than an arms length from any subject that strikes their fancy.
(God Bless Half Price Books clearance racks!)
One place I found where we could take advantage of good literature, that I had been completely missing, was in the car. Living in the DFW area, which is a sprawling place, we spend a lot of time getting from here to there. Audio books have become a favorite for us. It takes otherwise wasted time and makes something wonderful out of it. PLUS, the kids are a much more attentive audience when they listen in the car than if I try to read the same book at home.
I guess I could install seat belts on our cushy reading chair.
Hmm.
Now, ever since How to Train Your Dragon hit theaters in March of this year, we had been on an exhaustive search for every piece of dragon related literature known to children's books. When we spied Dragon Rider by Cornelia Funke on the audio book shelf at our local library, it was a no-brainer. I just knew the kids would love it. After all, it was about dragons.
Little did I know that I was about to add a new title to MY favorites list!
Dragon Rider is a wonderful, fantastical tale of a dragon, Firedrake, trying to save his family of dragons from the greedy humans that want to take the land that they call home. It is a classic tale of good versus evil with a honest to goodness prophecy thrown in for good measure. On his quest to find The Rim of Heaven, the legendary safe home of the dragons half way around the world, he is aided by a host of fantastic beings...brownies, sea serpents, rats, a genie, a homunculus and what else, but a human boy. Of course, no fairy tale would be complete without an evil villain. And what a villain he is! Nettlebrand, a gigantic dragon-like being created by an alchemist to destroy the dragons, is just waiting for Firedrake to lead him to the Rim of Heaven so that he can finish off the dragons once and for all.
The well-rounded characters and challenging vocabulary made this such a joy to listen to as an adult, while Funke's ability to write fantastic creatures without being too dark or heavy for young children was nothing short of brilliant. My kids hung on every word, laughed their heads off many times, and never, ever were frightened, even by Nettlebrand.
Genius.
We have listened to it twice now and I would be remiss if I didn't mention the reader.
Dragon Rider is read by Brendan Fraser. Yes, that's right. Mr. Mummy himself. I have to admit, I was a teensy bit skeptical when I saw his name on the cover. Now, I am truly ashamed of myself for ever doubting him.
(Mr. Fraser, I am truly sorry for not having faith in your voice. Please don't sic your mummies on me. Thank you.)
In a word, he was. . .
A. MAZ. ING.
It is worth listening to this story just to hear him read Sorrel (the brownie) and Twigleg (the homunculus).
Seriously.
I kept having to remind myself that this was ONE individual reading this story.
One.
Uno.
Well, maybe two if you count the mummy.
Go get it now and listen. You won't be sorry.
And if you don't have kids, don't worry.
I won't tell.
I should also mention, for those of you that are wondering, that there a couple of curse words in this book. I couldn't tell you for sure, because personally, I dismiss them, but I think it is just the "d" word. And then, Nettlebrand really likes to use the word "stupid" when speaking to his servants. That actually bugs me more than the other words.
Because my kids know stupid.
They don't know "d".
And they know a good story when they hear it and this one gets three marker-stained thumbs
WAY
UP!
Paula
"Second to the right, and straight on till morning."
