Type of bind: Hardcover
Format: Bargain Price
Label: Putnam Juvenile
Manufacturer: Putnam Juvenile
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 272
Printing Date: September 20, 2007
Publishing house: Putnam Juvenile
Age index: Young Adult
Sale Popularity Level: 561920
Studio: Putnam Juvenile
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Editor's Notes and Comments:
Product Description:
Jake Mendoza lives at the Makepeace Institute of Integrated Dragon Studies in Smokehill National Park. Smokehill is home to about two hundred of the few remaining draco australiensis, which is extinct in the wild. Keeping a preserve for dragons is controversial: detractors say dragons are extremely dangerous and unjustifiably expensive to keep and should be destroyed. Environmentalists and friends say there are no records of them eating humans and they are a unique example of specialist evolution and must be protected. But they are up to eighty feet long and breathe fire.
On his very first overnight solo trek, Jake finds a dragon—a dragon dying subsequent to the human she killed. Jake realizes this news could destroy Smokehill— even though the dead man is clearly a poacher who had attacked the dragon first, that fact will be lost in the outcry against dragons.
But then Jake is struck by something more urgent—he sees that the dragon has just given birth, and one of the babies is still alive. What he decides to do will determine not only their futures, but the future of Smokehill itself.
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Rated by buyers 
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A Robin McKinley book. It's got the word "dragon" in the title. And it's narrated by a boy. As I'm constantly telling long-suffering family members (anyone who will listen, really), with McKinley you never know what you're gonna get. I mean, yeah, she's known for her fairy tale retellings. And her fantasy stories about girls who kick butt. Oh, and that one vampire book about the baker. But just when you think you know what to expect, she writes a contemporary only sorta fantasy about a boy who grows up in a national park inhabited by dragons nobody's ever seen but who are nonetheless there. Jake finds this out firsthand when he stumbles across a dying dragon and her litter of dragon kits. Without thinking about it twice, he stuffs one of the babies inside his shirt and heads for the hills. Thus the adventure begins. Jake's wandering, frantic, self-deprecating narration was right up my alley. I loved it. I loved that she gave her all to get inside a fifteen-year-old boy's head, threw in a few dragons, a heckuva lot of governmental blue tape, and decided to see where it took her. Also, such a great last line. Bottom line: Sequels or no, Damar or no, I am up for anything you are, Ms. McKinley.
Rated by buyers -
While this book is not one of McKinley's best,it is better than the negative reviews led me to beleive.It does have it's flaws,however.The narration style is chatty,with lots of run-on sentences,and very different from her usual heartachingly beautiful prose.I also think that if she had set the story in a fantasy world,done third-person narration,and made the hero a girl instead of a boy,this could have been an amazing novel.But these imperfections don't stop Dragonhaven from being a good book.The story was interesting,and I like the fact that Mckinley portrayed the dragons in a positive light.Although Jake Mendoza talks a lot(and I mean a LOT!)I still liked him pretty well,and I loved the baby dragon,Lois!Dragonhaven is definitly a rough gem compared with Mckinley's other works,but if you can see past the talkative writing,you'll realize that,in it's own unique way,it is a bloody good read.This book is not for everyone,but it deserves a chance.
Rated by buyers 
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I LOVE McKinley's writing, usually, but reading this book was like wading through hot tar. The first-person narration is very grating, and with a better editor, the book could have been shortened by about a third. The plot is engaging, which is why I gave it two stars, but I don't know if most people are even going to get that far. It's the only one of McKinley's books I've ever had a hard time finishing.
Rated by buyers -
I agree with other reviewers, this is a weak book for McKinley. The book comes across as undeveloped in storyline and characters. The narrator, the boy hero Jake, can be witty, but also sometimes too cute. The book rambles to a close. One wishes that a good editor could have taken a stronger hand in guiding this book along.
Despite boring stretches of dragon history and animal communication theory, this book can be sometimes engaging. But I did skip reading a fair amount of blah blah. If you're curious about this book, I suggest you try your public library. Not one of those books you'll read a second time. Or maybe not even a very first time.
Rated by buyers 
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I enjoyed the story very much as it revealed the boy growing in awareness regarding his world and his response to it as effected by his mothers death. The dragons are not overwhelming but are still much in tune with the growing problems they presented. All in all a nice story but it did ramble on when these incidents could have been included in the main story.
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