book cover
English Cymraeg

The Last Dragon

by Polly Ho-Yen, illustrated by Charis Loke

Interest age: 9 to 11
Reading age: 9+

Published by Knights Of, 2024

  • Adventure
  • Chapter books

About this book

This book is set in a totally familiar, everyday world in Milton Keynes... except there is still one dragon left. She flies around the world and is deeply beloved.

12-year-old Lara isn’t actually that into the dragon herself; she has other things to worry about. But Lara’s younger sister George is obsessed. George is really sick and has been in hospital for months, and Lara is incredibly worried about her.

Their family moved because of George's illness and for Lara, everything is upside down and awful. She hates her new school and is starting to get a reputation for being badly behaved, after a lifetime of being good.

Then Lara has an encounter with the dragon that changes everything. It leaves her an egg before it flies away. It’s a gift of great power that might even help her sister get better, so now Lara has to be incredibly brave and daring and escape the Dragon Detection Squad.  

This is a brilliantly written story. It’s in first person, so a reader can get into the head of Lara, and the encounter with the dragon is beautifully described.

But this book isn’t just about dragons; it’s about family, and especially the power of sister bonds. It’s also about friendship. Yara makes friends with Bertie, a non-binary 12-year-old, using they/them pronouns, who is bullied for being different.

It’s a book about being who you are, which is not always how people expect you to be. But it’s also about a real-life dragon in Milton Keynes!

About the author

Polly Ho-Yen is a writer based in Bristol. Her debut novel, Boy in the Tower, was shortlisted for the Blue Peter Book Award, Waterstones Children's Book Prize and the Federation of Children's Book Groups Book Award. All three of her middle-grade novels have been nominated for the Carnegie Medal.

Following her experiences working as a primary school teacher in south London, Polly puts these places and communities centre-stage in her narratives. She aims to create stories firmly rooted in a world that young people will know and recognise, even when a science fiction or fantastical element creeps in. Polly is an Arvon tutor and regularly runs writing workshops in primary and secondary schools across the country as well as working for Bristol libraries, where she set up the Bristol Teen Book Award, a book award for Bristol secondary schools which celebrates inclusivity.

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