Customer Reviews

The Crouching Dragon (Will to Conquer, 1)

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I really loved reading The Crouching Dragon. We need more heroes that we can follow, not comic book ones like Xena or ones like Buffy fighting enemies that don't exist in the real world. Both my brother and I loved reading the book and since he is in 4th grade and I am in high school, anyone over age 8 should love this book too. We both have read the Narnia books and the Harry Potter books, but the heroes in those books need magic to overcome their enemies. The great thing about The Crouching Dragon is that the heroes beat their enemies by banding together and supporting each other instead of needing magic. Another great thing is that one of main characters is a woman who does not have to act like a man to be a hero. I love to read history and I want to go to Europe as soon as I can so I loved the parts of this book that described France in such detail that I felt like I was there.

The Crouching Dragon is an enchanting fable of fantasy, adventure, ancient history, romance and competition . In a small French town in 1959, William and his friends help create a half-fantasy kingdom out of the mysterious castle called the Crouching Dragon. In the castle they help in restoring a hidden Kingdom, discovering real medieval artifacts. The teenagers solve a mystery of puzzling disappearances in their town with the help of the President de Gaulle.

My only problem with The Crouching Dragon is that it kept me up all night reading it. This is one of the best adventure stories I've ever read, with characters I really care about and one surprise after another. What a terrific ending. I guess I'll just have to read it again while I'm waiting for the author to deliver the next book in the series.

Don't rely on the review below to decide whether you will read this book. I am a teacher and I had at least ten students who read this book (8th graders), and they ALL loved it! It is worth your time and will not disappoint you!

Not hyped full of magic, but grounded in reality entertainment. A pleasant variation on the stuff being fed to growing minds, this young adult novel cleanly transcends fiction. Archtypes we all have to learn to live with present themselves in touchingly real-life dramas. The Crouching Dragon captures and grows imagination while we're educated in history, geography, art & craft - even a foreign language. These kids could run with the Hardy boys! This middle aged guy looks forward to some more enjoyable looking back through Lamensdorf's "will to conquer" series.

Boy, an education and an adventure all in one. I couldn't put it down. I actually read 258 pages in less than four hours. That's a record for me. I'm twelve years old and found the language level just right. I especially like the mystery embedded in the adventure story rounded out with european history. I strongly recomend this book.

The crouching dragon is a wonderfully imaginative book, with extremely realistic characters and setting. It kept my attention with every turn of the page, and never ceased to surprise me. The description of the setting paints a very realistic picture of the wonderful landscape of France.

As ELA Curriculum Coordinator k-12 at Cairo-Durham CSD I have ordered five copies for our "Reader's Corner" designed to have students read for pleasure. It will rivet their attention with the constant action. I am also investigating ordering a class set for interdisciplinary study. Social Studies can investigate the three time periods of William the Conquerer, WWII, and the reign of Charles Degaulle. English classes would rewrite different endings and discuss the moral dilemmas involved. Art would investigate the paintings mentioned as well as the architecture of the dragon and the period it was built. Music would investigate lute music and technology could work on recreating a lute or a medieval breastplate.Math could work on the metric system. French could investigate the culture of the region. Depending on students' ability level a distict could use this 8-10. For adult readers there is an incredible amount of action as well as a great picture of theCalvados region of Normandy. I always looked forward to travelling to Omaha Beach, however; now I've got to budget more time to see the entire region. Although the ending depends on a great deal of coincidence, it doesn't detract from the overall quality of the book. I learned a lot, and it was a truly pleasurable read

"Rarrrr," That is how a book about a dragon would start, but this book is about a castle that at night it looks like a creepy dragon staring at you.
The Crouching dragon was written by Len Lamensdorf. The Crouching dragon is book one of the series, Will to Conquer.
The Crouching Dragon starts out with a celebration of Normandy in Germany with a young boy named Willi and his best friend Andre. Willi is a thirteen year old boy with blond hair and he has good coordination skills. Andre and Willi were sitting outside on the porch discussing about what happened last night. Last night Andre appeared at the ancient castle with a hurt leg and his dog missing. Andre could not remember a thing about what happened or how he got there.
Willi and Andre went to explore the castle at night to find some evidence. When they arrived at the castle they found nothing and no way inside into the castle. No one has been inside the castle for many years. As they were looking for a way in they spotted a mysterious man going thorough a secret door that was not there before. The man came to them and led them through the passage. When they came inside they found lots of old weapons and guns. The mysterious man was there cleaning up the place until he saw the boys playing with the weapons. The mysterious man became mad and kicked the boys out of the castle. Will the boys comeback? Find out yourself.
My opinion about this book is that it was really good and was an easy read. If you like mystery, adventure, and suspense you would enjoy this book. The theme is not to go to creepy castles by yourself.

William lived in a small town in Normandy. He is abused by his dad and bullied at school, so he seeks refuge in an old castle, it turns out someone lived there, and he doesn't want to be intruded upon. However he has a big change of heart and all the kids in town make up a fantasy kingdom there. Then all the parents find out and they have a major argument. Them two kids get Charles de Gaulle to fix it for them.

It was a very boring book, very dull and hard to follow. No one was nice or sympathetic, and all the parents were paper-thin. Throughout the whole book there were these pointless plot twists and such that were just boring. Everything is cheesy and unless you like being bored I would not recommend it to you. The end left and wide space for a sequel, which I have no will to conquer.