Customer Reviews

The Dragon of Doom (Moongobble and Me)

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I read extensively at night to my 5 and 6 year old boys. There is a trend for kids' book series to have small handsome volumes with clever illustration, like Spiderwick and Lemony Snicket. I had to edit out some disagreeable words in Spiderwick, and have decided to forego the Series of Unfortunate Events until they are older. And some of Bruce Coville's books like the Magic Shop series don't really make comfortable reading for very young kids. This is what makes Moongobble such a joy. Following the example of Spiderwick these are nifty little hardback volumes filled with winning illustrations. The stories are aimed at younger readers and my boys (beginning readers both) like to flip through the books themselves. In The Dragon of Doom, my boys really got a kick out of Moongobble accidentally turning everything into cheese. They also liked the talking toad.

I'm going into 4th grade.
This book is really good because it's about a wizard who try's to become part of this important wizard group called the society of Magicians with the help of 3 friends I can't wait until the second book comes out.

I just got this book from the library and when I got home I read it straight through. Although it is short, it is very well written, and the plot held my interest. The characters are very well potrayed, and I can't wait for the 2nd book to come out!

There are not all that many good books that you can read aloud to 4 and 5 year olds. Moongobble (a series, currently there are 4 books) is a good example of a book that young people will enjoy listening to, and the adult won't be bored out of his mind.

This is the first book in the Moongobble and Me series. Edward, a young boy apprentices to a neophyte wizard, Moongobble. Moongobble has a habit of messing up his spells and turning things to cheese. The Moongobble series has all the elements of fantasy: knights, dragons, witches,... but none of the violence usually present: the dragon of doom turns out to be roughly a foot long. The writing is witty, but simple enough for a four year old to understand.

When Moongobble the magician moves to town, Edward is eager to become his new apprentice. It turns out, though, that Moongobble isn't much of a magician after all -- every time he tries a spell, he ends up turning something into cheese. In fact, he's about to lose his authority to practice magic if he can't prove himself proficient by completing three difficult tasks. The first task is to steal some special acorns from the Dragon of Doom, so Moongobble and Edward set off with Urk, the pessimistic talking toad, and the Rusty Knight, who's nearly deaf, to find the dragon's cave.

This short children's novel provided my girls and me with an hour's worth of delightful entertainment. We listened to the charming version produced by Full Cast Audio. (It was available for free download from our library's Overdrive subscription, but if you don't have that, it's available for $2.95 at Audible.) As we listened to The Dragon of Doom, we laughed together often because Bruce Coville's sense of humor is appealing to both children and adults.

At the end of The Dragon of Doom, Moongobble, with Edward's help, has completed his first task. The second task will be introduced in the next volume of MOONGOBBLE AND ME, The Weeping Werewolf. My library doesn't have that one on audio, so I've purchased it at Audible.

Here's what my daughters said about The Dragon of Doom:

Tali, age 9: "The Dragon of Doom had a lot of suspense and a lot of exciting events and it was very funny. That's why I liked it."

Petra, age 6: "The Dragon of Doom was good!"

I got this book for my nephew for Christmas. He is a 7 year old avid reader and can't put the book down! He has already requested more books in the series :)

My son is only 5 and I have had to stop many a book because it was just too scary for him. If you are reading kids books in advance, only to find the characters are faced with real peril, deaths, etc.. so much so that you have to put aside yet another book for the next couple of years.. you will be glad to find this series.
I have finally found a book with dragons, wizards (he is called a "magician", which my son even finds less threatening than a "wizard") and even talking toads that has all the fun of Fantasy books but none of the violence, erieness and creepyness many of the genre have that make them more suitable to, let's say, a 7-9 year old.
Moongobble messes up spells and frequently turns things into cheese, and the dragon in the title turns out to be not nearly as scary as they thought.
My son loves to try and figure out what they should do next, and is thoroughly engaged in the story.
I don't mind reading this to him. I was getting mighty tired of the repetetion of so many other books in a series (I'm talking to you, Magic Treehouse... even a 5-year-old got tired of the predictability, simple sentences and repetition). This one was an easy read for Mom, and an early chapter book reader (2nd/3rd grade level could probably read many pages alone).

My son loved this book. He just turned 7 and is only just beginning to read more fluently to himself. This book is great to read himself (large print) and fun to read to him as well.
P.S. It was on the school recommended reading list for my 9 year old!

A splendid trilogy of sweet but not syrupy fantasy books for young children (I'd say around 3-7). With a bit of dragons, a bit of magic, a bit of questing, and a bit of coming of age tale to them, I found these to be must read books for my kids.

This book is very fun. My husband and I read alot with our son. And we encourage our son to read. We read a mixture of history, science and then fun stuff, like this book. This a great light story for children and it would be one to get the really young kids into reading. This book is about when Edward, a boy growing up in "Pigbone" meets his new neighbor Moongobble the wizard. This book is definitely written from a kid's point of view...my son was giggling the whole time. If you are looking for a fun read for your small child, this is the one!