Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #49428 in Books
• Published on: 2003-05-13
• Original language: English
• Dimensions: .26" h x 5.12" w x 7.72" l, .26 pounds
• Binding: Paperback
• 112 pages

From School Library Journal
Grade 2-4AA fantasy adventure for beginning chapter-book readers. Wiglaf, the would-be hero, lives with his large, brutish family in abject poverty. Their hovel smells worse than their pigsty. Though Wiglaf is the smallest member of the family, he is made to do all the work, and is constantly picked on by the others because he is reluctant to kill any living thing. A traveling minstrel tells Wiglaf's fortune; it shows that he can improve his lot by performing a gallant act. The boy decides to sign up at the local Dragon Slayers' AcademyAit guarantees to make him a hero. However, he finds life at the run-down school as difficult as it is at home, and he protests when he is sent out to slay the local dragon on his first day. When his magic sword doesn't work, he switches to another strategy. He has learned that the dragon can't stand bad jokes so he tries a few and, as predicted, the dragon expires at his feet. Wiglaf is a hero without spilling a single drop of blood. The fast-paced, snappy text is filled with jokes and insults; the accompanying black-and-white illustrations are dark and cartoonlike. The tone and style suggest Saturday-morning animated films and will appeal to the same audience. For humorous adventure fantasy that is better crafted and more nourishing, try Jon Scieszka's Knights of the Kitchen Table (Viking, 1991) and other works in the "Time Warp Trio" series.AVirginia Golodetz, Children's Literature New England, Burlington, VT
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews
In this first of the Dragon Slayers' Academy series, Wiglaf, the put-upon sensitive son in a family of louts, heads off to school along with his faithful pet pig, Daisy. On the way, he meets a wizard who gives him a magic sword, although he has forgotten the magic words to make it work, and gives Daisy the power of speech (in pig latin). Once at the Academy, Wiglaf discovers that it's not all it's advertised to be, and his first chance to slay a dragon comes all too soon. This lightweight, amusing adventure rattles right along, without pretensions and with, given the series title, a resolution that cleverly avoids violence--Wiglaf slays the dragon with bad jokes. An entertaining confection. (b&w illustrations, not seen) (Fiction. 7-10) -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Ingram
Young readers will find everything from goofy teachers and strange roommates to rotten school food and castles--along with lots of 12th century surprised--in this hilarious new first-chapter series. In the first issue, a minstrel foretells that Wiglaf is about to become a hero.