Dragon in the Sock Drawer (Dragon Keepers Series #1) » (Reprint)

Kate Klimo first got the idea for this book many years ago when her three sons were small and she came across a geode lying among the rolled up socks in one of their sock drawers. When she is not writing, Kate is a children’s book publisher. She lives in upstate New York with her husband, Harry, three horses, and one grandcat.

A favorite dragon book—now in paperback!

Ten-year-old cousins Jesse and Daisy have always wanted something magical to happen to them. So it’s a wish come true when Jesse’s newly found thunder egg hatches and a helpless, tiny, but very loud, baby dragon pops out. Soon the two kids are at the dragon’s beck and call, trying to figure out what to feed her. An Internet search leads them to the library, which leads them back to the Internet, where they find a very strange Web site called foundadragon.org. Here the cousins discover that the dragon’s hatching has designated them “Dragon Keepers.” Not only do they have to feed the dragon, whom they named Emmy, but they also have to keep her safe from the villainous Saint George, who has kept himself alive over centuries by drinking dragons’ blood!

Publishers Weekly

At the start of this workmanlike series opener, fantasy-loving 10-year-old cousins Jesse and Daisy are convinced that "sooner or later they [will] have a magical adventure of their own." When Jesse finds a geode, aka a "thunder egg," both can hear it talking; in short enough order, it hatches into a dragon. As its chosen Dragon Keepers, the cousins must protect little "Emmy" (for Emerald) from an evil Dragon Slayer, who, by day, is a herpetologist at the local college. Klimo, v-p and publisher of Random House/ Golden Books Young Readers Group, leaves a lot unexplained, including why the Dragon Slayer wants to drink Emmy's blood and why doing so "could spell doom, not only for Emerald, but for the world," as a 19th-century dragonologist tells them via a Harry Potter-esque use of the Internet. And while Jesse and Daisy are likable enough, their quest is not as noble nor as exciting as readers of this genre can reasonably expect; the ending-the dragon disguises herself as a sheepdog which the cousins keep as a pet-falls flat. Ages 8-12. (July)

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