Getting ready for the holidays? This is a great book to share with friends and family…and if you add chocolate, it’s even better!
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The Dragon with a Chocolate Heart
By Stephanie Burgis, Narrated by Jill Frutkin
8 CDs, 9.25 Hours
Aventurine is the youngest member of her family…and she hates that everyone can tell her what to do, from her only-slightly-older-brother Jasper to her know-it-all older sister Citrine to Mother and all the aunts and her Grandfather Grenat. Even though she has her own treasure hoard, she is not allowed to leave the cave or fly, since she’s too young and her wings are untested. Worst of all, everyone believes that she’s lazy, just because she hasn’t found her Passion yet. Every dragon has a Passion–the thing that gives their life meaning. Jasper is interested in learning, and reads every human philosophers’s book he can get his claws on. Perfect Citrine already has other dragons worshiping her and building her palaces for the epic poetry she writes, but Aventurine has a passion too! It’s out there…somewhere.
But how is Aventurine supposed to find out her Passion if she’s stuck in a cave? It seems to her that if she could go out in to the world, to hunt on her own, to see humans with her own eyes, she would find her Passion, and show her family!
Escaping a dragon cave isn’t difficult when you’re a small dragon, but trying to do it secretly means scraping through some tight spaces…and during her flight, Aventurine manages to injure her wings. Not having wings means hunting isn’t as easy as she thought, and Aventurine doesn’t like being hungry. When she discovers a strange human, making something over a fire, she knows exactly what that means–dinner! Aventurine pounces. Unfortunately, her injured wings get in the way, and she puts a claw in the fire. And that’s when she smells it…something rich, and sweet, and spicy. Something absolutely delicious that the human is cooking over the fire! She demands to know what it is, and the human tells her “chocolate”. He even offers her some to drink. Aventurine can’t resist the wonderful aroma…she drinks deeply, and the chocolate explodes within her.
When she wakes up, Aventurine has no claws, no smoke in her throat, no wings. Instead, she has a soft skin, strange furry stuff on her head, and cloth coverings instead of scales. Aventurine has been changed into a human. But she has found her Passion–Chocolate. The human mage leaves her with the advice to get to the nearest city and find a job or apprenticeship…maybe one of the Chocolate Houses will take her.
With no idea about what it means to be human, the transformed Aventurine makes her way toward the city. One small, puny human who used to be a dragon against the whole world. She survived barely a day as a dragon, how will she manage to survive the human world? Will she find a way to turn chocolate into her Passion? What about her family? Will they even notice, or care, that she’s gone?
That is quite a bit for one small girl to deal with, even if she is a dragon inside. But Aventurine is not a quitter, and there’s chocolate out there, somewhere. She just knows she can conquer one small city and find her Passion. She’s certainly going to do her best.
I loved, loved, loved The Dragon with a Chocolate Heart. Aventurine is brave and passionate and learning so much about herself in her journey. She has no idea what humans are like, but she doesn’t let that stop her. The writing reminded me of Diana Wynne Jones or Jessica Day George…lots of adventure, a touch of humor, and characters who will stay with you after their story is finished.
With that said, I had some real issues with the sound recording of The Dragon with a Chocolate Heart. When if first started, I really enjoyed the youthful, kind of scratchy voice of the narrator, and I liked the slow pacing during the first chapter, when Aventurine was a dragon. However, when Aventurine because human and the story moved into the city I became very frustrated. The pace stayed slow and the narration felt very much like a singsong bedtime story trying to put listeners to sleep. I wanted a button to speed it up. The other issue was that every character had the same voice…there were only a couple that sounded distinctly different.
So while I loved the book of The Dragon with a Chocolate Heart, I didn’t enjoy the sound recording. That may be only me though! But my recommendation is, if you have a choice, read the book and imagine your own voices. I can almost guarantee, when you finish reading, you’ll want to hear more of Aventurine’s story.
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Dragons and chocolate! Who knew they’d go so well together? I would recommend The Dragon with a Chocolate Heart to readers in fourth through seventh grades. If I didn’t scare you away with my assessment of the sound recording, I think it would be accessible to listeners as young as second grade, although there are a couple scary scenes. If you’re just trying to put someone to sleep, you might be able to go even younger.
Some read-alikes you might like:
Bliss by Kathryn Littlewood
Dealing with Dragons by Patricia Wrede
A Dragon’s Guide to the Care and Feeding of Humans by Laurence Yep.
Stephanie Burgis also has a wonderful trilogy that starts with Kat, Incorrigible, that readers of The Dragon with a Chocolate Heart would enjoy as well.
As always, if you need any reading or listening suggestions, visit the library and ask one of our librarians for help. We’re always happy to match books with readers and listeners.
Happy Reading!
::Kelly::
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