Middle Grade Monday: City of Dragons: the Awakening Storm by Jaimal Yogis and Vivian Truong

Image: Scholastic Inc.

City of Dragons: the Awakening Storm by Jaimal Yogis and illustrated by Vivian Truong. City of Dragons #1. 240 p. Graphix/ Scholastic Inc., September, 2021. 9781338660425. (Review of a finished ppb courtesy of publisher.)

Happy Monday! The dogs and I survived the bomb cyclone. Well it kind of bombed in my area. We only got 5 inches and it sure was cold!  Son #1 is south Jersey got 9 or 10 inches. Son #4 in the Boston area got over a foot. Yesterday was such a sparkly winter day though! We went out often for short periods due to the cold, but they love the snow. 

Middle Grade Monday features a graphic novel series starter called City of Dragons: the Awakening Storm by Jaimal Yogis and illustrated by Vivian Truong. Grace is bi-racial. Her Chinese father died three years earlier and her white mother has recently remarried. They are set to move to Hong Kong, where her step-father works for a tech company. She is about to attend an international school. She's fine with all that. She even looks forward to the challenge.

She's given a challenge she never expected on a field trip. An elderly woman hands her an egg. Shortly afterward, it hatches and it's a dragon! She soon learns it's very difficult to keep a baby dragon a secret. She's also well-versed in Chinese mythology thanks to her father and grandfather and knows she must keep the dragon safe. Sure enough, there are beings both human and magical that are after the dragon, and, maybe, even Grace.

The energy of the palette as well as the varied panel layout add to an already cinematic plot and keeps the pace fast. Grace and her diverse group of friends are likable and that baby dragon is a hoot. Your graphic novel fans will gobble this one up and pant for the next installment!