Eyes of the Dragon

The Eyes of The Dragon is the story of a small kingdom led by a mostly wise king, Roland. King Roland has two sons, Peter, the eldest son destined to be a great king himself, and Thomas, the younger brother who is timid and sometimes jealous of his brother. Among those at court is also the King's Magician, Flagg, who has plans for the small kingdom of Delain, plans that he will carry out despite the royalty in his way.

My son is a big reader; with his own bookshelf in his room that now has two shelves bowing under the pressure of too many books! He is 7 years old! My mother found this book by Stephen King and was so excited that he had written a young adult book, since she is a big fan herself. So we stepped out on a limb and began reading this just before bed each night when my son started his 1st grade school year. It was slow going, sometimes he would pick another book to read, when the plot was a little slow for his taste, but as we reached the end and everything began to come to a point, I found myself reading for a half hour at a time because my son kept asking for more! He enjoyed the book!

I must say this is the first Stephen King book I have finished, growing much too frightened midway through Pet Cemetery many years back. But his writing is just as captivating as he speaks out to this younger audience! The characters are ones we can relate to, a not so perfect King, a first born Prince who learned some lessons the hard way, and a younger Prince who made many mistakes but was determined enough to right them. And of course there is the villain Flagg who has the potential to haunt the reader's nightmares for a long time, just as he did every other character in the story. And the pictures were beautiful and well times, exciting my son as he was given an image to go with scenes he could only imagine.

I am not sure that this book is wholly appropriate for children as young as mine, he has a mature taste, but I do recommend it to young and budding readers. This is a great first book to get a young adult hooked on the master of horror himself! I say pick up a copy now and put it on your child's bookshelf for the future! I can't wait until my daughter is old enough to hear it, too!