In the newest adventure from the Dragon Slayers' Academy series, a rich princess is looking for a husband who has slain two dragons, has red hair, and whose name beings with the letter "W"--the exact description of Wiglaf. Simulataneous.
Kate McMullan is an American children's book author. She is the author of the Dragon Slayers' Academy series. She is married to author and illustrator James McMullan.
She also has books published under the name: Katy Hall.
"This is a weird story for Dragon Slayers Academy," my 7 year old grandson said as I read aloud to him. I have to agree. These are silly adventure stories good for reluctant readers, especially boys. But this book is about Wiglaf being engaged against his will to a princess, in fact the entire story has him worrying and trying to avoid the marriage. Hardly the adventure with dragons, swords, etc that one expects. The best part was when the wizard arrived with his spells that always go wrong and his constant mispronunciation of Wiglaf's name. Wagloom? Wuglop? They consistently make us laugh.
Whoa first one in the series so far to get THREE STARSSSS please do not view these ratings in comparison to books actually geared towards my demographic and intended for me as a reader. This is a very different type of three stars than the last book I rated three stars. The breadth of the three stars is broad enough to contain many a book.
Book four takes us back to the same structure as the first two– bad things happen to Wiglaf through absolutely no fault of his own, the adults who are willing to help him are absolutely ineffective, his buddies are along for the ride, and the problem is resolved in the final hour by something completely out of left field. The main force powering these plots is luck, and it's not even magical luck.
This book does include
I really enjoyed Erica and Angus in this one. Very matter-of-fact about their bestie's plight– not unsympathetic, per say, but very much just, "yep, you're cooked! Here if you need me. I have positive feelings towards this one!! Yay three stars!!!
Dragon Slayer’s Academy: A Wedding For Wiglaf? Paperback Series Grade 2-3
The cover shows the princess giving her back to a jaw-dropped Wiglaf who holds her hand while on one knee. The illustrator, Bill Blasso, uses ink to create expressive black and white cartoon illustrations of the comical characters and scenes in this book. The illustrator gives Wiglaf a dramatic and alarmed expression on the cover that captures Wiglaf's less than excited feelings about his wedding plans. McMullan includes a lot of eccentric characters and humorous situations in this story. The princess wants to marry a redheaded dragon slayer whose name begins with a “W.” The headmaster of Dragon Slayer Academy, Mordred, finds the perfect husband for the princess: Wiglaf. Only Wiglaf does not want to get married, even if it is to a wealthy princess, and the headmaster needs to “teach this riffraff some manners.” Students would really enjoy this book because of the humorous things the characters say and do. The Dragon Slayer Academy series is great to use for reading fluency development because children will enjoy reading these fun, quick easy-to-read stories, and look forward to the next set of laughs.
Language Arts/Social Studies
Dragons, Princesses, Knights and Magicians are common to Medieval romance. Students can learn more about the history of the Middle Ages and write their own short story set in the period.
My daughter picked up this book at the school library as she is an avid fantasy reader. As a fourth grader though, this book was a little young for her. This would probably be a great book for a 2nd grader. There is nice large font, easy to read sentences (other than some pig-latin), and a moderately simple plot.
Somewhere, sometime – probably during a visit to Costco – I picked up a boxed set of eight books, plus a bookmark, of the first eight books in this series of silly kiddie chapter books, all with cover art by Stephen Gilpin and illustrations by Bill Basso.
Briefly, they depict a medieval boy named Wiglaf who escapes being picked on by his 12 big, dumb brothers and nelgected by his single-minded cabbage farmer folks, to attend (duh) Dragon Slayers' Academy. It's a run-down castle staffed by oddballs, run by a certain Mordred the Marvelous, who's only in it for the gold, and who send unprepared children out to rob dragons of their hoard. Quite by accident, Wiglaf becomes the first student in the school's history to actually slay a dragon, and then another one, despite having a horror of blood and never mustering the nerve to poke his sword into anything. On a lot of his adventures, he's accompanied by fellow students Angus (Mordred's eternally hungry nephew) and Eric (who only Wiglaf knows is actually a Princess Erica), more or less the Ron and Hermione to Wiglaf's Harry. And of course, what could go wrong without the "help" of a cracked wizard named Zelnoc, who is responsible for (among other things) teaching Wiglaf's pet pig, Daisy, to speak Pig Latin.
I believe you can guess where this is all going, so I won't belabor the synopsis other than to say that at least once in almost every book in this set, I laughed out loud. I believe the first time was when a minstrel, by way of inspiring Wiglaf to seek his fortune as a dragon slayer, told him that every dragon has a fatal weakness; like a certain dragaon who hated to be teased, and was thus slain by a knight who said, "Nonny noony poo poo, you old sissy" to it. If that just made whatever you're drinking shoot out of your nose, we may share an appreciation for these whimsical books, in which the problems of modern-day school kids are cosmetically touched up with Middle Ages trappings and the anachronisms (look that up) are perhaps the funniest part.
There are 20 books in the Dragon Slayers' Academy series. From book 9 onward, they include 97 Ways to Train a Dragon; Help! It's Parents' Day at DSA; Danger! Wizard at Work; The Ghost of Sir Herbert Dungeonstone; Beware! It's Friday the 13th; Pig Latin – Not Just for Pigs; Double Dragon Trouble; The World's Oldest Living Dragon; Hail, Hail, Camp Dragononka!; Never Trust a Troll; Little Giant, Big Trouble; and School's Out – Forever! Kate McCullan is also
In my opinion, this book is a hilarious and interesting one to read. It talks about the adventure for Wiglaf after he killed the Beast from the East 'Seetha' in the last episode(Dragon Slayers Academy 3). In this adventure, as Mordred, the headmaster of the school Wiglaf is studying in, found out a news article which talked about a wealthy princess named Belcheena finding a husband, which in coincidence, Wiglaf had all the characteristics Belcheena looked forward to, so Mordred sent Wiglaf to marry Belcheena. If Wiglaf marries Belcheena, it will benefit Modred as Belcheena promised the matchmaker of the marriage would get a pot of gold, which attracted Mordred a lot, as he the one thing he cares about is money and gold. Would Wiglaf be able to escape this unfortunate and continue his studies in Dragon Slayers Academy? Buy the book and find out what happens in the fantastic adventure with Wiglaf and his friends.
My name is Wiglaf, and the headmaster will do anything to get rich. He wasn't happy when I killed two dragons without bringing him their treasures, so now he's sacrificing me into mar...mar... some princess. I fit her three qualifications for a husband: I'm a dragon slayer, I have red hair, and my name starts with the letter W. All I want is to become a dragon slayer, but I don't see any way out of this mar...mar... situation.
I can't say much about the book, since it's very short. My recommendation is to read all of the books straight through and treat them like different chapters. The series is funny with silly descriptions, jokes, and situations. Each book finds Wiglaf saved by some zany twist of fate. The two dragons he killed in previous books were due to accidents. The climax of this book is predictable, but it's still entertaining. Give these books a shot if you're looking for humorous stories that can be finished in one day.
A cute, silly story that I think kids will love. I liked the surprise ending. I didn't read this chapter book all in one sitting like I have others, so I'm not sure if that means the pacing was off or I started it at an inopportune time.
C'était pas mal... Je ne suis absolument pas le public cible mais ayant dû lire ça à mes cousins, je peux dire que ce n'est pas mal, et même assez enjaillant parfois
This is the fourth book in the Dragon Slayers' Academy series by Kate McMullan. Our girls have been reading a few different dragon stories and so this series piqued their interest.
One of the series we've been reading (the Dragon Keepers series by Kate Klimo) paints the dragon as the hero and the slayer in a bad light. But this story gives us more of a typical look at dragons and their slayers, although the story is riddled with tongue-in-cheek humor.
This series offers an interesting take on the dragon/knight saga. The story centers around a school where children are taught to become dragon slayers, primarily for the purpose of enriching the school's headmaster with the slain dragon's hoard. So far he hasn't been the beneficiary of much dragon gold, but I get the feeling that with 19 books in the series, he will keep sending his boys out, hoping to succeed at long last.
It's a very entertaining story, with lots of subtle humor and word play within the narrative. I thought it was fun that the boys took a break from dragon slaying and that Wiglaf became betrothed to a princess. The ending was quite predictable, but romantic and fun too.
It's a quick read and I liked the story. Our oldest has been reading these stories on her own, so I'm reading them to catch up with the series. I actually read about half of the story aloud with our girls after we explained the beginning of the tale to our youngest. Our oldest liked the story so much, she wanted me to read it aloud to them both. I don't know if we'll read many more of them together, but I know that we will certainly look for more of the books in this series at our local library.
its about Mordred saw in a news paper thing about a princess and she wanted to marry a boy that has red hair,starts with a w,and has to be a dragon slayer.when Mordred picked Wiglaf Wiglaf didn't want to marry a princess so in the middle of the wedding Coach Plungett charged through the wedding toward the princess and said that it she to be his wife and Coach Plungett married the princess.
Omg I just remembered I have read this book.. Looking for books here in Goodreads , suddenly I had one of my favourite books (when I was a child) in front of me... In fact I really liked this book. It's like when I was in 1st or 2nd grade I read it and I really loved it . Good book for children
This book was pretty cute, but I'm getting a little burt out on DSA. The boys say we only have 15 more to go until we're done reading them... hmmmm......
AR Quiz No. 36462 EN Fiction Accelerated Reader Quiz Information IL: MG - BL: 3.1 - AR Pts: 1.0 Accelerated Reader Quiz Type Information AR Quiz Types: RP
As a young girl, I loved these books! Im a fantasy freak, so that might have to contribute to the fact that I rated it 5 stars. A must read for the fantasy lovers. 3rd+