Dragon's Blood (Kieran Berard)

Title: Dragon’s Blood
Author: Jane Yolen
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Pages: 303

I found this book in my brother’s room and it looked good enough to read.

A boy named Jakkin is desperately trying to get out of bond (he is basically a slave) and will do anything, to the fullest extent, to leave bond, like stealing a dragon. His journey starts out with him stealing a hatchling. He plans to raise the dragon and become a master; this will automatically take him out of bond and he will be free. Throughout Jakkin’s journey, a girl named Akki helps him escape from various troubles he is having with sneaking around to feed his dragon which is hidden away. Jakkin is also in love with Akki. One day Jakkin decides his dragon (Hearts Blood) is ready to go to a fight and decides he is ready to become a master. When Hearts Blood wins the dragon fight, Jakkin is overjoyed because he has won enough money to buy him and one friend out of bond. At the end, Jakkin is a master along with one of his best friends.

The audience for this book is for teenagers and up because younger audiences might not enjoy the amount of gore and fighting that happens within the book.

Jane Yolen’s writing style uses lots of description. This enables her readers to truly feel like they are where she is describing or they can envision the person or object she is depicting.

“Ardru unzipped the back doors of the truck and gestured to Jakkin. Jakkin climbed into the canvas-and-frame body of the truck, checking the insides for anything sharp that might injure the dragon. When he found nothing, he coaxed the red in after him. The red responded at once, climbing into the truck with an eagerness that matched Jakkin’s own. The whole truck shook as the dragon settled down with its tail tucked around its feet and its nose on Jakkin’s sandaled feet.” (pg. 227 – Dragon’s Blood)

“Jakkin hesitated a moment. Ardru’s name – if it was his whole name – lacked the double k that would identify him as a bonder, a son of bonders, a grandson of bonders. Only those whose ancestors had been the original masters – and there were very few left – had names free of the jailer’s brand, kk. Jakkin had never met one before. He touched his bond bag between two fingers while he decided, then suddenly he put out his hand. Ardru’s grasp was cool and firm. Jakkin thought at his dragon, Fly to me, now thou First Fighter.” ( pg. 226 – Dragon’s Blood)
This really made me think how nobody can escape from being stereotyped and put into categories. Its sad how so many people are effected by it and how so many people think that it is a good thing to do. This passage shows how Jakkin thinks everybody is a bonder because he has never met someone out of bond. It is surprising to him that there are actually free people in the world he lives in.

“The men marched into the leaves and stabbed the squirming little horrors with their knives, severing the heads from the bodies. The drakklings died quickly, leaving the dreadful stench behind. Their thick, dark blood coated the knives and had to be washed off immediately in the sand. Even then, the blood left pits and ruts in the shine.” (pg. 122 – Dragon’s Blood)

This passage was really shocking to me because they didn’t let anything get in their way of dragon raising. Drakks were very harmful and ate dragon hatchlings and eggs, so the bonders had to kill each one they saw so they could keep the dragon species from dying out.

“Jakkin looked quickly over at the pair-bonder’s table. Since Akki was not there, he smiled and let them go on. What did it matter how wrong they were? He knew he would be spending first his night and then his Bond-Off day out in the sands with his dragon.” (pg. 126 – Dragon’s Blood)

This passage shows how much Jakkin cares for his dragon and how much he wants to be freed. He knows the sooner he trains his dragon, the sooner he will be a master and he cannot afford to waste his time. He has vowed to devote all his time and energy in his dragon.

While reading this book I interacted with it a lot. I understood what Jakkin was thinking and his thought process, in the fact that he did not want to be a bonder anymore. If I was in his situation I most likely would have done the same thing. He did the right thing because he ended up a free man at the end. He also had more than what he asked for because he had money, friends and most importantly his life’s work; a dragon.