The Dragonslayers Paperback – Illustrated, July 1, 1994

Bruce Coville is always outstanding. This is one of his best! My 13-year old daughter especially loved it! Well-written and captivating!

Found a great product at a good price and shipped quickly.

I read this book in grade school. It was the first book that I ever finished. I remember being so engaged in the story that I wasn't able to put it down until I finished it. Years later as an adult I went back and repurchased this book because of how much of an impact it had on me. I can see why the young me enjoyed it so much... I loved both the story and the illustrations. I get that a lot of the other reviews have said it's not the best from an adult's perspective but as a kid I thought this was the greatest book of all time. I highly recommend it to anyone that has a young child between the ages of 5 and 12.

ISBN 0671798324 - I didn't have a lot of hope for this book from the Covilles - in fact, before I read it, I thought Katherine had done a better job with the illustrations than Bruce could have done with the story. I was wrong: both Covilles did a great job!Grizelda believes that her family was killed and she blames King Mildred. To get her revenge, she creates a dragon more fierce than any dragon before it and sets it lose on the king's town. When news reaches the king, he calls his knights together to get a volunteer to slay the beast. His knights seriously lack in bravery and Elizar, an old squire, ends up being the first volunteer. Joining him is Brian, a young page. While they outfit themselves for their adventure, Princess Wilhelmina has ideas of her own.Willie's father has offered half the kingdom AND Willie's hand in marriage to the man who slays the dragon, and Willie is not about to let her fate be decided in such a way. Sneaking off in disguise, Willie plans to kill the dragon herself, and win her freedom. The three meet up with creatures of the forest and, eventually, each other. They end up facing the dragon together and everyone, even Grizelda, gets their heart's desire... but how that happens, you'll have to read to discover.Written for ages 8-12, The Dragonslayers is one of the few kids' books I've read lately that might transcend gender. There's enough action for boys and the character of Willie in the role of heroine ought to appeal to girls. The language is "wrong" for the time period, but absolutely perfect for young readers (lots of "thou"s and "thee"s would only make it hard to read for most kids, so no one will miss them!). The story seems to me to be very tongue-in-cheek, which I think kids will grasp even before adults do. A quick, fun read, as to be expected from any book that begins with the sentence "Do you have the lizard snot?".- AnnaLovesBooks

Bruce Coville is a masterful author and anyone who likes his stuff will not be disappointed in the least with this one! It is my favorite out of all the ones I've read (and I've read over twenty of his books!). This is a great book for all those who believe.

In Bruce Coville's DRAGONSLAYERS there is a king with the misfortune of having a woman's name. Even the fact that Mildred means 'gentle strength,' hasn't made up for the problems his name gave him when he was growing up. He and his queen, Hortense, have a very wilful fourteen-year-old daughter named Wilhelmina. Instead of being called 'Mina,' as Wilhelmina Harker was in DRACULA, she's called 'Willie'. Willie is what we used to call a tomboy. She wants to learn some knightly skills and have adventures. One thing Willie most definitely doesn't want to do is marry any of the three suitors her father has in mind. Willie is making her undying opposition forcefully known when a peasant woman brings the news there's a dragon on the loose.King Mildred's three knights might as well be called the three stooges because they're about as competent as that famous comedy team was in their short and longer films. Rather than sally forth to slay the dragon, the knights come up with excuses. The job falls to Elizar, a bald graybeard, by far the oldest of the king's squires. There are four other squires, but only Brian, the shortest, volunteers to help Elizar.The prize for slaying the dragon is half the kingdom and Willie's hand in marriage. Willie has no intention of marrying a man old enough to be her grandfather, so she sneaks out of the castle in disguise.What none of them realize is that the dragon was magically created by a witch named Grizelda (with the help of another witch named Phrenella), to get revenge on King Mildred. If things go according to Grizelda's plan, Willie isn't going to have to worry about getting married -- or anything else -- ever.Our would-be dragonslayers manage to save some talking animals who join their quest. Four spirits of the aptly-named Forest of Wonders get in on the action too, for a little while. Besides the dragon, Grizelda has some helper creatures called goons. The most helpful of those is Igbutton, who craves liver cookies the way Scooby-Doo craves Scooby snacks.There's plenty of humor and characters showing what they're really made of. Even though I figured out the biggest revelation ahead of time, that didn't keep me from enjoying the story. In fact, I enjoyed anticipating it. I enjoyed the ending, too. Okay, one of the book's characters has a fate I didn't think deserved, but otherwise the book was fun.

This is a great read for an 8-9 year old girl.It has enough suspense to keep your attentionbut nothing too scary that might keep kids awakeat night. Willie, the main character, is a strongfemale character that does not fall intostereotypical roles. She proves that a girl cando anything she wants if she put her mind togood use.

Used to have a copy of this book, always loved the artwork and the story. Nothing ASOIAF level, but still a great book with some humour and some interesting characters.