theartolater 's review for:

Rise of the Earth Dragon by Tracey West

3.0

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One thing I've liked about the Branches titles I've sampled or read so far is that they tend to not follow the traditional early reader formula. Rise of the Earth Dragon is a step back in that regard, as it falls into the early reader declarative sentence traps where the language feels disjointed and the sentences overly declarative. The plot and the overall points in the book make up for it in many ways, but the series has proven that kids can handle language as they'd hear it in the wild, and this book doesn't always reflect that.