The Ghost of Sir Herbert Dungeonstone

Dragon Slayers' Academy #12

by Kate McMullan, Bill Basso (Illustrator)

What are those strange noises coming from the dungeon at DSA? Wiglaf and his stalwart cohorts Angus and Erica decide to investigate and inadvertently free the long-imprisoned ghost of the school founder?Sir Herbert Dungeonstone. Overjoyed to be on the loose again, Sir Herbert wreaks havoc, threatening to spoil the greedy headmaster?s plan to turn DSA coed.

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Childrens, Chapter Books, Dragons, Roman, Adventure

92 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 3, 2004

About the author

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.

Reviews

[Ankhaa · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Dragon Slayers' Academy" is the series book with 20 different adventures. I have finished the 12th series book today and it is a story about four friends changed the school headmaster's mind, showed him brilliant idea and made him surprised. The youngers are so smart. Why i read the younger readers' books...i am a mother.
The first...need to read it before my daughter starts. Then we discuss about the book both we read. She is almost 10. I loved this series book and want to find other 19 series for two of us. I hope that my daughter will enjoy it😊

[E8RaH!M · Rating 4 out of 5]

این مجموعه مناسب برای نوجوانان ۸-۱۲ ساله. این قسمت هم مثل سایر قسمتهای این مجموعه جذاب و شنیدنی و خواندنی بود.

[Atbash (Emma) · Rating 2 out of 5]

I’ve gone far too long without any Wiglaf in my life. It’s unfortunate that number twelve here fails to have anythiNG TO DO WITH THE KID. AT ALL

It’s hardly an Erica book, either, but she got some solid emotional moments out of it— the introduction of DSA’s ~first~ girl student, invited because her dad got nouveau riche off of selling swampland and was so nouveau he was dumb enough to pay the tuition up front, as noted by the characters— has Erica pissed off, which, fair, because someone else is getting celebrated for the thing she’s had to hide for………an indeterminate amount of time. The amount of time for twelve books to span. Which is notable, because in that amount of time, either Erica was able to grow braids from a crew cut or the author was able to forget what character designs were previously established, with illustrations. So.

Janice is treated super nicely by the text, carrying on the trend set by the princess character from the wedding book— she’s big, she’s brash, but she will not be the butt of any joke. She’s brave and strong and gets along pretty well with the core cast by the end. She went to an alternative school. And it’s really interesting that she was able to enroll at DSA— and pursue knightly hobbies prior to that as well— without any evident pushback or ridicule, from her family or otherwise, and to portray Erica being absolutely crushed watching that. Back on my bullshit: it paints the picture of a really specific kind of envy, like a closeted kid watching someone with more support at such a young age get to be out, safely and happily. Which is fucking crazy for a completely unintentional portrayal. And hell, by the end, with Janice’s help, Erica literally gets to come out as a girl to the school! And they have a big party! The headmaster doesn’t gaf because he’s never before considered that becoming co-ed widens the enrollment pool. And hope never dies.

(Plotwise, this aligns with the last few books that felt more like Mordred books than anything else— it’s about his backstory, it’s about how DSA is scams built on scams built on scams and even their ghosts suck. Everyone is reminded of this at every turn, but the kids never seem really bothered by how badly their school sucks and how they’re never going to be prepared for any promised grand destiny. But for the majority of the audience, who have no say in their schooling and its efficacy and that’s just part of their day-to-day— it tracks on an allegorical level. And some days they get to have pizza parties. Hope never dies.)

OVERANALYSIS ASIDE. For a character as continually passive as Wiglaf, he NOTICEABLY does absolutely nothing this book. You could be generous and say he points other characters in the direction of the plot. He summons Zelnoc to do something unhelpful. He observes as the crisis is eventually averted by doing what the ghost asked in the first place. Even ANGUS got to have a moment of confrontation about his uncle stealing from what his mom sends him (maybe it’s an Angus book?), which is more emotion that Wiglaf is permitted to feel the whole time. And our boy is a COWARD and it’s the GHOST BOOK! You can’t let him be afraid of ghosts? Dead people? Guts and stuff? We have SO LITTLE characterization to go off of here I NEED it to remain consistent.

And listen. Listen to me. There’s a fucking ghost dragon for all of a page. Do you think this book does anything with that? A concept as objectively cool as a ghost dragon? Absolutely not. It forgets about the ghost dragon after a page. Unforgivable. That’s what the WHOLE BOOK should have been about. God.

The ghost dragon is just another nail in the coffin for a series that doesn’t want to be about dragons. It hates that it has to be about dragons. It hates that it has to be about kids, honestly. It wants to make snarky comments about insurance inspections and correspondence courses. I do too, honestly. I want this author freed from her chains. But if I can’t have that, I want Surekill the magic dagger back before the series ends. Two stars for the gender stuff.

[Jacki · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Ghost of Sir Herbert Dungeonstone is a fantasy book written for Intermediate readers.

This book is part of a series of books with the same characters having different adventures throughout the series. It seems to be a Harry Potter-type series for younger readers.

I have never cared for fantasy books and thought perhaps reading something directed toward younger readers would perhaps change my mind about the genre, but sadly, it didn't. I don't care for this type of story and thus find it difficult to read and discuss. I did like the pen and ink drawings in the book and found them to be somewhat helpful in keeping my attention. I also liked the font for chapter headings as the old english font seems to fit the storyline.

The book (and series) has great potential for young readers who are not yet able to handle a series such as Harry Potter on their own.

[Dolly · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the twelfth 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.

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 students out, hoping to succeed at long last.

It's a very entertaining story, with lots of subtle tongue-in-cheek humor and word play within the narrative. The drama in this book centers on the ghost of one of the 'founders' of the school wreaking havoc. A new twist in the plot involves the school becoming coed.

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 quickly to catch up with her in the series. I am sure that we will look for more of the books in this series at our local library.

[Sydney · Rating 4 out of 5]

its about when Erica hears moaning in the deepest dungeon she wakes up Wiglaf and Angus in the middle of the night and says she wants to go down where the moaning is.when they go down there they meet the ghost of sir Herbert dungeon stone and he says that he wants Mordred's gold so when they run for their lives they lead him to Mordred's office where he wakes up so at the end Herbert gets his gold.

[Wesley · Rating 5 out of 5]

The end was really funny and I just read it in two days.

[En]

5 stars

[Spencer · Rating 3 out of 5]

He is back & he wants his money.

[Payton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Its where Herert Dungeonstone ghost is haunting the DSA and the headmaster has to give the ghost his gold conins or the DSA would be in ruins.

[Cedric]

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/80...

[Twyla · Rating 5 out of 5]

my favorite part was when the ghost was gone. the worst part was when the ghost came. the best character was Janice because she was the new girl. the worst person was the ghost because he was mean.

[Jayden Urena]

It's also like a fantasy book so It's very interesting