Heat of the Lava Dragon: A Branches Book (Dragon Masters #18)

Dragon Masters #18

by Tracey West, Graham Howells (Illustrator)

Drake and Ana must find a Lava Dragon in the latest adventure in this action-packed, bestselling series! Pick a book. Grow a Reader! This series is part of Scholastic's early chapter book line, Branches, aimed at newly independent readers. With easy-to-read text, high-interest content, fast-paced plots, and illustrations on every page, these books will boost reading confidence and stamina. Branches books help readers grow! Evil wizard Astrid has trapped Drake's friends in stone and she is getting closer to casting an even more dangerous spell! To stop her, Drake and Ana travel in search of Ka, a mysterious and greatly feared Lava Dragon. But who is Ka's Dragon Master? Can a young girl find the dragon and stop Astrid -- before it's too late? Graham Howells's expressive black-and-white illustrations bring the action to life in this exciting series!

Genres: Childrens, Fantasy, Chapter Books, Dragons, Fiction, Middle Grade, Adventure

96 pages, Paperback

First published March 2, 2021

About the author

Tracey West is the New York Times bestselling author of Dragon Masters, a series in the Scholastic Branches line. She has written more than 400 books for kids, including the Pixie Tricks series and the Underdogs series with Kyla May.

Some readers also know Tracey for writing books based on animation such as Pokémon and LEGO Ninjago.

She currently lives in the western Catskills of New York with her husband, Bill; their adopted dogs; and a whole mess of chickens.

Reviews

[Marc *Dark Reader with a Thousand Young! Iä!* · Rating 4 out of 5]

This ongoing early chapter book series continues, as good as it ever was even though it gets repetitive. Book 17 started a new arc with a new prime evil wizard for Drake, Worm and company to struggle against. Astrid's machinations will take at least three more books to overcome; the Dragon Masters need participation from Lava, Sea, and Wind dragons to counter Astrid's spell which will bring dinosaur skeletons to life. After that, there were other evil wizards freed from Maldred's time prison.

I have enjoyed reading this series with two children now. It is not particularly irritating, which is all a parent needs. I have my voices for all of the main characters down pat; around book 12 it became harder to give unique ones to the newest Dragon Masters but they are never around for more than a book or two, so something generic is fine.

I am not a fan of the newest illustrator's human faces, I have to say. People's eyes look bruised and sunken. Ana in particular looks delirious in this book:



It makes me wonder, just what is Griffin putting them up to when Drake is off on his constant away missions? Are they getting any sleep at all?

[Steven R. McEvoy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is book 18 but we have reread a few of the volumes, making it the 28th time we have read a book in the series. And we eagerly await the few volumes that have been announced. And this volume returns to the original illustrator Graham Howells. He has illustrated books for dozens of series. Occasionally my youngest daughter will comment on a new illustrator. She recognized the name and was very excited to see the pictures this time around. For some reason there was a long delay between the release of the print edition and the eBook. And since we have all the others as eBooks we waited for it in that format. And we have preordered the next 3 volumes, Wave of the Sea Dragon book 19, Howl of the Wind Dragon book 20, and Bloom of the Flower Dragon book 21. But back to this volume.

The description of this volume is:

“Evil wizard Astrid has trapped Drake's friends in stone and she is getting closer to casting an even more dangerous spell! To stop her, Drake and Ana travel in search of Ka, a mysterious and greatly feared Lava Dragon. But who is Ka's Dragon Master? Can a young girl find the dragon and stop Astrid -- before it's too late?Graham Howells's expressive black-and-white illustrations bring the action to life in this exciting series!”

And we could not agree more, wonderful illustrations, in a great story in a fantastic series. This story is very different than many of the others, especially the more recent stories. In some ways it feels like a calm before a story. And boy, what a cliff hanger. My daughter often reads through the chapter titles before beginning, and guesses what might happen. The chapters this time are:

Worm Needs Help
A Strong Connection
Stop Astrid!
Three Dragons
Opeli
No Dragons Allowed!
The First Lava Dragons
The Dragon Rock
Hot and Cold
Attack the Dragons!
The Ahi Stone
Angry and Afraid
Ka’s Promise
A New Dragon Master
News from Navid

This book is a great addition to the story of the Dragon Masters. The Dragon Masters of King Rolland’s court and their friends from both near and afar are working together to counter the greatest threat yet. But they are on a quest to find 3 dragons that they have not encountered yet, and greatly desiring to help friends in need.

A great read in a wonderful series.

[Tina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another installment where I wished I had the physical copy to be able to enjoy the story with the illustrations. And also, the 19th book in the series is not available on Storytel for some reason so I can't proceed with this series anymore until it is. :( But I'm glad I had this series keeping me company the last few weeks.

[Cris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Drake and Worm along with other Dragon Masters must first locate a lava dragon! They have three dragons to locate to try to stop the evil wizard!

[Kim · Rating 5 out of 5]

My daughter, age 7, lives for this series. She is convinced at age 8 she will be taken to dragon school and wears a crystal 24-7 to connect her with her dragon. So naturally we pre-ordered this latest one in the series and after school she ran straight to the couch and read the entire thing. She said it was fantastic. I can’t speak to the story since I haven’t read it yet, but I can speak to the fact that it has captured my child’s imagination and has fully sparked her love of reading.

[Walton · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a really really fun one. I like the dragon master so much in this one and the slightly different kind of dragon here. Lava dragons are a bit more feral than some of other dragons we've met which is interesting. I think there's a lot of potential for where this could go. How are we going to wait until summer for the next one?

[Bronwyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I started this with Galen and he finished all on the morning of November 11, 2024.

“It was great and fun and I liked how they had to bring the lava dragon kinda back to life.”

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is my favorite of all 20 Dragon Masters books that are currently out. I like it because I like this dragon's power, which is lava power that melts stuff. It is one of the three dragons that can transform the Tenbrex Stone into a box that stops the False Life spell.

Opeli awakens it the Lava Dragon but at first she thought it was a rock and she sang to it. This forms their bond and she becomes the master of the Lava Dragon. (Bram, Age 6)

[Chelsea · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tell me this was a fun one based on Hawaii! It was fun learning about the peridot stone at the end of the book.

This is the first Dragon Master book that we own! Since my son finished the entire series before this, his grandma was nice enough and bought this one when it came out! He still love this series so much! Now we have to wait till July to find out about the sea dragon!

[Jess S · Rating 5 out of 5]

Similar to Magic Treehouse series, but so far we like it for being a new book to us...and realizing it's book #18 and not #1 in the series.

It's about a group of friends, along with their dragons, that work together to stop the evil wizard.

[Shankar B. · Rating 5 out of 5]

I liked when Drake freed the lava dragon from the rock.

[3rd Grade · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is by Tracey West. It is about Anna and Drake and how they got the Lava Dragon to break the false life spell. Astrid is going to put the false life spell on some old bones at the fortress of the stone dragon if Drake and some friends don’t stop her.

I think this book is a good book because it is really unexpected and it has excitement. I would give this book 5/5 stars for these reasons.

My reason for it is really unexpected is in Chapter 6, which is called “No Dragons Allowed.” The excitement is when Opeli awoke the Lava Dragon from the ground.

I would recommend this book to first to third graders that like adventure and dragons.

[Ash Brar · Rating 5 out of 5]

Drake and Ana travelled and saw opeli the new dragon master of ka. When they got back to the castle they had been told by the head wizard that Astrid has everything she needs for her spell. They’re Teri to be as quick as the can. Drake left with out griffiths permission. Drake is now heading to see the sea dragon I think. Astrid with use the false life spell on the garden the beasts (which are dinosaurs)

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not exactly clear on what the Lava dragon's powers are, but I like the idea of one. The back story is interesting too. I would be pretty angry if I was turned into stone for years and years too. I hope we get some of explicit lesson here about not just killing/trapping native animals that are scary.

[Ashley G. · Rating 3 out of 5]

The cultural aspect was intriguing, but this book didn't push the series forward as much storyline wise. This mostly covered locating the lava dragon and setting up the next couple of books. Entertaining enough to keep me and my daughter in the series, especially since they are such quick reads

[Skyler Mendoza · Rating 5 out of 5]

This series helped my younger cousin discover dragons and learn new words! It also helped me to go back to children's fiction since I've been an avid YA reader. Overall, it's a good read. My cousin and I had a good time.

[Andrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

My kids are obsessed with this series. A fine entry. Pretty sure she named a character afyer kamala harris. Moana vibes too.

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

My newly turned 8 year old loves this series and considers himself a legit dragon master now. He said this book is another excellent one.

[Mitch · Rating 2 out of 5]

Even my 8 year old son noticed that some of these have gotten bland. Not much anticipation. The problem in this book is easily solved. There wasn't any suspense.

[Christian · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book because I love lava and there is a lava dragon in it!!!

[Brooke · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great book series if your kid likes dragons!! It’s amazing!!

[Lorelai Didur · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved it so much because I loved how one of the characters went away even though he had no approved mission. It was super cool

[Sherry Scheline · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great short little read. I love dragon books 🐉 it is #18 in a series. I hate reading things out of order.

[Jenna · Rating 5 out of 5]

The lava dragon is a neat new dragon.

[Noah · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think this is a 6-8/9 year old

[Jennifer F · Rating 4 out of 5]

So exciting! The way they found the Lava dragon and brought him back to life blew Axel's mind

[Kathryn Reinders · Rating 5 out of 5]

I liked that they were trying to break the spell - Ryan

[PottWab Regional Library]

A, SM

[Mandi · Rating 4 out of 5]

A bit repetitive in the formula of the story but my son doesn’t mind. He loves these stories.

[Ronel Janse van Vuuren · Rating 4 out of 5]

The lava dragon has such a sad backstory. I wish all the lava dragons could be free… Drake is becoming as reckless as the girls around him. Worm stays my favourite dragon.