Search for the Dragon Ship

The Secrets of Droon #18

by Tony Abbott

The Dragon Ship is up for grabs, and while the evil Salamandra claims she will find it first, Eric, Neal, and Julie step up their hunt, only to discover the ship's parts are spread all over the world of Droon.

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

128 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published April 1, 2003

About the author

Tony Abbott (born 1952) is an American author of children's books. His most popular work is the book series The Secrets of Droon, which includes over 40 books. He has sold over 12 million copies of his books and they have been translated into several other languages, including Italian, Spanish, Korean, French, Japanese, Polish, Turkish, and Russian. He has also written the bestseller Firegirl.

Abbott was born in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1952. His father was a university professor and had an extensive library of books which became one of Abbott's first sources of literature. When he was eight years old, his family moved to Connecticut where he went through elementary school and high school.

Abbott attended the University of Connecticut, and after studying both music and psychology, decided to study English and graduated from the University of Connecticut with a bachelor's degree in English literature. He attended the workshops of Patricia Reilly Giff to further develop his writing after college.

Abbott currently lives in Trumbull, Connecticut, with his wife, two daughters, and two dogs. Tony had one brother and two sisters.

Reviews

[Mosy · Rating 2 out of 5]

وسط این همه داستان جذاب این جلده این وسط خیلی مسخره بود. الکی خواسته کشش بده.

[Maximilian Lee · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't really like this book because it isn't that exciting and is also kind of short. I DID like the part when they ALMOST defeated Princess something (all I remember is that she is evil).

[Isaias Elias]

What i think of the book so far is that it is a good book i like reading it. what happened in this book eric is the main character and him and his friends went to droon because galen need there help because salamandra is trying to steal a drawing of a ship that is flying and it looks like a dragon then salamandra steals the drawing and galen gets stuck in the tower and he send eric and his friends to find a giant named thog when eric and his friends get there thog tells them about the ship then salamandra gets there thog gets hypnotized and she tell thog to help her look for the book.

[Alex · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't really like this book because it isn't that exciting and is also kind of short. I DID like the part when they ALMOST defeated Princess something (all I remember is that she is evil).

[Kirsten Simkiss · Rating 5 out of 5]

As always, very cute and inventive. I didn't think it was as inventive as other books in the series, but the mask lore was quite interesting. I've never seen masks used to hide from ghosts.

[Kryssy · Rating 3 out of 5]

It kind of seems like this series is shoving in as many unique creatures as it can now. There was little point to the elves being here

So Julie has powers now too. It’s almost unfair if Neal doesn’t get any by the end of the series

Also, nelag actually came up with a plan? He’s not a big doof?

- julie got her powers from being scratched by a wingwolf. It grants her secret wish which was to fly
- Right into battling salamandra
- Salamandra is looking for a dragon shaped ship
- Thog is a giant
- Salamandra is using some kind of mind controlling spell
- Ghost riders become visible when you look in their eyes
- Nelag!!
- Keeah fell in the river
- Hob who made masks for sparr in the past made a mask that prevents the ghost riders from seeing them
- Thog is doing right towards an underground lake. If he keeps going, the village of wolves will be destroyed
- Power from a wizard is needed to power the ship. All their power
- Convinced salamandra to swap galen for keeah. I bet it’s actually belag and she gets no power
- Julie can also shape shift
- Hob is flipping sides

[Tara · Rating 4 out of 5]

I haven’t read one of this series in awhile but it’s still just as good. I love the kids’ creative problem solving and the way they treat each other and all the crazy creatures of Droon. This series is always fun to read.

[Robert · Rating 4 out of 5]

The danger is getting to be much worse, but the kids are coming to know their abilities better, This is a great series for the young reader, my son looked forward to each of the books as they were coming out, and for me now that I have been reading them, I would have to say, This is a good read.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love the idea of an enchanted soccer ball and a portal activated by turning off the light in a basement closet! The structure of the book didn't appeal to me, but I think its target audience wouldn't mind. I do wish the illustrations were more abundant and prettier.

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another really good one. Eric, Julie and Neal head back to Droon to help Keeah stop Princess Crazy Hair, who wants to assemble the dragon ship and find Ko's secret island where supposedly his body was never found.

[Stacie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another great adventure in Droon.

[Harold Ogle · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was another very episodic adventure in Droon, in which there are several discrete beats to the story with largely unconnected events. It's interesting that I'm enjoying these as much as I have been, since all of the stuff that irritated me about the series with earlier books is still in evidence: the weird onomatopoeia that has little to no connection to how I would ever render a particular sound phonetically, the awful illustrations, the way the pictures come in the book out of sync with the events being depicted, the way the kids return to Earth at the end of each story...but they have faded to the background, and I'm hardly fazed by them anymore (OK, OK, so the pictures out of sequence thing still bugs me some). I'm much more caught up in the moment-to-moment adventure, to the point where it's hard for me to write synopses of each book, because the story is enjoyable but ephemeral...

In this one...

Julie has just gained the power of flight, which she is abusing shamelessly on Earth, cheating in P.E. They are distracted during track by the soccer ball flying to the top of the gym. Julie flies up, leaving Eric and Neal to climb stairs and ladders after her. The soccer ball reads "GALEN," which is weird because it's usually backwards writing. As soon as they can, they return to Eric's basement and descend into Droon, where the evil thorn witch Salamandra is besieging Galen in his tower. The kids find Keeah, and Julie manages to hold onto all three of the others and fly them into the tower before Salamandra covers it with thorns. The thorn princess has learned the ability to mentally dominate others. She blasts her way into the tower, dominates Max while willing everyone else not to move. Max reveals the location of a map, which shows the locations of the Dragon Ship, an artifact that Ko used to fly to his dark, Goll version of Avalon when he died (disappearing totally). Salamandra is convinced that great power can be had in Ko's final resting place, and so she begins tearing up Droon to find all the dragon ship pieces. First she finds and mentally dominates the friendly, bookish giant Thog, who has the brawn to tear apart cities and excavate buried artifacts from solid stone. They proceed to do this, while the kids find Hob, the rat-faced mask-maker. The masks he creates render the wearer both invisible to the Ghost Riders, revenants on horseback (who are themselves usually invisible) doing Salamandra's bidding, and immune to Salamandra's mental domination. Soon the kids are all equipped with masks - except for Neal, whose mask is imperfect and he keeps shifting it from discomfort - and they fly off to confront Salamandra with the help of Khan, pillow-King of the Lumpies, King Zello, Queen Relna, and Nelag, the backwards doppleganger of Galen. Zello and Relna leave to free Galen and Max from the tower, then Hob flees and Julie chases him, leaving only Eric, Keeah and Khan to face Salamandra and the might of the Ghost Riders. They put up a good fight, but Keeah is captured and forced to complete the Dragon Ship - apparently it must use a wizard as a battery, draining the life energy to cause the ship to fly. Suddenly, Hob re-appears with Max and Galen as his prisoners, and turns Galen over to Salamandra. She switches the apprentice Keeah for the master, Galen, and flies off cackling. The heroes round on Hob, who laughs, for he has tricked the thorn princess by providing Nelag instead of Galen. Max transforms back into Julie, who has discovered that she can shape-shift as well as fly, and they all board the speed zeppelin piloted by Zello and Relna. Thog is freed from his spell once Hob makes him a mask, and the giant tears the mast out of the dragon ship. The dragon ship plummets and then disappears with Salamandra just as the heroes get their friends off the ship. Where did she go? No one knows. The rainbow stairs re-appear and the kids return home.

[Paige Sullivan · Rating 4 out of 5]

The story, "Secrets of Droon" by Tony Abbott is about three kids, Neal, Eric, and Julie who visit this secret world that they discovered in Eric's basement. This book is one of a series. I this book they are searching for the dragon ship before the evil princess finds it. The problem is that the ship is broken into pieces all over the land of droon so they are on a quest to find all of the missing pieces to put the ship together. Whoever wins the race to build the ship wins all of droon. This book it's more for children in 5th or 6th grade. It's a chapter book so there are very few pictures and it uses some complex vocabulary for that age group. I think children would like this because it helps them fantasize about what it would be like to go to a place like this.

Artistic Elements: There are very few illustrations in this story, but the ones that are in it are black and white but very detailed. This helps the reader visualize what the characters look like and are doing for parts of the story.

Recommendation: I would recommend this because it is just so creative and will really help develop a child's imagination.

[Mahin711 Swagger Down · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was pretty bad. I thought it was boring since it's the same three characters in every book and they always go on adventures defeating Salamandra. Although it was boring I have the main idea and big idea down.
The theme is that even if something contains something you really want but something serious is going on, you shouldn't bother with what you want. Neal wanted the some of the contents of the dragon ship but Salamandra wanted to steal the dragon ship. Neal learned that he shouldn't mess with the ship since the hazardous Salamandra was there.

[Jeremy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've decided to read The Secrets of Droon series entirely for Christmas since i've been feeling a bit nostalgic. I want to be able to live a bit of the magic of being a kid and what beeter to help than this incredible series. I know that this series is for young kids but i feel it will still be great after all these years.
It did not have as much action as past books but it had twists and excitement. There is much character development and we get the return of the recent powerful villain, Salamandra. We also see how Julie's powers work. It is a fun installment to read.

[Roxanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

find some sort of map

[Caley · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Search for the Dragon Ship"

[Felicia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cute adventure story for 2nd or 3rd grade level readers.

[Roberto · Rating 5 out of 5]

In this one the evil princess Salamandra is trying to get to the dragon ship. She gets the wrong power and the dragon ship doesn't work.

[Sydney · Rating 4 out of 5]

when princess salamandra is going after the dragon ship and its in pieces eric and his friends have to go find the dragon ship first with the help of king khan.

[Cheyenne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really good book

[IM A SPOON AND IM A FORK · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was a great book i liked the part when they had ran from those ghost men and when they had to find that Dragon ship first.

[Clio · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was quite good and quite adventrous

[Piyush Ojha]

I want to read book.