Review of “Timothy and the Dragon’s Gate,” by Adrienne Kress
“Timothy and the Dragon’s Gate,” by Adrienne Kress is a fantasy story about a boy who must help a dragon to escape from the human body that he is trapped in.
“Timothy and the Dragon’s Gate” is a sequel to “Alex and the Ironic Gentleman”. Readers of the first saga will remember that Alex is a brave young girl who sets off on a fantastic journey to save her middle school teacher from the dangerous pirates of the infamous ship The Ironic Gentleman. Now Adrienne Kress has written a second book that is just as lively and exciting.
Timothy Freshwater is known for being too smart for his own good. His father doesn’t bother to control him and his mother is always out of town, working as an actor at a far away theatre. Now Timothy has finally been expelled from the last school in town. None of the schools will take him. He’s outthought and outwitted all the teachers and headmasters, and no private tutor will accept him.
Timothy’s standard reply to this and many other situations is: “Whatever”. But his father is certainly not saying “whatever”. He is very disappointed by his son’s behavior. And he can’t just leave Timothy home alone. So Timothy ends up going with his father to his work at the Appliance, Furniture, and Rubber Gloves Consortium.
Before long Timothy finds himself working as an assistant to Evans Bore, the loquacious and very eccentric company owner. Through Evans Bore Timothy first makes the acquaintance of Mr. Shen, a mild old Chinese man who works in the mailroom.
Eventually Timothy learns a shocking truth about Mr. Shen. This quiet old man is really a dragon. He was imprisoned in a human body thousands of years ago for misusing his powers. The curse includes a special golden key which gives its owner power over Mr. Shen. As his punishment Mr. Shen has had to learn mildness by being a servant to whoever has the golden key.
For thousands of years the key has been passed on from person to person, found and then lost, until finally it ended up in the hands of Evans Bore. Now it is important that the key be retrieved from him. Soon Mr. Shen’s punishment will be over, but before it can be lifted completely he must walk through the Dragon’s Gate in China, with the owner of the golden key during the New Year Celebration. If he doesn’t he will return to being a dragon but he will forever remain a servant to the owner of the golden key.
And if that happens the results will be deadly, because when Mr. Shen returns to being a dragon he could be used as a very powerful tool in the wrong hands. Needless to say there are multiple groups of people who are aware of this. Timothy’s job is to outwit all of them, get the key from Evans Bore, take Mr. Shen to China and break the curse forever. It might be fairly easy if there wasn’t a ninja and numerous mysterious black cabs trying to get him.
“Timothy and the Dragon’s Gate” is an exciting tale, but I found it quite different from the first book, “Alex and the Ironic Gentleman”. “Timothy and the Dragon’s Gate” was lacking that surreal dream mood and Louis Carol mystique that was developed in “Alex and the Ironic Gentleman.”
In contrast “Timothy and the Dragon’s Gate” is more of a mainline adventure story, though it has its moments as well. For example in one scene Timothy and Mr. Shen are down in the sewer beneath the city (don’t ask why) and they meet a businessman who spends his vacation down there herding sewer fish out to sea.
Needless to say “Timothy and the Dragon’s Gate” is still an unusual book even if it isn’t quite as unique as “Alex and the Ironic Gentleman”. I’m sure that young readers will still enjoy “Timothy and the Dragon’s Gate” just as much.
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