Llama Quest #1: Danger in the Dragons' Den

by Megan Reyes, Kay Davault (Illustrator)

Overview

Start your quest with a talking purple llama and protect the Kingdom of Ravenwood! Join eight-year-old Dak as he's swept into a magical adventure to protect the people and creatures of their kingdom—including dragons!

Eight-year-old Dak spends his days scooping llama poop and dreaming of adventure. Then he meets Fenn, the mysterious girl who lives next to his family’s farm, and Lucy, a llama…who wears a scarf? And talks? And turns PURPLE?!

Suddenly Dak is on a magical whirlwind adventure! Turns out Lucy is the keeper of the magical stones that protect the people of Ravenwood —and a thief has tried to steal them. Now they're scattered across the kingdom! The good news? Lucy has found the Fire Stone. The bad news? A family of dragons found it first and they won’t give it up easily. Can Dak, Fenn, and Lucy get the Fire Stone back?

They’ll encounter magical creatures, a sneaky thief, and tricky magic, but when Dak, Fenn, and Lucy work together, nothing can beat Team Llama Quest!

Join Team Llama Quest on all their adventures!
#1 Danger in the Dragons' Den
#2 Secrets of Starfall Forest

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780593808542
Publisher:	Random House Children's Books
Publication date:	01/07/2025
Series:	Llama Quest: A Stepping Stone Book (TM) , #1
Pages:	128
Product dimensions:	5.19(w) x 7.63(h) x 0.30(d)
Lexile:	720L (what's this?)
Age Range:	6 - 9 Years

About the Author

Megan Reyes is a children's author who writes stories about kids having magical adventures. Like Fenn and Dak, she spends a lot of time dreaming about fantasy creatures and wants to travel the world. She is the author of the Llama Quest series as well as the Heroes of Havensong series. Megan lives in Northern California with her four sons, two dogs, two cats, and an ever-growing collection of dragon and fox figurines. When she's not writing, she's probably drawing, painting, or getting lost in a new book.

Kay Davault is an illustrator and comic artist based in Nashville, Tennessee. She is the author of the graphic novels Star Knights and Misfit Mansion. Kay spends her time creating stories about cute characters in vibrant worlds, which may or may not contain a monster or five.

Editorial Reviews

10/07/2024

To prove he’s mature enough to visit the mainland like his older brother, eight-year-old Dak doubles his chore load, which includes the stinkiest job on his family’s farm: scooping llama poop for fertilizer and fire fuel. He’s soon approached by Fenn, the mysterious, purple-haired girl who lives with the monks next door, and her talking purple llama, Lucy, who request Dak’s help in tracking down magic stones scattered across the kingdom. The first, a fire stone, is guarded by a family of dragons who will only talk to children because they “make the best humans.” To get it back, the self-dubbed Team Llama Quest must fetch frost flowers to cure the dragons of fire sickness. But the trio aren’t the only ones to have made this deal, and time isn’t on their side. Reyes (the Heroes of Havensong series) employs fast-paced storytelling to highlight Fenn and Dak’s adventurousness and bravery while gradually revealing world details via fluid and flexible third-person text. Animated spot illustrations by Davault (Misfit Mansion) emphasize the characters’ emotions and body language, elevating the suspense and stakes. Dak and his family have brown skin; Fenn reads as white. Ages 6–9. Author’s agent: Jenniea Carter, New Leaf Literary. Illustrator’s agent: Britt Siess, Britt Siess Creative. (Jan.)

Publishers Weekly

2024-09-28
When adventure calls, a youngster leaves his parents’ llama farm and sets out on a quest.

While shoveling llama poop one day, brown-skinned 8-year-old Dak Evans notices a pale-skinned, bespectacled, purple-haired girl nearby. Lucy, a llama owned by the monks at the temple next door, awakens him that night and leads him to meet the girl, an aspiring wizard named Fenn, but it’s Lucy—apparently a magical creature with great powers—who announces that Dak will need to help save everyone from danger. She tells him of a lengthy war fought over magic stones that were later hidden in the monks’ temple. The Kingdom of Ravenwood has been peaceful ever since. But the stones have been stolen, and so the journey to find them, and the thief, begins. Dak’s grit and yen for adventure have caught Lucy’s eye, and she chooses him and Fenn to be her companions. But it won’t be easy: Their search for the first stone takes them to a den full of fire-breathing dragons. The narrative incorporates common fantasy tropes—teleportation, magic shields—but the overall threat feels too vague to be truly menacing. While the book contains little internal conflict and the worldbuilding isn’t especially original, it has enough action to entice newcomers to the genre. Human characters are drawn as standard cartoon types in the grayscale art, but the dragons are impressive, and Lucy is adorable.

Solid, though familiar, fantasy fare for readers not quite ready for Tolkien. (map, excerpt from Fenn’s creature journal, questions and activities)(Fantasy. 6-9)

Kirkus Reviews

"An engrossing adventure extolling hard work and helpfulness that reminds readers they don’t have to do it all on their own." —Booklist

From the Publisher