DSA or Dragon Slayer’s Academy by Kate McMullan just might be the series that will get my dear Jr. to jump from being a boy who can read to being a reading boy.

We met Wiglaf last year via an audiobook. The first book peaked Jr’s interest thus we went on to listen to the next four books. We picked up book five several weeks ago as a bedtime read aloud. One delicious (at least according to the children) chapter at a time we read that book to them. And the same with number six, seven and now eight.

I like Wiglaf because he’s kind, loyal and smart. He’s also small, lacking a bit of self-esteem and financially poor. His character has some real issues that he continually works to triumph. There are those characters that are mean but not such that it’s painful as I find with many chapter books. The “bad guys” are often more silly than mean. The adventure is full of minor miss-steps that keep the characters in state of “what’s next?!” The wizard Zelnoc is wry and amusing. For some reason that character has a specific voice inside my head that is hilarious which makes reading the books also enjoyable to me.

The books are tantalizing to my boy. He picks them up to stare at the pages or perhaps the pictures? He’s quite focused when I peek at him. Perhaps he’s reading them. It is that thought that stops me from interrupting him. In either case the characters and world of DSA is bringing out the enjoyment of the reading in my son. I truly think that his continued interest in the DSA chapters has given him a greater understanding of how to enjoy a chapter book. Using that new understanding we’ve been able to launch into other books like Pagoo by Holling C. Holling, King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table along with some other books that are “mama’s picks” with great joy in us all!