Set in ancient China during a time of war amongst the states, Dragon Dawn is a story about a dragon, Danzi and a human trickster Bingwen and their remarkable journey of discovery. (from the publisher). Teachers' notes available at http://www.walkerbooks.com.au/statics/dyn/1320363037418/Dragon-Dawn-Teachers-Not...

I must admit to being disappointed with Dragon Dawn. While I enjoyed the story it seemed to be only a small fraction of what it could have been. A good portion of the book is not actually the story at all, but is a reference guide called the Dragon Alphabet, which tells some of the history of Dragons in China. It is a good idea and I found it informative, but having so much of the book filled with this general information takes away from the story itself. It feels almost as if the author was trying to fill space at the end of the book to make the story look and feel longer than it is and after having read Dragonkeeper I expected more from its prequel.

The story, such as it was, was written well, but I would have preferred more to have been written about Danzi. There was so much history before his time in captivity and subsequent escape with Ping, I was expecting a great journey to be told within the pages of Dragon Dawn and instead I found what is mostly the diary of a few days of travel.

Dragon Dawn is a good story that could have been made great with a little more time and effort… and a great many more pages of Danzi's history thrown in. ( )

This is Danzai the dragon's story prior to meeting Ping 1,000 years later. In this story he is less than 1,000 years old and his dragonkeeper of the time has recently died. Danzai has made a promise to return the dragonkeeper's goods to his family. On the way, he meets a con man called Bingwen who is travelling in the same direction. When the two finally arrive in the dragonkeeper's old village, a horrible sight greets them - the village has been raised and every villager has been beheaded by the dreaded invading army of the Qin. Now Bingwen and Danzai must flee for their lives, or is Bingwen hiding something? p.11-15 Danzai meets Bingwen for the first time.