Paintball with Dragons by Hope Bolinger is a quirky, heartfelt story about one boy’s journey in learning how to deal with grief after the loss of his oldest brother.

Xander Carson and his brother, Mason, used to be best friends. But after Mason’s fatal car accident, Xander now has to learn how to navigate life on his own. It doesn’t help that his family dedicates every day of the week in doing something Mason used to love, such as watching Mason’s favorite movies or cooking Mason’s favorite foods. Xander feels like he can’t let himself grieve for Mason, but has to lock his feelings down where they won’t hurt him.

Xander’s world takes a twist when he attends his first day of 7th grade, and sees a huge black dragon in front of his locker. As the days go by, Xander sees more and more dragons, which no one else seems to notice. At first Xander finds them a nuisance, but as he learns more about them from Zayn, the school nerd, he becomes attached to them, especially the black one he saw first, whom he christens Smaug.

Then the dragons start to disappear. Xander must dig inside himself and discover what the dragons want from him before he loses them altogether.

This was a great story; there was only one aspect of the story that snagged me up. The author writes about the main character receiving grape juice at church from the pastor, which makes me think she was writing the character as Catholic. However, Catholic pastors are called priests, and while she may have been writing the priest as Novus Ordo, Traditional Catholic priests do not use grape juice, but consecrate wine during Mass. Other readers may not even notice this aspect of the story, but as a Traditional Catholic I did note the potential inaccuracy.

Otherwise, this is a poignant story told in a “tough guy” voice, with a main character so desperate to pretend he is okay he will do anything to maintain that façade, even if it means hurting the people he loves most. This story would appeal to readers of A Pocketful of Stars by Aisha Bushby.

Review of Advance Reading Copy Provided by the Publisher

Content Analysis:

Profanity/Language: None

Violence/Gore: Reports and flashbacks of death of a family member; memory of a nightmare; a character searches the internet for others who see dragons, and finds a link where someone is dealing with trauma and has started seeing dragons; a character is afraid of being bullied; report of a book character losing their family; a parent asks a child if he is skipping out on memorial events for a deceased family member; report of someone killing a dragon; a girl hits someone in dodge ball; report of a girl’s mother having aggressive cancer; a character is worried about drowning; a character gets knocked underwater while boogie boarding; report of a dragon brood getting killed; a character gets his arm popped out of socket; a character is killed in a car accident; report of someone’s grandfather dying; report of a boy’s dog needing to be put down; a boy accidently hurts a girl; report of a character drawing a sword on dragons; a character fills someone’s locker with open cans of tuna; a character remembers getting splinters; characters play paintball a couple times and get welts from paintballs.

Sex/Nudity: A girl plans a birthday party sleepover with boys and girls, with boys sleeping in one house and the girls in another; a girl accuses a boy of staring at another girl.

Mature Subject Matter:

Death of a family member; trauma; divorce; grief; Alzheimer’s; bullying.

Alcohol/Drug Use:

None