The Last Dragon by Jane Yolen, Rebecca Guay (Illustrated by)

She's the youngest of her sisters and she is training to be an herbalist like her father.  When she finds an usual plant and shows it to him, he tells her it's Dragon's Bane.  It shouldn't exist unless there is a dragon near but he tells her not to worry.  After all, the dragons have all been killed...

Dark Horse Books and Edelweiss gave the opportunity to read this book for review (thank you).  It will be published May 10th.

When her father goes back to get some of the herbs they had passed by, he never comes back.  Other people or animals start going missing.  Then someone actually sees the dragon.  There's still one left...

They attempt to make the town dragon proof by putting up barriers and keeping people inside but they can't do for that long.  There are jobs to be done, animals to be fed and crops to bring in.  So they ask the young men of the village to go find a hero who will kill their dragon.

Heroes are hard to come up since they haven't been needed for so long.  Most who would accept the gold are drunks or totally run down.  When they find a young man who looks to be in the prime of his life, he says he's a hero.  He shows them his muscles and talks about his conquests while he drinks their gold up in beer.  Then he heads out, without them and without going to the town.  They run him down.

What the youngest daughter finds is that he is not a hero; he just knows good tales.  She decides to help him stop the dragon.

This is an exciting tale with beautiful graphics by Ms. Guay.  I found myself admiring some of the frames before I kept reading.  I loved this one enough I've ordered me a copy for my own library.  Some books are keepers.