The First Shadowdragon is a great return to Wales and the home of Charlie Challinor. Set six months after The Last Firefox, we follow our unlikely hero to the land of Fargone along with Cadno, Libby and Roo. As with its prequel, the story has real heart and I thoroughly enjoyed Newbery’s world building. This book is perfectly suited to readers in Year 3 and above.

The First Shadowdragon is a worthy follow up to The Last Firefox by Lee Newbery. We meet up with Charlie six months after he has defeated The Grendilock, and discover that two year old Edie has joined the family.
After a visit from Charlie’s magical friend, Teg, telling him that all is not well in the land of Fargone, Edie goes missing. Charlie, along with his Dads and best friends Roo and Lippy, travel through the portal in the castle wall to Fargone. There they discover a princess, Blanwyn, who saves Charlie’s life. The children need to go on a journey with the help of Cadno the Firefox and Blodyn the deer, to find the evil monster, Draig, who has been destroying the land of Fargone. Can Charlie the Great save the day?
This is a great story, with lots of adventure and magic to please fans of book one. I really enjoyed catching up with all the characters again, and meeting new ones too.

A great follow up for Lee Newbery. The children had looked forward to this sequel and the laughs started right from the first line.... Nothing like a unicorn butt to start us in giggles. The only problem about getting an advance copy is that you have to wait even longer for the next in the series.

This is a great follow up to the story in""The Last Firefox" and follows the further adventures of the young hero Charlie. This is yet another story that will be devoured by young readers who love an element of magic and fantasy in their adventure stories. I look forward to reading more stories about Charlie in the future.

‘I’m being chased to my death by a goose and it’s all Lippy’s fault’ - The Last Firefox

‘There’s a unicorn butt poking out of our lawn’ - The First Shadowdragon

If there’s one thing Lee can do, it’s deliver a killer opening line to make you giggle and devour the entire book😂 The Last Firefox was one of my favourite books of 2022, and as soon as I’d read it I immediately needed a sequel. I wanted to know more of Fargone and see more of Charlie’s Dad’s and BOY OH BOY! Lee my friend, you delivered👏🏼

I slipped into the world of Fargone and never wanted to leave, the world building was simply fantastic, and the connection you feel to the characters left me aching for more. The perfect amount of action, emotion, and adventure packed into it and I may have a shed a tear or two… 🦊

As in the first book, the LGBTQ+ Rep is perfectly presented in this adventure-packed middle grade story and I just love how natural it all feels (as it should!) - if you haven’t yet got this on your radar, it’s published on the 27th April and you should most definitely grab yourself a copy, I will definitely be purchasing to add to my shelf with the last Firefox🥹

A final Thankyou to @netgalley for the ARC, I absolutely adored it🧡

Having not read the previous adventure of Charlie, I was unsure if I would be able to jump quickly enough into book 2. Any worries I had were swiftly put aside as I immersed myself into the world of Charlie and his friends Lippy and Roo. I loved the pace of the story, the richness of the description and of course the amazing illustrations. The links between modern-day Wales and the kingdom of Fargone were a lovely touch.
Once the story started with the unicorn bum sticking up out of the ground, I knew I was in for a fast-paced adventure. This indeed proved to be the case and I read from cover to cover in one sitting,
This will be the perfect read out loud for story time and I'm off to track down a copy of the first book now.

I'll be honest, this book had me at the 1st line "There's a unicorn butt poking out of our lawn", but the rest of the book just captivated me. I read it in 2 sittings in the same day, only really pausing out of politeness to my family

This is a delightful adventure story, but it's also so much more than that. Newbery effortlessly shows a 'different but normal' family without making it a big thing. The fact that Charlie (the main character) has a pa and dad is just a thing, as it should be. The family's Welshness is gently woven in, and explained, and little nods to Welsh history and folklore poke through.

It has lovely illustrations scattered throughout, just enough to help a youn ger reader along and help keep their interest


I'm off to buy the 1st book in the series now!

I received an advance copy for free from NetGalley, on the expectation that I would provide an honest review.

This series is such a perfect read for children. Inclusive, fun, magical and full of great characters.

Think I enjoyed this even more than the first one. Loved the new character additions, the magical animals were so imaginative - the grumpy snabbit was a highlight!

It was great to see Charlie and his friends in the fantasy world of Fargone, for their adventure, this time! Allowed the story to have even more fantastical moments.

A joyful journey full of friendship and love!!

Before I moved to teaching Year 3 I had already started to explore books aimed at lower KS2 – both to improve my own knowledge of titles written for a younger audience and so that my little library shelf had a better selection of reads for the less confident readers in my then Year 5 class. When I read The Last Firefox – Lee Newbery’s debut book – I knew that I had found a real winner, a beautiful story which was not only written in short chapters (all important when you are less confident) and fabulously illustrated but also a title that was inclusive in its representation of a family with same-sex parents and an adopted protagonist.

As soon as I saw that there would be a follow-up title, I was thrilled. Now teaching Year 3 and equally as determined to share high quality, inclusive stories with my children as I was previously, this is a book I simply had to request from Net Galley for an advance read ahead of publication. Again beautifully written in those so important short chapters and perfectly complemented by Laura Catalán’s enchanting illustrations, here is another read that deserves a place on every lower KS2 class bookshelf to delight those who pick it up – and surely there will be a great many.

Life has returned to a new normality for Charlie after his previous adventures. Not only does his family now share their home with firefox Cadno but they’ve been joined by recently-adopted toddler Edie, whose cuddly unicorn Madam Sugarpuff is missing at the start of the story – causing her a huge amount of upset. Retrieving the cuddly toy from the back garden where it has been buried by Cadno, Charlie’s dads discuss the firefox’s recent misdemeanours leading Charlie to worry that they are planning to get rid of his pet. Sharing his concerns with best friends Lippy and Roo, their comments that Cadno is probably missing his magical home of Fargone do nothing to reassure him and together with the firefox the group makes their way to Bryncastell Castle, where Charlie first met his pet, hoping to give Charlie inspiration for a school project he is struggling to complete.

Discovering that the portal to Fargone is open once more, the gang rush back to Charlie’s house to ask his dads if anything odd has happened there. Almost as soon as they have asked, a variety of strange creatures appear in the garden, accompanied by Teg who asked Charlie to protect Cadno in his first adventure. Over tea, Teg reveals that Fargone is under threat from a monster called Draig who is draining the life force from the land. Unconvinced that he is the right person to tackle the crisis, Charlie protests that his previous success was purely down to good luck but Teg refuses to take no for an answer until Charlie’s dads put their joint foot down and say that they will not allow him to put his life in danger again causing Teg and the magical animals to leave.

The following morning, it is clear that Edie has vanished during the night and all the evidence points to her disappearance being linked to magic. With no other option, Charlie’s dads decide the family must travel to Fargone to find her and together with Lippy and Roo they make their way to the hidden portal at the castle and slip through into the magical land. Finding Edie quickly, Charlie and the others meet Teg once more who again asks Charlie for help in defeating Draig. Guilt-tripped into realising that he is the only one that will be able to rid the land of its tormentor, Charlie seizes the opportunity to sneak off with Lippy, Roo, Cadno and new friend Blodyn to find and defeat the beast. Can the friends carry out their mission and release Fargone from Draig’s clutches and can they do so before Charlie’s dads catch up with them?

Charlie is a wonderful character – a real friend to Lippy and Roo and somebody who wants to do the right thing, whether that be completing his homework, putting Cadno’s needs above his own or saving Fargone. These positive traits don’t make him an unbelievable paragon of virtue, however, he has his flaws just like the rest of us and here young readers will be able to recognise many of their own faults in him and breathe a sigh of relief that despite his errors he is unconditionally loved by those around him. This is so important for children to realise – perhaps especially for those who are adopted, who frequently feel rejected by their biological parents – because, let’s face it, none of us is perfect and here Charlie is completely secure in the knowledge that his imperfections do not affect the love his dads, or the other characters, have for him.

I love a magical adventure and this one is a sheer delight from start to finish. With just the right amount of scariness and peril for young readers, this is a book which ticks so many boxes for me and is one that will work perfectly well as a standalone read. I must say at this point that it seems unbelievable to me – as it does to many others – that the threat of the removal of LGBTQ+ books from schools and libraries is again being debated. All of our children need to see rainbow families represented in the reading materials they enjoy and this is a book which I know many of us will be proud to promote and share with our charges for that very reason.

With the introduction of new magical creature Blodyn to the gang and a way back to Fargone now in place, I am hoping that we will see much more from Charlie and Cadno in the future. Until then though, I am enormously indebted to publisher Puffin Books and to Net Galley for my advance virtual read. The First Shadowdragon publishes April 27th.

The book got me hooked with the first page. Starting off the story with the mentioning of "poo" is a sure-fire way to get children's attention. This is more than a laugh-out-loud book; actually it is NOT a laugh-out-loud kind of book, more like the kind that will make you smile and leave a fuzzy feeling in your heart.

It is a real gem.

An absolute emotional journey (in all the best ways!), but I'd expect nothing less from Lee Newbery.
This was a beautiful sequel to a beautiful middle grade adventure story, and I loved being able to go back into Charlie's world, and reuniting with the lovely cast of characters Newbery has created.
This was a true work of love, and the incorporation of Welsh history, as well as more amazing LGBTQ+ representation, means that this is a clear must read for this age group. I can't think of a book series more worthy of of middle-grade shelf space.

This is a fantastic sequel, huge thanks to the publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review. Charlie and Cadno and their friends are back in this delightful tale, only this time Charlie has a little sister, a mischievous Firefox bestie and an ominous prophecy to deal with that draws them all back to the magic. It’s fun, heartwarming, a really good element of danger and intrigue and a wonderful LGBTQIA+ romance brewing. I highly recommend to all because it’s a fantastic five stars for me.