Cooper Clark and the Dragon Lady

Written by Valerie Sherrard

Illustrated by David Jardine

Fitzhenry & Whiteside

978-1-55455-462-1

80 pp.

Ages 7-10

2019

Cooper's friends Jared and Nina like dragons but Cooper does not. He just tries to avoid anything to do with dragons: movies, games, play. But when his regular after-school babysitter, Linda, takes a new job and can't look after him anymore and his parents suggest Mrs. Mulligan, it becomes a whole lot harder to deal with his fear.

Cooper's parents don't know what he knows about the elderly Mrs. Mulligan. Older boys Lenny and Matt have told everyone that she has a dragon with a pointy tongue in her basement and sometimes she lets it run free. So Cooper creates a web of lies to try to get out of going to Mrs. Mulligan's house.  When those don't work, the boy takes evasive actions.  In the end, after a series of missteps, Cooper learns a thing or two, including how to knit, and that all dragons are not the same.

Cooper Clark and the Dragon Lady is an early reader that addresses the power of the imagination to feed fears from gossip and rumours. There really is a dragon in Mrs. Mulligan's basement but it's a version that delights not hurts. Sadly Cooper, like most children, believes those who are older and might know better and this proves to be his undoing. Well, that and his fear of dragons that he doesn't share with his family or friends.

Tackling important issues in early readers is not always easy. You don't have the expressive illustrations of picture books that can carry much of a message or the vocabulary and word count of middle grade or YA novels to delve deep into issues such as anxiety and fears. So, for Valerie Sherrard to speak to young readers at their level of worry and the expression of that worry, she has accomplished much with Cooper Clark and the Dragon Lady. It's a short story that accepts that young children will have fears that seem outlandish to those who are older and that they will find clumsy strategies to deal with those fears. However, those fears are very real. But, with some support from others, and a dose of the truth, those fears can be reconstructed into something less destructive.

The Playgrounds of Babel

Written by JonArno Lawson

Illustrated by Piet Grobler

Groundwood Books

978-1-77306-036-1

32 pp.

Ages 5-10

August 2019

From JonArno Lawson, the author of the award-winning Sidewalk Flowers (illustrated by Sydney Smith, Groundwood, 2015), comes another important story about differences and communication that demonstrates we are far less disparate than appearances may suggest.

From The Playgrounds of Babel by JonArno Lawson, illus. by Piet Grobler

The story begins with a kerchief-clad woman telling a story to a group of children. Her language, in the hand-drawn speech bubbles, is a series of lines, dots, and shapes. One boy translates for his friend, who clearly does not understand the woman, and so begins an updated version of the Tower of Babel biblical story. The dark-haired translator shares how at one time everyone spoke the same language until they attempted to build a tower to reach God. In response, God sent a dragon to destroy the tower and confounded their speech into many different languages. The boy's fair-haired friend interjects about not believing in God and knowing there's no dragon in the story but his friend persists. He focuses his story, or rather the woman's story, on two girls who suddenly cannot speak to one another.

From The Playgrounds of Babel by JonArno Lawson, illus. by Piet Grobler

Amidst their crying at this turn of events, the girls hug and realize that the songs they'd sung before could be the commonality they need. Though the words are different, they now "had a way to translate, because they knew they were singing exactly the same thing in two different languages."

From The Playgrounds of Babel by JonArno Lawson, illus. by Piet Grobler

Author JonArno Lawson explains the origins of his story in his Author's Note and, while it has a personal foundation from his own childhood and from the inquisitiveness of his own daughter, The Playgrounds of Babel extends far beyond these sparks. It speaks to the opportunities our differences provide to make our world richer not weaker. Throughout the story, a variety of languages are "spoken" from the birds who speak in terms of berries or caterpillars and snakes who speak in Ss as well as backward Ss. Everyone has a language that may be different from another but still allows them to communicate. Even in the world from which the boys and storyteller speak, there is more than just the words. There is imagination and the need to suspend disbelief and to see that God could whistle for a dragon to return to the heavens.

South African artist Piet Grobler provides the illustrations that blend harshness with wonder in a story within a story. I like that the contemporary setting from which the boys and the storyteller speak is dark and stark, until the end, and the world of the two girls is colourful and diverse. It reminds us that the storyteller brings the richness of colour to a story, even if it's one based in conflict or difficulty. Using watercolour and ink (including the dip pen to produce lines of varying thickness), Piet Grobler contrasts the two worlds and changes the reader's perspective repeatedly.

The Playgrounds of Babel has a powerful message about communication and differences but it's also about telling stories and realizing that anything can be real if we believe.

Tess of the Road: Book launch (Toronto, ON)

Rachel Hartman

who brought the world her award-winning book

Seraphina 

Written by Rachel Hartman

Doubleday Canada

9780385668392

480 pp.

Ages 14+

2012

Reviewed here

and its sequel

Shadow Scale

Written by Rachel Hartman

Doubleday Canada

9780385668606

608 pp.

Ages 14+

2015

is back with a third book in her fantasy series!

Her new young adult fantasy novel

Tess of the Road

Written by Rachel Hartman

Penguin Teen

9780385685887

544 pp.

Ages 14+

February 27, 2018

launches

March 31, 2018

3-5 p.m.

at

Bakka-Phoenix

84 Harbord Street

Toronto, ON

From Penguin Random House Canada website:

In the medieval kingdom of Goredd, women are expected to be ladies, men are their protectors, and dragons get to be whomever they want. Tess, stubbornly, is a troublemaker. You can't make a scene at your sister's wedding and break a relative's nose with one punch (no matter how pompous he is) and not suffer the consequences. As her family plans to send her to a nunnery, Tess yanks on her boots and sets out on a journey across the Southlands, alone and pretending to be a boy.

Where Tess is headed is a mystery, even to her. So when she runs into an old friend, it's a stroke of luck. This friend is a quigutl--a subspecies of dragon--who gives her both a purpose and protection on the road. But Tess is guarding a troubling secret. Her tumultuous past is a heavy burden to carry, and the memories she's tried to forget threaten to expose her to the world in more ways than one.

Retrieved from https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/253139/tess-of-the-road-by-rachel-hartman/9781101931288/ on February 21, 2018.

The Story of Owen: Dragon Slayer of Trondheim

by E. K. Johnston
CarolrhodaLab
978-1-4677-105504
306 pp.
Ages 12+
2014

Once upon a time there was a sixteen-year-old boy named Owen Thorskard, who was the son of two dragon slayers and nephew of one of the most famous dragon slayers of the late 1980s, Lottie Thorskard.  Though this is Owen's story, it could not have happened if: 1) his parents, who had experienced horrific experiences fighting dragons in the oil-rich Middle East, had not separated, his mom returning to Venezuela; 2) his aunt Lottie and her wife Hannah, a smith who forges all their swords and weaponry, hadn't offered to help raise Owen; and 3) Lottie hadn't been badly injured fighting a dragon off the Burlington Skyway, cutting short her urban career and compelling her to choose to live in the rural community of Trondheim, bringing Owen's dad Aodhan, Hannah and Owen with her.  Oh, of course, also if Owen hadn't met Siobhan McQuaid, musician and composer extraordinaire and his math tutor, and asked her to become his bard.  Without teen Siobhan to tell his story, there would never be The Story of Owen: Dragon Slayer of Trondheim.

Pg. 303 The Story of Owen Dragon Slayer of Trondheim

While Siobhan becomes acquainted with Owen and his family and is introduced to the mechanics of dragon fighting, she tells of her experiences, both honestly to the reader and in true story-teller fashion to the media, elevating the cause for the need for dragon slayers in less urban communities. (Most dragon slayers, after they complete their mandatory service for the Oil Watch, end up getting lucrative contracts with large corporations or join the Royal Canadian Mounted Dragon Slayers rather than serving small centres without big budgets.)  When Siobhan and Owen are approached by a conspiracy theorist named Archie Carmichael in adjacent Saltrock, the two start to look into the possibility of a dragon hatching ground on Manitoulin Island which would explain the increase of attacks. With the help of Archie's daughter, Emily, and Owen's family, they establish a Guard at school to train teens in dragon fighting/slaying (though dragon slayers are typically legacy positions) to assist the few dragon slayers around and to devise a plan to locate and destroy this potential source of dragons.

The Story of Owen: Dragon Slayer of Trondheim is a history of dragons and dragon slayers wrapped up in the story of a boy who would follow in his father's, mother's and aunt's footsteps and become a dragon slayer extraordinaire.  But it’s also the story of Siobhan finding her musical voice to compose a symphonic story for Owen’s actions.

This was it, I realized.  This was what I had to make other people feel, even if they didn’t get to see it like I had.  I could already hear the first whispers, the line of brass and the faltering drums of the dragon’s dying hearts. This was something I could do. (pg. 144)

Through Siobhan’s eyes and ultimately through her music–I wonder if E. K. Johnston has any plans for sharing the music composed to accompany Owen’s story–readers will be taken into an alternate history and a world in which dragons must be slain and carbon, fire and smoke draw the creatures to attack.   There is so much in The Story of Owen: Dragon Slayer of Trondheim that it defies my inclusion of all in this simple review.  But all readers, particularly those participating in the Ontario Library Association’s White Pine reading program in which The Story of Owen is a nominee, will be grabbed by the completely unique premise for the book, E. K. Johnston’s exceptional characters, and an ending that is hardly formulaic and definitely startling.  And I’m sure that they will be as primed to read E. K. Johnston’s follow-up book, Prairie Fire, released earlier this year, as I am.

Seraphina

Written by Rachel Hartman

Doubleday Canada

978-0-385-66839-2

480 pp.

Ages 14+

2012

Having seen the book trailer for Seraphina last year, I hadn't been convinced that it wasn't just another fantasy involving just another supernatural creature i.e., dragons.  But when Seraphina won the 2013 William C. Morris Award for a debut author; was selected as a 2013 Best YALSA Fiction and a 2013 ALA Notable Children's Book for Older Readers; and nominated for the 2012 Governor General's Children's Literature Award, the 2013 Sheila A. Egoff Children's Literature Prize, and the 2013 Ruth and Sylvia Schwartz Book Award, I knew I'd missed something. And that is why I revisited, thankfully, Rachel Hartman's debut novel, Seraphina.

Seraphina Dombegh is a young woman who is the music mistress at Castle Orison, the residence of the royal family of Goredd: Queen Lavonda, her son Prince Rufus, her daughter Princess Dionne and granddaughter Princess Glisselda, and Glisselda's cousin and fiancé Prince Lucian Kiggs, Captain of the Queen's Guard.  On the threshold of celebrations commemorating the 40th anniversary of the treaty between Goredd and dragonkind, Prince Rufus is murdered and his head removed, a trait of a dragon kill.  And, while the treaty may have been agreed upon by Queen Lavonda and Ardmagar Comonot, there are many including Glisselda's governess Lady Corongi who still hold animosity towards the dragons, and others like the Sons of St. Ogdo who torment the saarantrai (dragons in human form) and quig (a dragon subspecies that cannot transform).

Although Seraphina is held in high esteem by her student Princess Glisselda and consequently Kiggs, she knows she must never reveal her true heritage and nature.  Seraphina's mother Linn had been a saarantras who'd fallen in love with a human, Claude Dombegh, and had died giving birth to her daughter.  But, as a dragon, Linn left her daughter with a mind-pearl, memories by which Seraphina would know of her mother's life.  Luckily, Linn had a brother, Orma, who is dedicated to helping Seraphina with her half-dragon nature, her physically-debilitating memories and visions, and musical training.

So, while Seraphina spends much effort hiding the silver scales on her wrist and waist, and tending a virtual garden of grotesques that infuse her visions, she becomes integral in helping her uncle Orma deal with the suspected appearance of his father Imlann (who may be leading a coup against the Ardmagar), and in liaising with Kiggs in his investigations.  As both royalty and Captain of the Queen's guard, Kiggs is investigating Prince Rufus' murder and a sighting of a rogue dragon (i.e., in flying form) and dealing with escalating conflicts between saars and humans, undoubtedly associated with Treaty Day.  Oh, and did I mention that Seraphina falls in love with Kiggs?

Surprisingly, I haven't gone into details about the multiple subplots and characters in town, in the castle, in Seraphina's head, in a dragon-fighting knights' camp, and in the legends and saintly beliefs.  Seraphina, the book, is a hearty tale of secrets, fears and emotions and the consequences of the conflicts between them. It may be a story with dragons, princesses and princes, knights and earls, but Seraphina is no fairy tale.  The realms of Seraphina go beyond any medieval settings, both real and imagined, and appropriately Rachel Hartman has created a vernacular to accompany them.  The glossary of new vocabulary, as well as the five pages listing the characters, is necessitated by the complexity of the story and appreciated by the reader.  With a sequel, Dracomachia, due out in February 2014, I will certainly be refreshing my memory of the Porphyrian language and philosophers and Goreddi saints, as war draws near and Kiggs and Seraphina continue to support Glisselda, albeit with unspoken love.

Dragon Seer's Gift

By Janet McNaughton
HarperCollins Canada
978-1-44340-677-2
282 pp.
Ages 10+
2011

In Janet McNaughton's Dragon Seer (HarperCollins Canada, 2009), a young slave of the 8th century, Madoca, is chosen as the Dragon Seer, a leader of the Pict people, to care for and learn the secrets of the dragons, threatened by the ravages of the Vikings.  In 21st century Newfoundland, the lone dragon in existence, Hermit, who has waited 112 years for a dragon keeper, is recovered by Gwyn Rae (12) and his sister, Maddie (14), whose ancestors were dragon keepers.

Being the few that can actually see Hermit, Gwyn and Maddie are compelled to keep Hermit a secret as they feed and protect him in their house.  Through archival materials and Hermit's revelations, they learn of the need to break an evil Viking seer's curse that keeps the dragons hidden.  With Gwyn pursuing his ancestry in a Heritage Project, and Maddie learning about ancient tablet weaving, Hermit reveals that the curse will be removed only when the weaving tablets (recently discovered at L'Anse aux Meadows and erroneously attributed to the Vikings) stolen from Madoca are recovered and Gwyn (who is identified as a dragon seer, not just a dragon keeper) can unweave the curse.

McNaughton admirably interweaves the themes of oppression with that of hope, with the people of the past (Picts) and of the present (Gwyn, Maddie, etc.) enduring mistreatment by others (the Vikings and bullies) but still wishing for, maybe even anticipating, a better future.