Dragon's Green

I adored this book. It's the sort of story tI imagine would get written if J K Rowling, Neil Gaiman, and Roald Dahl had been given the opportunity to write together. Will be recommending this to adults as well as children.

I picked this up because I've enjoyed Scarlett Thomas' adult books, and I have a magic obsessed nine year old. I read it it through first, and I liked it. It captures the minutiae of school life well, as well as having enough excitement and adventure to keep the attention. The principal characters feel like a real gang of school friends, and I think it will really appeal to young readers who want a bit of fantasy and magic. There are certain sequences and passages that as I was reading I was thinking "this would really hit a chord with my little girl. She (nine years old) is 20% through so far, and says it is "epic"and "awesome".

Effie, our heroine, lives in a world a lot like our own, except that a few years ago there was a Worldquake - a huge event that knocked out a lot of modern technology, including the internet and mobile phones. She attends the Tusitala School for the Gifted, Troubled and Strange and spends much of her time being cared for by her Grandfather, who claims to be able to do magic.

Dragon’s Green is a proper gem of a book, full of adventure, friendship and magic. It reminded me of the Narnia books and Tom’s Midnight Garden - the same gloss of magic laid over the everyday world, allowing you to insert your own child self into the story - who isn’t secretly still waiting for their Hogwarts letter?

Effie is an appealing and charming new heroine - admirable in many ways, but not perfect. All the child characters feel very vividly alive, even Effie’s baby sister Luna, who can’t talk and spends most of the book asleep. The adult characters are much more foggy - but that is perhaps as they should be. No one cares much about boring grown ups in Dragon’s Green

One of the things Iiked most about Dragon’s Green is it’s completely unpatronising. The riddles are properly hard, the situations are properly creepy, and the references to classical mythology are left unexplained.

As in all the best children’s books, the characters in Dragon’s Green solve their problems with cleverness, kindness and bravery.

While not perfect, the warmth and magic of Dragon’s Green make it an instant classic. If you know any bookish 10 year olds (or anyone who used to be one), buy them a copy immediately.

<i>Dragon's Green</i> by Scarlett Thomas

Publisher: Canongate Books

Publication date: 06 April 2017



'Some people think opening a book is a simple thing. It’s not. Most people don’t realise that you can get truly lost in a book. You can. Especially you. Do not open any of these books without my permission, Euphemia.’*

Euphemia Truelove spends a lot of time with her grandfather Griffin after her mother's disappearance and her father's remarriage. When Griffin is attacked and killed, Effie discovers that he has left her his magnificent library and a few mementos. Unfortunately, Effie's father sells the books -- all but one -- to a sinister antiquarian book dealer. With the aid of her grandfather's gifts, some new allies, and the only remaining book --Dragon's Green -- Effie and her friends embark on an adventure to retrieve the books and protect the powerful magic they conceal.

The first book in a new children's series by acclaimed novelist Scarlett Thomas, <i>Dragon's Green</i> has it all: brave kids outwitting bumbling adults, magic, mayhem, strong but unlikely friendships, secrets, and humor. If I had this book as a kid, the spine would have been worn out. While it is very much in the spirit of Harry Potter or Diana Wynne Jones' Chrestomanci series, it manages to be something different in the sea of books about magic.

This is one of those rare books that both children and adults can equally enjoy. This novel is truly a love letter to books and they power they hold. With references to Shakespeare, Sophocles, Bulgakov, Harry Potter, a whole host of poets and more, this is a book for established and budding book lovers. Thomas cleverly combines magic and literature in such a way that doesn't alienate young readers and invokes curiosity in the reader. With a narrative voice that harkens back to Lemony Snicket, the story flows easily and does not talk down to younger readers. I felt that it puts you, whether you're young or older, on a level playing field -- you will get a similar experience whether you're a child or an adult.

This is a perfect read for fans of Harry Potter, A Series of Unfortunate Events, Dianne Wynn Jones, or Philip Pullman. I'd also highly recommended to anyone who has ever daydreamed about falling into a book, going on adventures, or has struggled to fit in.

Rating: 4/5

*Copy courtesy of Goodreads

This is, I think, Thomas's first book not for adults (It's described as YA but I'd have said perhaps YYA... I'm never really sure of the boundaries though). I should confess that I asked to read it because it's one of hers - having read and enjoyed her books for adults, I didn't really know what to expect, but was interested to see what she had written.

Which just shows the wonders of chance and coincidence because - apart from that perhaps rather dry sense of interest - this book was a real joy to read, reminding me a lot of the magical worlds of Diana Wynne Jones. Like them, the world of Dragon's Green is plainly, to a degree our world, though also (changed here, by the 'Worldquake') into one where magic might be real (even if not everyone believes in it). There's a similar sense that old secrets are all around, encrypted somehow, if only we could see them, or sleeping, just ready to be woken.

In this story it's Euphemia Truelove (Effie) who will uncover the secrets. She's a lonely girl: her mother Aurora... gone... in a way which has an air of mystery about (the Worldquake?) and her father, Orwell, distant, preoccupied by his new wife Cait (Cait is perhaps a bit of a wicked stepmother but not really strong enough a character to be really wicked). Effie attends the Tusitala School for the Gifted, Troubled and Strange) where she mingles with a wider group of other misfits and lonely kids (Carl, Maximilian, Lexy) - not all of them to be trusted.

When Griffin, Effie's beloved grandfather, is attacked in the street and taken to hospital, Effie begins a race against time to save his beloved library of rare and magical books - and the even stranger and more magical items he's entrusted to her care. Doing so involves Effie and her classmates sinking themselves into Stories, following Quests - and testing their friendship. All while under the thumb of the awful Mrs Beathag Hide, Effie's English teacher, of Orwell and of Cait (who's got the family on a diet of nutritionless shakes).

It's all great fun, never more so that when Effie actually gets to visit Dragon's Green, where princesses are trained to be fed to the dragon. In a welcome contrast to the typical fairy story treatment of a clanking , metal-clad knight saving a limp and grateful princess, Effie selects a cool outfit and sets out to match wits with him.

Then there's the awful Diberi, evil sorcerers whose worst crime is to use up and destroy books. A creepy book dealer. And a houseful of existential poets (dressed in black, naturally) who guard the secret of the Underworld...

This book is smart, packed with clever literary allusions (the passages spouted by the existentialists; a creepy encounter in the market with some goblin men selling their tempting fruits) as well as genuinely funny asides ('Could one arrive to save one's evil co-conspirator in a minicab? Perhaps not') and sharp observations ('the cruel courtship rituals of celebrities').

In places the tone is perhaps slightly uneven (a vital concept about a kind of otherworld magical life-force that governs what one can do is referred to as 'M-currency' which grates slightly in a book that's full of ingenious names and wordplay and which also shows a real sense of place).

Above all, though, Effie is a true hero (she really is - a True Hero; you'll need to read the book to find out what this means) and a rather magnificent one at that. This is a story of how she finds her mates and how they support her, but she's front and centre of the story and clearly destined for more adventures. They can't come soon enough.

Scarlett Thomas makes her first foray into children's fantasy fiction with panache. In the first book of what is intended to be a series, she does a marvellous job in world building with portals such as a bakery into the Otherworld. A young girl. Euphemia 'Effie' Truelove, is a charming and engaging heroine, aided in her quest by her newly acquired rag tag bunch of schoolfriends. Effie's mother disappeared in the bizarre worldquake which happened to also erase the internet. Her father remarries which results in Effie spending considerably more time with her grandfather, Griffin. She asks him questions about magic which he refuses to answer.

Effie attends the Tusitala School for the Gifted and Strange. When Griffin becomes ill, Effie becomes aware that she will inherit the family library. Her grandfather is murdered and bequeaths her a specific book which sets out to train and equip her with the magical powers she has. The library and the books within it put Effie in danger and risk as the darkest of forces in the universe plan to use the books and the power they have. As Effie acquaints herself with her magical powers, she seeks vengeance for the death of her grandfather and to save the library. Her new schoolfriends, Wolf, Max, Raven and Lexy prove to be a smart and quirky additional friends to have on her adventures where she needs all the help she can get.

This is not an altogether perfect book, but I imagine that children will find this a thrilling, curious, entertaining and absorbing read. It has all the elements in this book to promise an enthralling fantastical series. Thanks to Canongate for an ARC.