Look at this wonderful opening sentence:
"She didn't want to go home and that's why she found it."
This is a powerful opening sentence that just demands you read on (and on and on). What is happening at home? Is it something bad? What did she find? Who is this girl? Where is she?
Home? Read on and see how Karen Foxlee is a master of word placement and choice:
"Matt would have come home and the screen door would have slammed hard and his tool bag would have crashed down on the kitchen bench. They would have flinched ... "
"Matt liked Pip in her room with the light off and the door closed so he could have her mum all to himself. He didn't like any competition. Competition made him angry."
"Now he was sitting drinking his coffee and scrolling through Facebook and stealing all the oxygen. Her mother and her had to survive on small sips of air."
"He was dangerous like hairpin bends in the road."
"Matt was made complete out of anger. He was an armour of anger and he had anger blood and he had a heart that was solid anger."
Now we know why Pip doesn't want to go home. Home is not a safe place. Pip knows her mother feels this too but leaving will take great courage. In the meantime what has she found?
"I will save you.
I will help you.
I will fix your wings.
I was chosen."
Pip has found a baby dragon.
I adore the way Karen Foxlee references Australia in her story. Mika tells Pip they might be bunyips at the waterhole. If this book is taken up by a US publisher I wonder what they will make of bunyips!
There is just so much to love about this book. The writing is powerful. The title is perfect and contains more than one meaning which will be revealed as you read. And this whole book is utterly brave! Karen Foxlee creates the most amazing tension in this story. Yes I've shared enough text with you so you know about Matt and his temper and way of controlling her mum but there is also the tension about Pip's friend Mika. I am not going to spoil this important story strand. And there is the little dragon himself. Pip names him Little Fella. He has come into Pip's life at just the right time. She has something to love and in turn this tiny creature helps her navigate this year of loss and fear. Little Fella also helps her make special new friends. I read one reviewer (Goodreads) who said summed this book up perfectly "So lovely, so heart-breaking and then heart-mending." My only other personal comment about this book is that I deeply hope the terrible violence she describes in the relationship between Matt and Pip's mum was not based on any aspect of Karen's own life.
I'm in love with this book. Dragon Skin is surprising, beautiful, unique. The characters are wonderfully drawn - tough but vulnerable, hurt but hopeful, damaged but strong. They've lodged themselves in my heart forever.' Katrina Nannestad
Dragon Skin will be available from tomorrow and I am certain it will be listed for many awards here in Australia and perhaps beyond. School libraries who subscribe to standing order services will receive this book in their book package but if you are in a library, and you don't purchase books this way, I strongly suggest you add Dragon Skin to your book shopping list NOW! And YES this is a book for Upper Primary (mature readers aged 11+ look at the labels at the bottom of this post) and High Schools too. I am also thrilled that this book is such a great price at less then $20 for the hardcover.
A friend from our IBBY committee sent me an Advance Reader copy of Dragon Skin and then the publisher Allen and Unwin (thanks go to Yvette Gilfillan) sent me the finished copy which is a beautifully designed hardback with an embossed cover. Take a look at this twelve page chapter sampler.
Karen Foxlee books just get better and better. Take a look at some here:
Companion reads:
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