Dragonkeeper by Carole Wilkinson

A young, unnamed slave works for a tyrannical man who purports to be a dragonkeeper. At the time of this story in ancient China the current emperor as no interest in dragons. Now there are only two left, and it is up to the young slave girl to keep them alive in their dungeon home. One morning she discovers one of the dragons has died. Now the adventures begin. 

The dragon named Danzi tells the girl her name is Ping. He explains they need to travel to the ocean, and she needs to carry his dragon stone and keep it safe at all times. Ping only has one friend in the whole world - a rat named Hua. Ping only agrees to go on this journey if Hua can come too. And what a journey it turns out to be. Ping has never been anywhere since she was taken as a slave. They walk through the most amazing countryside and encounter some kindness but also lots of danger because there is a dragon hunter who wants to capture and eventually kill Danzi and for reasons Ping cannot understand he and others also want the dragon stone.

The scene when Ping sees the ocean for the first time (only a few pages from the end of the book) reminded me of the words from the Margaret Mahy Picture book - The man whose Mother was a pirate:

He hadn’t dreamed of the BIGNESS of the sea. He hadn’t dreamed of the blueness of it. He hadn’t thought it would roll like kettledrums, and swish itself on to the beach. He opened his mouth and the drift and the dream of it, the weave and the wave of it, the fume and foam of it never left him again. At his feet the sea stroked the sand with soft little paws. Farther out, the great, graceful breakers moved like kings into court, trailing the peacock-patterned sea behind them.”

You could compare these lines with the wonder of Ping:

"Something on the horizon reflected sunlight like a band of silver. As they drew closer the band became wider. ... The hill gave way to flat land. The silver strip became wider and wider and turned blue as they got closer to it. It wasn't solid, its dimpled surface was dipping and rising. ... Where the blue met the earth there were tiny rolls of white. Ping realised what she was looking at was water. It stretched as far as she could see to the north, to the south and east until it merged with the sky. Its size terrified. her."

I recently talked about reading stamina and long form reading. Dragonkeeper is 343 pages of fairly small print so a reader aged 10+ will need stamina and perseverance but the rewards are great. Luckily things are fairly well resolved at the end of this book but IF you want to re-enter the world of Ping there are several more installments. I took quite a few days to read Dragonkeeper and now I need to consider if I want to see the movie - I think it might disappoint me because there is no way the sweeping story and epic nature of this book could be effectively distilled into a 98-minute movie surely? If you are looking for a class read aloud this could be a good book to consider - but do read it for yourself first - read alouds only work if the teacher loves the book first! Do not kill the book but the teachers notes I have linked to below are excellent and have ideas you could pick and choose from. I won my copy of Dragonkeeper as part of a promotion of the movie - I am glad I set aside the time to read this sweeping adventure story. 

There are more plot details in this review.

Carol Wilkinson waves her pencil like a magic wand and creates a fantasy world set in 141 B.C. China that’s as real as your morning cup of coffee.  ... Ping and Danzi need all the goodness they can muster, because their journey and their lives are challenged by drunks, robbers, corrupt politicians and wizards of the underworld. Ping’s believability grows on you because she, like the nine- to twelve-year-old readers for whom the book is written, has flaws, limitations and self-doubts. In fact, Wilkinson gives us a character with which readers of all ages can identify. Historical Novel Society

I put three covers at the top of this post but you can see even more on Carole Wilkinson's web page. 

My favourite parts of this book were when Danzi the dragon offered words of wisdom to Ping. I am so happy to see the author of the teacher's notes took the trouble to collect these:

The teachers notes say: Danzi is constantly making intriguing statements that Ping doesn’t quite understand, for example: 

• “All answers lie beyond the gate of experience,” 
• “Composure is the master of haste,”
• “The journey of a thousand li begins with a single step,” 
• “The way of Heaven is to diminish excess.” 
• “It is because of its emptiness that the cup is useful.” 
• “Recognising one’s limitations is knowledge,” 
• “Sharp weapons are not the tools of the sage,” 
• “The skillful traveller leaves no trace,”
• “The straight path must sometimes be crooked,” 
• “Sometimes advancing seems like going backwards,” 
• “Nothing under Heaven is softer than water,” “Yet it can overcome the hard and the strong.”
• “The sapling is small, but none can defeat it,” 
• “Net of Heaven is cast wide. Though its mesh is not fine, nothing slips through.”
• “He who tries to take carpenter’s place, always cuts his hands,” 
• “The path is easy if you avoid turning off it.” 

Blurb from the author webpage: Ancient China, Han Dynasty. A slave girl saves the life of an ageing dragon and escapes her brutal master. Pursued by a ruthless dragon hunter, the girl and the dragon make an epic journey across China carrying a mysterious stone that must be protected. This is the story of a young slave girl who believes she is not worthy of a name but finds within herself the strength and courage to make this perilous journey — and do what must be done.

Here are some additional teacher's notes.

Awards:

• Winner 2018 Silver Award (Children's Book), Illustrators Australia Awards
• Winner 2014 Graham Davey Citation, Young Australian Best Book Award (YABBA) 
• Winner 2013 Gold Award – Book Series, Illustrators Australia 
• Shortlisted 2006 COOL (Canberra’s Own Outstanding List) Award
• Winner 2006 Older Readers, Kids Own Australian Literary Awards (KOALA)
• Winner 2006 Kalbacher Klapperschlange Award (Germany)
• Special mention 2004 International Youth Library’s White Ravens List
• Shortlisted 2004 NSW Premier’s Literary Awards
• Winner 2004 Best Children’s Book, Queensland Premier’s Literary Award
• Winner 2004 Book of the Year (Younger Readers), Children’s Book Council of Australia Awards
• Winner 2003 Best Young Adult Book, Aurealis Awards

Check out my two previous posts:

• Read the book then see the movie
• Dragonkeeper movie review

A Lion in the Meadow by Margaret Mahy illustrated by Jenny Williams

"Mother, I'm scared to go into the meadow, because of the lion which is there."

This is a famous Margaret Mahy book from 1969. I picked up a copy in mint condition at a recent charity book fair for just AUS$1. My copy is the newer one with revised illustrations done in 1986.

In this delightful children's story, a young boy's vivid imagination brings to life a lion that he claims is hiding in the meadow near his home. His mother, initially skeptical, plays along by giving him a matchbox containing a dragon to scare the lion away. As the tale unfolds, the line between fantasy and reality blurs, leading to a heartwarming conclusion where imagination and belief create a world of wonder and possibility, highlighting the power of storytelling and the bond between parent and child. The Greatest Books

Here are some of the original illustrations - I do prefer them:

Publisher blurb: What would you do if you knew there was a lion in the meadow, but your mother doesn't believe you? And when she gives you a matchbox with a dragon hidden inside to scare away the lion, you discover that the dragon is in there too!

Margaret Mahy (1936-2012) was one of New Zealand's most celebrated children's writers. She was the author of more than 150 titles, which have been translated into many different languages and sold around the world. Appointed to the Order of New Zealand in 1993, Mahy also won many global prizes for children's writers, including the Carnegie Medal and the prestigious Hans Christian Andersen Award from IBBY.

I wonder if A Lion in the Meadow inspired the book The Tiger who Came to Tea. Looking at the dates I guess not. The Tiger who came to Tea was written in 1968 and A Lion in the Meadow in 1969. I can see links between this book and another older book by Margaret Mahy - The Witch in the Cherry Tree also illustrated by Jenny Williams. I found an academic examination of the story in A Lion in the Meadow - the page is filled with advertisements making it hard to read but if you want a deeper analysis of this famous story take a look. I have also discovered that the new edition has a different ending! Juding by the dates I am going to hope or assume Margaret Mahy herself wrote or at least approved of this change.

Original "The mother never ever made up a story again."

New edition "So the lion in the meadow became a house lion and lived in the broom cupboard and when the little boy had apples, stories and a goodnight hug, the lion had apples, stories and a goodnight hug as well."

The Margaret Mahy Treasury

Here is a list of some picture books by Margaret Mahy - my own favourites are Jam; The Great White Man-eating Shark; and The Pumpkin Man and the Crafty Creeper. Click the label Margaret Mahy at the bottom of this post to find my blog posts about some of these.

•  A Dragon of an Ordinary Family (1969)
•  A Lion in the Meadow (1969)
•  The Princess and the Clown (1971)
•  The Boy with Two Shadows (1971)
•  17 Kings and 42 Elephants (1972)
•  The Witch in the Cherry Tree (1974)
•  The Boy Who Was Followed Home (1975)
•  The Man Whose Mother Was a Pirate (1976)
•  Jam (1985)
•  The Great White Man-eating Shark (1989)
•  The Pumpkin Man and the Crafty Creeper (1990)
•  The Rattlebang Picnic (1994)
•  Beaten by a Balloon (1997)
•  The Three-legged Cat (2004)
•  Down the Back of the Chair (2006)

  

Dragonkeeper movie review

I mentioned previously that I won two tickets to Dragonkeeper - the movie is based on the book by Carole Wilkinson. You might like to watch the trailer.  Here are two reviews by young movie fans. I do hope this book is in their school library. It is wonderful that both boys now want to read the book:

Review One

I liked this movie from the start when we found out that baby Ping had special powers. I knew she was going to be an important character. It was exciting when the dragon catcher held Ping and the dragon egg over the cliff edge. My favourite part was when the dragon catcher drained Ping’s  energy to become more powerful. It was sad at the end when Danzi was injured but it ended in a happy way when Kai, the baby dragon hatched and cuddled up to Ping. I think Ping will look after Kai and be a mother to him.

I think I would enjoy reading this book.   Luca 9yrs

Review Two

I loved the background music and the animation the most. The colours were soft and magical. The dragons didn’t appear to be scary at all. Their voices were soft and they were friendly. I think little kids could watch this movie without being too scared. I liked the special effects used when Ping first dreams of the dragons.

My favourite part was the journey of Ping and the dragon, Danzi when they went searching for the dragon egg. The scene with the broken bridge was exciting, especially when Ping used her powers to mend the bridge. This is when we first realise how strong her powers are. Ping was very brave when she used her powers to help defeat Diao and rescue the egg.

I’d really like to read the book now so I can compare it to the movie. I think there might be more detail in the book.    Theo 11yrs

If you are an parent or carer and you want to know more about the themes in this movie which is rated here in Australia as PG take a look at this review from Children and Media Australia. You can see images from the movie here. 

Here is the webpage for Carole Wilkinson.

You can read a sample chapter from Dragonkeeper here. There are six books in the Dragonkeeper series including the prequel - Dragon Dawn:

Ash invites her friends to tea by Fu Wenzheng

Grandpa takes Ash in to the tea plantation and shows her how to pick the best leaves. They put the leaves in the shade to soften and then they dry them with hot air. Finally hot water is added and we have a drink called tea. The cheeky monkey, the panda, the wild boar and finally a dragon arrive to try this magical drink. We watch the calming effects as storm abates, the friends fall asleep and the dragon flies away. 

This is a quirky little story about how tea is made. My friend from Kinderbookswitheverything talked about International Tea Day back in 2022 and I remembered seeing the cover of this book. Now she has added it to her school library collection. Here is a 2018 interview with Fu Wenzheng.

AFTER you read Ash invites her friends to tea you can see the pages on Storybox Library and listen to the reading by Gabrielle Wang. But please read and explore the print book first. Oh and after you read this book your young reading companion could watch you prepare a cup of tea with tea leaves perhaps not a tea bag in a lovely old family tea pot!

About the author/illustrator: Fu Wenzheng grew up in a temple in China where her grandfather was a monk. The experiences she had as a child have greatly influenced her writing and style of illustration. Traditional Chinese culture and philosophy are at the focal point of all her work. Fu Wenzheng did her undergraduate studies at Fujian University’s College of Fine Art and then went on to study Illustration at Zhejiang Science and Engineering University’s School of Art and Design.

Just as an aside the birds in this book have arms and hands! You could perhaps compare these illustrations with the 2024 short listed book That Bird has Arms by Kate and Jol Temple. 

I have talked here about a few books that feature tea drinking or tea time or tea making or even teapots.

Teatime

Tea and Sugar Christmas

How the Queen found the perfect cup of tea

Luli and the Language of Tea

Here is the first book about Ash:

The Loathsome Dragon retold by David Wiesner and Kim Kahng

"With firm resolve he bent toward the beast, and once, twice, thrice he kissed its fearsome head. With a hiss and a roar, the Loathsome Dragon collapsed to the ground revealing 

fair Margaret within its heart."

This story, retold by husband-and-wife team David Wiesner and Kim Kahng, is based on an eighteenth-century ballad. David Wiesner found the story in a book of English folktales from 1890. 

"I found the image of the maiden awakening in her bed as 'laidy worm' or loathsome dragon, so striking that I painted it as a poster for an art exhibition in 1985."

In Bamborough Castle there lived a king and queen and two children. A daughter named Margaret and a son named Richard. After the queen died the king met a beautiful woman - he did not know she was an enchantress. Richard had left the castle to see the world so only Margaret was there to greet the new queen. But the new queen could see the king loved his daughter perhaps more than his new queen. Enraged by jealousy, she decides to put a spell on the young girl.

Change love to fear, princess to dragon,

Forevermore shall this be,

Unless Prince Richard, the kings' own son,

Gives the beast kisses three.

And so, Margaret is transformed into a dragon, and she sets off seemingly to attack the town and the people. Luckily the court wizard gives his wise counsel. He cannot reverse the spell but if the villagers give the dragon the milk of seven cows every day at sunset they will not be attacked. The wizard also explains time is running out and Richard must be found quickly and told to return home.

Bookseller blurb: A lovely princess, a brave prince, a wicked stepmother, evil enchantments, magic rowan wood, and an immense, scaly dragon. ... Favorite fairytale elements sparkle in The Loathsome Dragon, a traditional English tale. Majestic, romantic paintings by two-time Caldecott medalist David Wiesner display the remarkable artistry and dizzying perspectives his work is known for.

I’m a huge David Wiesner fan – and while this is not one of his more well-known books, it is certainly one of my favorites.  It is one I would categorize as a traditional dragon story – and comes complete with a lovely princes, brave prince, wicked stepmother and evil enchantments, not to mention a dragon.  Reading Power Gear

I love the way so many numbers are woven into this story - the enchantress passes her arms in front of herself nine times nine; she chants her spell three times three; the people need to supply the milk of seven cows; Richard gathers three and thirty men to build his ship to rescue is sister and of course he must kiss her three times.

This book was first published in 1987 and then reprinted in 2005. It is sure to be found in many public and school libraries. 

One of my favourite books would be the perfect companion to read after The Loathsome Dragon:

The Minstrel and the Dragon Pup

Elf dog and Owl Head by M.T. Anderson illustrated by Junyi Wu

 

"Clay had never seen a dog like her. She was thin like a greyhound or a whippet. She was milk white. She had tall, pointed ears. And the inside of those ears was red. That was the strangest thing. The red pointed ears."

This wonderful dog has come from Under the Mountain. She was part of a pack chasing an old, clever wyrm. Later we discover her name, written on her collar in an ancient script, is Elphinore. 

Wyrm is derived from the Old English word “wyrm,” which means serpent or worm. It is often used to describe dragons that are more snake-like in appearance, with long, slender bodies and no wings. These dragons are typically associated with European mythology and are often depicted as evil or malevolent creatures. On the other hand, dragon is a more general term that can refer to any type of dragon from any culture. Dragons can vary greatly in appearance and abilities depending on the culture they come from. In Western cultures, dragons are typically depicted as large, winged creatures with scales and the ability to breathe fire. In Eastern cultures, dragons are often seen as benevolent creatures that bring good luck and fortune.

Here are some text quotes which might help you understand the plot:

"Except there was one dog left behind. The young elegant elf-hound with the sharp eye."

"She ran through the spruce woods and pine woods and a stand of maples. She ran to the bottom of the mountain. It was almost night when she got there. She sniffed at the ground, following the scent of her brothers and sisters. She smelled the horses of the Royal Hunt. Their track led right up to a huge cliff face. Then it stopped. But wasn't that where they had come out? Hadn't they all tumbled out into the sunlight in exactly this spot? But now time and magic and the curtain between worlds had shifted, and the door was not there anymore."

Clay is stuck at home because all of the world has shut down. (Covid is not mentioned but readers will link the fear, isolation, and home schooling to these times). Clay is allowed to wander in the forest area near his home and that is where he finds this glorious dog. Little does he know she will lead him to another world.

Clay stumbles on a village filled with strange people. He watches them using a strange powder and it seems to make their vegetable garden grow before his very eyes. Without thinking Clay steals the container and he takes the magic powder home but of course there are consequences.

"They were dressed in old-fashioned clothes, as if it were still 1800; long brown coats and wide black hats. one of the men started to turn his head. He did not stop turning his head. His head turned all the way around on his neck. A face was looking backward toward Clay. It was the face of a huge owl. The eyes were metallic like gold foil."

A young member of this strange community follows Clay and explains he must return the magic shaker. His name is Amos. Now the adventures can begin.

"Elphinore led them to places they had never seen before; seas of ferns and boulders in pure white marble. She bought them to a clock growing out of a tree, still ticking, but keeping the wrong time. She led them to a waterfall deep in the forest, where the river tumbled down a hillside and split into two - one part flowing toward the sea, and the other fell into a deep back hole, down into the world below the mountain."

I have one question for MT Anderson: Why did you name Clay's sister DiRossi?

Spoiler alert - I love the scene on page 154-155 and the way it links to the magical ending. 

"Nobody mentioned to Clay that they'd actually thrown Elphinore's old collar into the trash. A couple of days later, Clay's mom took the trash to the dump. No one in the family noticed."

I also loved the relationship that forms between DiRossi and the once sleeping pessimistic giant. I highly recommend Elf Dog and Owl Head. It would be a wonderful book to read aloud to a Grade 3 or 4 group or each night with your family. After reading this book you will want to keep your eyes open incase you  also find a wonderful dog like Elphinore.

Publisher blurb: Clay has had his fill of home life. A global plague has brought the world to a screeching halt, and with little to look forward to but a summer of video-calling friends, vying with annoying sisters for the family computer, and tuning out his parents' financial worries, he's only too happy to retreat to the woods. From the moment the elegant little dog with the ornate collar appears like an apparition among the trees, Clay sees something uncanny in her. With this mysterious Elphinore as guide, he'll glimpse ancient secrets folded all but invisibly into the forest. Each day the dog leads Clay down paths he never knew existed, deeper into the unknown. But they aren't alone in their surreal adventures. There are traps and terrors in the woods, too, and if Clay isn't careful, he might stray off the path and lose his way forever.

A hilarious, heartfelt triumph. Kirkus Star review

Elf Dog and Owl Head is a sly novel, told in a droll, wry cadence that conceals the increasingly fantastic nature of the story. Just as Clay begins to slowly realize the extent of the hidden worlds around him, so does the reader begin to understand the depth of the story being told. Book Page

It is a really good story, with the real world and the fantasy balanced beautifully.  The characters and relationships are rock solidly constructed, and the places appeared in glorious technicolor, as it were, in my mind's eye.  I especially was pleased, in one memorable scene of a nighttime magical revelry, to be reminded of my favorite bit of Moominland Midwinter, which doesn't often happen; probably not the author's intention, but it made me happy. Charlotte's Library

Clay and his family are complex, engaging characters whose love-hate-mostly-love relationships will feel familiar to many readers still remembering the frustrations of lock-down and learning from home. Although the story draws on familiar fantasy elements, such as the wild hunt and the wicked dragon, many of the fantastical elements of the story feel fresh and new – especially the severe Owl Heads and their magic gardens. The Children's Book Review

MT Andersen talks to SLJ and Betsy Bird about the real dog and forest wilderness that inspired him to write this story during Covid. 

A veritable plum pudding of energetic action and witty delights, but a -foundation of traditional folklore elements—standing stones, half-buried sleeping giants, fairy mischief, portals to the underworld, the Wild Hunt, and predatory wyrms—creates an underlying hint of genuine menace. Balancing this chill is the devoted relationship between Clay and his dog companion, a theme that stands sturdily in the middle of the mayhem. Black-and-white full-page pencil illustrations contribute to both coziness and eeriness. The Horn Book

Here is a discussion guide to use with this book.

Listen to a four minute audio book sample.

John Newbery Award 2024 - WINNER Eyes and the Impossible. 

Honour books:

• Eagle Drums written and illustrated by Nasuġraq Rainey Hopson
• Elf Dog and Owl Head written by M.T. Anderson, illustrated by Junyi Wu
• MexiKid: A Graphic Memoir written by Pedro Martín 
• Simon Sort of Says written by Erin Bow
• The Many Assassinations of Samir, The Seller of Dreams written by Daniel Nayeri, illustrated by Daniel Miyares

Impossible Creatures by Katherine Rundell

In this book you will meet - beautiful Al-mirajes; Dragons of every size; a Kanko; a vicious Karkadann; some little Lavellans; a huge Longma; a very special Ratatoska; a herd of Unicorns and many others.

Publisher blurb: Impossible Creatures tells the story of a boy called Christopher who is visiting his reclusive grandfather when he witnesses an avalanche of mythic creatures come tearing down the hill. This is how Christopher learns that his grandfather is the guardian of one of the ways between the non-magical world and a place called the Archipelago: a cluster of magical islands, where all the creatures we tell of in myth live and breed and thrive alongside humans. They have been protected for thousands of years from being discovered; now, terrifyingly, the protection has worn thin, and creatures are breaking through.  Then a girl, Mal, appears in Christopher’s world. She is in possession of a flying coat, is being pursued by a killer, and is herself in pursuit of a baby griffin. Mal, Christopher and the griffin embark on an urgent quest across the wild splendor of the Archipelago, where sphinxes hold secrets and centaurs do murder, to find the truth – with unimaginable consequences for both their worlds. Together the two must face the problem of power, and of knowledge, and of what love demands of us.

As I read this book I added about 40 post-it notes marking my favourite scenes and sentences.  Here are some of them:

"This world has always had magic in it, Christopher. Aren't you holding a griffin in your arms? The magic grew with the Earth's first tree, from the tree it flowed into the soil, into the air and the water. In the Archipelago, they call it the glimourie."

"Some sentences have the power to change everything. There are the usual suspects: I love you, .... But the words with the greatest power to create both havoc and marvels are these - I need your help."

"He knew that sometimes, if you are among the very lucky, a spark of understanding cuts like lightning across the space between two people. It's a defibrillator for the heart. And it toughens you. It nourishes you."

Thank you, Katherine Rundell for mentioning delicious and essential food - this is something I always look for in longer complex books like this one.

"She spent hours running through trees with Gelifen (a griffin), looking for unicorns and gorging on waterberries."

"There was a wall of blue glass jars, containing sweets from across the Archipelago. There were balls of soft gum, harvested from the sea by sylphs, which gave you brief bursts of great physical strength, but if you chewed too long gave you a rash of scales across your hands. There were ruinously expensive candies called voulay-drops, made my centaurs in the mountains of Edem. They tasted of that which craved most, but also, if you ate more than one, made you vomit something black for days afterwards."

"The table was laden with food. There was a beautiful moist nut cake, and fresh cinnamon twists, and a plate of biscuits still hot from the own.  Leonor was grey-haired, untalkative, unsmiling - but she showed her care in her cooking. She was the finest baker in the whole of Icthus: it was there that she put her patience, and her love."

"His grandfather had said that unicorns had a taste for mint. Quickly he tore open the pack and held them out in one hand. The unicorn dipped its mouth and sucked them from his palm, leaving it wet with unicorn spit. Then it touched its muzzle to his face, and breathed. Christopher felt the warmth on his skin and it smelt of mint and animal and something magnificently wild ..."

"There was a dark flat bread, which they ate dipped in olive oil. There was a slab of cream-coloured dried fish, delicious and so salty it was like eating the sea itself."

"He had been given a woven bag of apples, of plums and pears and apricot: dryad fruit, like nothing else on earth. They tasted still-living fruits with opinions and jokes and laughter in them."

Overtones of folklore; mythology; fairytales; and CS Lewis (the final scenes are sure to make you think of Aslan and Narnia):

"It had been years now since Mal had first learned to fly. a travelling seer had given her the flying coat soon after she was born. He had named her and laid the coat at her small feet." I thought of Sleeping Beauty.

Vocab: phalanx of swans; rhinocerosed; gainsay; scrofulous. And there are lots of invented words too. 

Names are important in this book too (think of A Wizard of Earthsea). Mal is short for Malum - and malum has a deep meaning - one that Mal herself has yet to discover. 

There is also a tiny thread of a love story in Impossible Creatures. I am not going to spoil this with any details, but adult readers might think of scenes from a favourite movie where the two main characters briefly glance at one another and then look away or brush hands and it's electric - these tiny moments were thrilling for a romantic reader like me. 

The Guardian's Bestiary at the start of this book has art by Tomislav Tomić. He is from Croatia. The cover is by Daniel Egnéus. (I have talked here about two of his books - Fox and Raven Child. In the UK the hardcover edition has phoenix sprayed on the page edges - it looks so magical.

Image source: Instagram

One of my favourite parts of writing Impossible Creatures was creating a bestiary to go in the front of the book: a collection of twenty-one of the creatures you might meet in the Archipelago. It’s illustrated by Tomislav Tomic, whose artwork is magnificent - 

kluddes and kankos and karkadanns, longmas and lavellans. 

I am not a big fan of endorsements, but this book has a huge list of celebrity praises - Michael Morpurgo; Catherine Doyle; Philip Pullman; Neil Gaiman; Jacqueline Wilson; and Kiran Millwood Hargrave. 

Everyone on social media is so excited about this new Katherine Rundell book - and justly so. I have seen bookshop window displays here in Australia (Three Sparrows) and in UK (my bookish friend has shared them) and the Australian children's book podcast Your Kids' Next Read included an interview with Katherine Rundell [begin at 16.45]- this is quite amazing because this group (Facebook and Podcasts) are usually, almost exclusively, focused on Australian books. I was also amazed that that interviewer had not previously read any of Katherine's books - how did she miss them and why didn't she prepare for the interview?  Anyway, if you listen you can hear Katherine Rundell's absolutely beautiful, lyrical speaking voice. 

I completely agree with these review comments by Just So Stories: I cannot tell you how much I love this (book), and that will be demonstrated by the fact that I will be keeping my copy and will re-read it, more than once I suspect. Though I read it immediately it was received, in swift binge fashion (and cried), it has taken me two weeks to compose this review – which I fear still does not do it justice.

I also agree this book is best for mature readers aged 11 or 12+. 

Here is Katherine Rundell on Instagram. Here is a one hour video where Katherine talks with Michael Morpurgo about her book. I do need to warn you, I just read on the UK publisher site (Bloomsbury) that Impossible Creatures is the first book in a trilogy. The good news is that at the end of the first book we are not left hanging. Yes, another book will be very welcome but enough is resolved at the end of the first installment thank goodness. Listen to this short introduction by Katherine Rundell. 

Writing fantasy has been a huge joy. Impossible Creatures has been a long time in the making – I pitched the idea more than five years ago, and I’ve found it a magnificent challenge. I loved fantasy as a child, and I love it now as a writer – for the freedom it gives to wholly unleash your imagination. Fantasy seems to me one of the most exciting ways to wield metaphor: so that, in writing about griffins and dragons and horned hares and immortality and flying coats, you might offer children (who have such allegiance with the fantastic, in every sense) a way to fathom their own world. Katherine Rundell

I have read and LOVED so many books by Katherine Rundell and the delicious thing about her writing is that it defies categorization. She covers so many genres and themes but the one thing that links these books is that they are all page turners and for me, they are all FIVE star titles.

The Explorer

The Good Thieves

Wolf Wilder

Cartwheeling in Thunderstorms

I also loved these:

One Christmas Wish

Why you should read children's books

All through this book I kept thinking about this book illustrated by our Australian Hans Christian Andersen winner - Robert Ingpen and I have discovered he has a new book about mythical creatures too.

Companion reads:

Knight Owl by Christopher Denise

 

"I am Owl, and I am a knight of the Night Watch."

From a tiny hatchling Owl knows he is destined to be a knight. His dreams are filled with heroic scenes - slaying and capturing enormous dragons. His parents are not sure this is a good idea, but something is going on the kingdom. There are reports in the local newspaper 'The Olden Times' that record numbers of knights have gone missing. 

Things are so desperate that the castle has a poster proclaiming:

Knighthood in just 2 weeks. Apply today!!! Live a life on honour and ADVENTURE!

So young Owl applies to attend Knight school and yes - he is accepted. Some of the equipment is a bit of a challenge but he graduates with honours and is allocated night duty - Knight Night Watch. Other knights fall asleep, but night is the perfect time for young Owl. Then one evening he hears a whoosh. An enormous dragon lands on the castle battlement. The dragon threatens to eat the little owl, but Owl is brave and wise (as all owls are). He shows the dragon his pizza box and 

"it turned out that dragon loved pizza. They talked about how each of them had hatched from eggs, how much they liked the night, and how flying was hard to explain to someone who had never down it before. They really had a lot in common."

Oh, and bonus - now the issue of disappearing knights is solved. And our little hero has heaps of new friends especially friends who love the nighttime.

I have read this book many times and each time I make new discoveries. Once you first read Knight Owl you need to go back and explore all the extra details in the illustrations such as newspapers, posters, book spines, and even a pizza box!

Knight Owl was a Caldecott Honour book in 2023 and winner of the 2022 Cybils award. 

At its heart, the Cybils Awards is a group of readers passionate about seeking out and recognizing books that portray diversity, inclusion, and appropriate representation for children and teens. To accomplish that goal, the Cybils Awards works to recognize books written for children and young adults that combine both the highest literary merit and popular appeal.

Here is a fascinating interview between Christopher Denise and Betsy Bird. And here is Christopher Denise's web page.

A charming blend of whimsy and medieval heroism highlighting the triumph of brains over brawn. Kirkus

2024 is the Year of the Dragon - this book will be a perfect one to share in classrooms and libraries. There are thousands of picture books which feature dragons but pop this one onto the top of your pile. 

This is not an egg by Philip Bunting

Image source: Philip Bunting

There is a joyful and playful energy in this book. The narrative arc is perfect. We hum along to the beat of “this is not an egg” with more and more hilarious suggestions culminating in the decorated egg from Mexico and then boom! we turn the page and our bilby hero meets another bilby who wants to join in with this fabulous game of imagination and now the two can play with their Bilbot. 

Readers then enjoy two pages of night time robotic fun and until the authors wack in another boom! moment. The egg belongs to an emu. Of course, the reader sighs. That makes perfect sense. Or does it. I can hear the youngest children squealing with delight over the twist of the baby emu-dragon.  

This book has perfect end papers, a very engaging text, expressive digital illustrations and full-page spreads interspersed with four frame pages all created with a consistent and pleasing colour palette.

Here are the end papers:

This book will be a favourite with young children and it will be loved by schools at Easter who look for books about bilbies and eggs. The intertextual references are perfect but the Buntings have been restrained and not overloaded the text with too many of these. I was also interested to see the full stop used with the title - I wonder why they included this?

I love the way the colloquial dialogue is presented using different colours of text. I can imagine reading this book aloud with a group of readers taking different parts. (Readers theatre). I also appreciate the way the background changes in each illustration. 

The Philip Bunting book Wombat was our IBBY Australia 2022 honour book:

The IBBY Honour List is a biennial selection of outstanding, recently published books, honouring writers, illustrators and translators from IBBY member countries. The IBBY Honour List is one of the most widespread and effective ways of furthering IBBY's objective of encouraging international understanding through children's literature.

The titles are selected by the National Sections which can nominate one book for each of the three categories. For a country with a substantial and continuing production of children's books in more than one language, one book may be submitted for writing and translation in each official language.

Important considerations in selecting the Honour List titles are that the books are representative of the best in children's literature from the country and that the books are suitable for publication throughout the world. The selection provides insight into the diverse cultural, political and social settings in which children live and grow and it can be used by all those involved with developing educational and literacy programmes and publishing initiatives to develop exemplary “international” collections.

Here is an interview with Philip Bunting about his work - with Joy Lawn.