Dealing with Dragons

I love to laugh, I love fantasy, I love dragons, and this book provides hilarity and dragons in rich measure. Patricia C. Wrede has a delightful way of twisting old tropes into something fresh and new.

Even better, she is a master of creating feisty female characters...the kind that I wanted my daughter and my students to read about. 

Cimorene, a princess disinclined to marry a numbskull prince, cuts her own path by seeking employment amongst the dragons. Naturally (naturally?) she is hired on the strength of her Latin and her skill at cooking cherries jubilee.

In this book and its sequel, Cimorene is proof that one can thwart any evil plan by the application of practical thinking, good manners, and a willingness to tell ballsy lies to nosy wizards. Now, isn’t that a world you’d like to live in? They were mainstays of my childhood (back when they had way cooler covers) and still bring me immense joy… show more.

Dealing with Dragons is so unexpected, I completely adored it! Though I love fantasy, I’m not usually a huge fan of dragons. (I know, I hope we can still be friends.)

This book changed my mind a bit.

How can I not love a princess who is bored out of her mind and gives herself up as a dragon slave to keep the princes from coming around, trying to marry her all the time? It’s just so adorable, I can’t even.

There were so many quirky moments similar to that. Wizards and soapy lemon water, dragon king as a title… show more.

Everyone knows the story – the princess is kidnapped by a dragon and a knight comes to rescue the princess. Cimorene is the princess of a king who is very traditional. The problem? She’s not. She has no interest in a Prince. So off she goes to find the dragons and be properly captured. I love how Wrede breaks the traditional mold in this trope. It shows girls/women can find their own way in a traditional world. This pushes the boundaries and teaches our kids they can break the boundaries too. 

As a kid, Dealing with Dragons was unquestionably one of my favorite books. It’s the first book I remember reading and knowing with absolute certainty that I wanted to be a writer when I grew up. There is so much to love: the delightfully twisted fairytale elements, the smart, independent, female characters, the humor, the dragons, and of course, Cherries Jubilee. The story of a princess who runs away to intentionally become a dragon’s princess captured my heart, but it was the incredible dynamic between the characters that brought me back again and again: the prickly dragon Kazul, the pragmatic,… show more.