My Selection — “The Dragon and her Boy”
A middle-grade novel by Penny Chimes
Upon discovering a dragon stuck in the tunnels under London, Stick is drawn into an adventure. It’s an adventure that collides with his past, placing Stick and the gutterlings children in grave danger.
The Dragon and her Boy is a middle-grade literary feast. The language is complex using Old English, slang, and the local dialect of the gutterlings children.
‘Beg pardon ma’am.’ Unlike Spud, Stick was well-accustomed to buttering up toffs, and it seemed like a good idea not to cause offense to a creature that was as touchy as a Lucifer match. ‘I can’t see you in all your glory, down here in the dark. I bet you are a real sight for sore eyes, if I could only cop a proper look at you.’
It was a shameless bit of flummery, but it seemed to work.
The complexity of the language makes this book a challenging read for all ages.
‘It’s another lummox what fell for His Nib’s bit of jiggery-pokery,’ Marm said airily. ‘He stopped sniveling when I told him it was a load of bumby.’
‘I weren’t sniveling!’ Stick bit back, but then he stopped. However irked he was by this little drabble, he really didn’t have time to argue.
Although there is some violence in this book, the descriptions do not linger and glorify it.
A pair of stocky manservants dragged five tightly bound bundles to the top of the stairs and tossed them down. The bundles bounced to the bottom. There was a sickening crack of bone on stone as the smallest one landed.
The sacks lay there wriggling like maggots — all but the little one which lay ominously still.
Along with the beautiful language, The Dragon and her Boy also introduce young readers to complex topics. The dragon is the last of her kind, and she has lived a long life. Despite her old age, she cannot stop her own heart from beating. Both the talk of suicide and the dragon’s death is written with sensitivity.
This is where it had all been leading, since those first words to him. ‘I have lived too long…’ she had said. ‘That is the greatest tragedy in life — you cannot make your own heart stop beating.’
Note: while this is the second book set in the gutterlings world, it can be read as a stand-alone novel.
In the back of the book, there is a glossary to help the reader decode the language used by the gutterling children.
Among my favorites are:
Allicholy — miserable and full of mulligrubs, with a face like a dying duck in a thunderstorm.
Clamjamfry — a right ruckus and noise and clomfliobstigation.
Flummergasted — same as confoozled and comflobstigated — when someone is well and truly confused.
Mizzle — when you has to scarper and skedaddle real fast.
Puckaterry — this is what the joskins call it when you gets into a pother and botheration.
I’d love to tell you more about the exquisite language used in The Dragon and her Boy, but I must mizzle. My pupachups are causing a clamjamfry, and I need to stop it before it turns into a complete puckaterry.
Sandi Parsons is an award-winning librarian, children’s author, and a 2020/2021 Book of the Year Award Judge for the Children’s Book Council of Australia (Early Childhood category).
