Enchanted Forest Chronicles 4 – Talking to Dragons

Patricia C. Wrede's Talking to Dragons is a funny fairy-tale adventure for 10 year olds about a very polite boy who's given a sword and packed off into an enchanted forest.

What happens

Daystar has grown up in a cottage right beside the Enchanted Forest. His mother has taught him reading, music, fighting, a little magic and, above all, manners. Always be polite to a dragon. Get the etiquette wrong and the dragon eats you.

Then a wizard bangs their door so hard it falls apart. Mother doesn't even stop stirring the stew. She points at him, he melts into a puddle of brown goo, and Daystar is told to clean it up and wash his hands before dinner.

The next morning she walks out of the forest carrying a sword. She buckles it on him and tells him to go. He's not to come home until he can explain why he had to leave. And that's about all she'll tell him!

So off he goes into a forest where the trees are enormous, the moss is thick and green and a tiny gold lizard falls over backwards when it sees what he's carrying. Everyone he meets seems to know more about Daystar than he does.

Then he finds Shiara, a red-haired fire-witch with a terrible temper. Her magic only works when she doesn't want it to. When she gets really cross, her hair actually bursts into flames.

Daystar tells the whole story himself, and he's lovely company. He's mild, sensible and very well brought up, and the forest keeps surprising him. His reactions are often the funniest part. When a hedge refuses to let Shiara out until she apologises to it, you can practically hear him sighing.

There's plenty of danger (a flood, a snake made of water, wolves prowling at night) but it's all told with a twinkle rather than a shudder. There's a very naughty baby dragon in the mix too.

If you've got a reader who likes their fairy tales turned slightly on their head, this is a real treat. It's full of wizards, princes and magic swords, yet the hero gets through mostly by saying please and thank you.

What to read next

If they want to meet Daystar's mother when she was young, go back to Dealing with Dragons. Cimorene is a princess who'd much rather learn fencing and magic than be proper, and she doesn't stay put for long.