Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher

Bruce Coville's Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher is a magical adventure for 10 year olds about a boy who spends a quarter in a strange shop and brings home something that hatches.

What happens

Jeremy is the best artist in his school and the shortest boy in his year. His art teacher, Mr Kravitz, can't stand him. So when a love note from Mary Lou Hutton turns up on his desk, Mr Kravitz reads it out to the whole class (poor Jeremy).

Running away from Mary Lou, and from two boys who want to hold him down for the kiss, Jeremy ends up on a foggy street he's never seen before. That's odd in a town he's lived in all his life. At the end of it is a magic shop with a grumpy old owner, an owl that turns out not to be stuffed and a glowing ball whose colours move on their own.

The old man tells Jeremy he doesn't want it. Then he sells it to him anyway, because it wants him.

One full moon and a little poem later, a tiny red dragon claws its way out on Jeremy's desk. The instruction sheet that came with it has rewritten itself by morning. Keep the dragon secret. Feed it chicken livers. And stay calm, because the dragon feels whatever Jeremy feels.

That last rule is where a lot of the fun comes in. The dragon talks in feelings rather than words, so when it's starving, Jeremy is suddenly starving too, in the middle of the library. When it eyes up his gerbils, he has to explain that pets aren't snacks. And his mum walks in while it's sitting on his shoulder and doesn't seem to see it at all!

Jeremy is lovely company. He's a bit cranky, easily embarrassed and SO caring about animals (his dad's a vet and his bedroom is lined with cages). You really feel how much he wants to get this right, even when the dragon nips him. Who wouldn't want a dragon the size of a grapefruit living on their desk?

Worth knowing before you hand it over

The teacher is openly unkind, the teasing doesn't let up and one of the boys is known as Freddy the Frog Killer. If you've got a reader who's ever felt small in class, they'll be firmly on Jeremy's side.

What to read next

If they love the shop, the same grumpy old man sells a very large toad called Bufo in Jennifer Murdley's Toad, to a girl who can't bear to look in a mirror.