The Imaginary Veterinary 5 – The Griffin’s Riddle

Suzanne Selfors's The Griffin's Riddle is the fifth Imaginary Veterinary book, a funny fantasy for 7 year olds about a sneezing dragon, a town full of puffed-up faces and one very important feather.

What happens

Ben Silverstein is spending the summer with Grandpa Abe in Buttonville. He and his friend Pearl are apprentices at Dr Woo's Worm Hospital, which doesn't actually look after worms. Behind the walls of the old button factory there's a dragon, a sasquatch and a Portal to the Imaginary World.

Now there's a bug going round. Troll Tonsillitis makes your face and neck swell up like a balloon, and it's spreading through town at top speed. Dr Woo has it. So does the sasquatch, and so does Metalmouth the dragon, who really doesn't want any medicine.

The only cure is a ground-up griffin feather, and there isn't a single one in the hospital. So Ben and Pearl have to put on their fanciest clothes and go and ask a griffin for one. Griffins only hand over feathers to someone who makes them happy, and what makes a griffin happy is a riddle contest.

There's so much to giggle at. Metalmouth plays fetch with a tennis ball and sneezes so hard he nearly knocks the kids over. Nosy Mrs Mulberry is desperate to get inside the hospital, and her daughter Victoria actually manages it. Pearl asks about a hundred questions a minute. And luckily for Ben and Pearl, neither of them has any tonsils left!

Something to be aware of. Right at the start Ben is feeling sad, because he's just found out that when he goes home his dad will be living in a different house. Grandpa Abe is lovely about it, with a hug and a big bowl of matzo ball soup, and it's handled very gently.

If your family is going through something similar, it might be a nice way to start a chat. If it's too close to home right now, have a quick look at the first chapter yourself first.

For a child who loves animals, magic and a bit of gross-out humour (dragon snot, anyone?), it's a treat.

What to read next

If they're after more of Ben, Pearl and the hospital, The Rain Dragon Rescue is the earliest of these adventures in the library. It starts with a scaly black arm reaching through Grandpa Abe's kitchen window in the middle of the night.