More often than I’d like to count, I’ll read a juvenile or
YA fantasy book that features a “less-than-perfect” hero or heroine (more often
the heroine), and by the book’s end, whatever it was that made them different
has been “fixed”. For example, in The
Girl of Fire and Thorns by Rae Carson, an overweight heroine becomes svelte
by the end of the story, and as such she is more qualified to succeed. And so it is with pleasure whenever I
discover a book wherein the main character has a flaw, and still has said flaw
in the final pages. One such book is
Merrie Haskell’s involving tale, Handbook for Dragon Slayers.
Princess Matilda, or simply Tilda, longs for a quiet,
monastic life where she can read and copy books, and one day write her own, in
peace. But being the heir to a small
principality, such peace is a luxury.
When a neighboring cousin takes Tilda’s mother hostage, and attempts to
do the same to Tilda (it doesn’t last), she sees this as a chance to give up her
responsibilities and the life she was born to, and run away. Having been born with a splayed foot which
has earned her the fear and revulsion of her people (some believe she had been
touched by the devil), Tilda believes Adder Brook will be better off without
its lame princess. Her friends, her
handmaiden Judith and squire-in-training Parz don’t know of Tilda’s plans to
disappear, and engage her in a distracting quest to slay a dragon and restore
Parz’s reputation. Tilda resolves to
write a book about slaying dragons, but along the way learns much more than she
bargained for.
Tilda’s foot is a handicap, one that often slows her down on
her journey. And though a sisterhood of
nuns treats her, her problem does not simply go away. I appreciated this about Haskell’s
writing. Tilda did have to undergo a
change, but one for her personality, an acceptance of her role in the
community, her responsibility to her home and her people. Tilda needed to learn that not all dragons
are evil and need destroying. In a
magical twist late in the story, Tilda learns intimately what it means to be a
dragon, and this knowledge changes her. This
is the kind of transformation that needed to occur for Tilda to become a hero,
not having her foot magically fixed.
Tilda’s attitude is informed by many things, her handicap
being just one influence. She feels
pressure from her role as princess of Adder Brook, and as such she has learned
to internalize her feelings. While those
around her (except those who know her best like Judith) might see a stuck-up
noble, Tilda herself feels as if she must keep a stiff upper lip, as it
were. Couple this with her splayed foot,
and Tilda is convinced that the people of Adder Brook despise her. “I could see people watching me, watching my
foot and the way I walked.” When Tilda learns
there are rumors swirling about her (“One servant, a girl named Roswitha, made
the sign against the evil eye as I passed.”), she tries to bury it deep inside,
and “pretend[s] not to see.”
Kirkus Reviews
calls Handbook for Dragon Slayers “A delightful middle-grade fantasy”
which “falters only in its excess of exuberance.” The review praises Tilda as a “splendid
heroine: Wry, intelligent, sensitive and stronger than she thinks.” Booklist
calls it an “accessible medieval fantasy” which “features three likable young
people, several imaginatively depicted magical animals, and a couple of
dastardly villains.” Handbook for
Dragon Slayers was the Schneider Family Book Award winner for middle school
in 2014.
Author Merrie Haskell has three times dipped her toe into
the rich riverbed of fairy tales for her stories. Her debut book, The Princess Curse and
her most recent title The Castle Behind Thorns (a retelling of “Sleeping
Beauty”) were both well received, the latter earning two starred reviews. Fans of Ms. Haskell’s writing could easily
transition into the works of Gail Carson Levine, which include the Newbery
honor book Ella Enchanted. Master
storyteller Jane Yolen also writes splendid fairy tale reimaginings such as Snow
in Summer and Curse of the Thirteenth Fey. For readers more interested in the masculine
side of the fairy story, Christopher Healy has written a charming and hilarious
series beginning with A Hero’s Guide to Saving Your Kingdom, which
features the male counterparts to famous female characters.
Haskell, Merrie. Handbook
for Dragon Slayers. New York:
Harper, 2013. ISBN: 9780062008169