| Title | : | Dealing with Dragons (Enchanted Forest Chronicles, #1) |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 015204566X |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780152045661 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 212 |
| Publication | : | First published September 18, 1990 |
| Awards | : | California Young Readers Medal Middle School/Junior High (1993), Minnesota Book Award Fantasy & Science Fiction (1991) |
Cover illustrator: Peter de Sève
Dealing with Dragons (Enchanted Forest Chronicles, #1) Reviews
-
"He doesn't seem very impressed," Cimorene commented in some amusement.
Before Harry Potter, there was Princess Cimorene, a dragon named Kazul, and the Enchanted Forest. I am no longer a 11-year old girl. I am a grown-ass woman, and I still love this book as much as I did the first time I read it.
"Why should he be?" Kazul said.
"Well, you're a dragon," Cimorene answered, a little taken aback.
"What difference does that make to a cat?"
Share this book with your sisters, your daughters, your nieces. This is a wonderful book for a young girl, it sends so many positive messages. You don't have to be what people want you to be. You do not have to fit into the mold. You can be brave, headstrong, smart, without being stubborn, without being mean. There is no romance. There is a Prince Charming who, frankly, bores the living crap out of our intrepid young Princess Cimorene. You do not need a Prince Charming to make your own Happily Ever After. You can be in charge of your own destiny.
This book grew with me through my childhood, and it remains with me as an adult. Some books I've read have made me think. Some books have made me cry. There is nothing so complex, so complicated about this little book; it just makes me happy.
Summary: Princess Cimorene is a princess of the very pleasant kingdom of Linderwall. It's pretty, it's quite ordinary. There isn't much magic, thankfully, not too many evil stepmothers or witches, not too many dragon abductions, etc.All in all, Linderwall was a very prosperous and pleasant place.
Her older sister are all lovely and ladylike, each more beautiful than the last. Cimorene is not. She's too tall. Her hair is frizzy and brown. She's stubborn (on a good day). And she just won't stop learning inappropriate things. Magical lessons. Fencing. Fighting. Latin. All lessons that her disgruntled parents abruptly put a stop to once they find out, cause it just ain't proper for a princess, yo. And her fairy godmother is as useful as brains on a Kardashian.
Cimorene hated it.
Cimorene puts up with it as best as she can, until the day her parents send her off to visit the very handsome, golden haired, blue-eyed, Ken doll of a Prince. Unfortunately, he's got nothing in between his ears, and when Cimorene finds out that her parents intend to make her MARRY the creature, well, that does it. She takes the advice of a magical frog, packs some useful and practical things, and runs away from home.
Unfortunately, or fortunately, as it may be, the audience that the frog sends her to seek happens to be dragons. Very curious ones. Who might want to eat her (but they'd rather not...humans are so stringy). Using her wits, Cimorene talks her way into being a dragon's princess. Kazul is the awesome dragon, who agrees to take her on. Contrary to popular beliefs, not every dragon wants a princess."It has to do with status. Dragons aren't required to have princesses, you see. Most of us don't. There are never enough to go around, and some of us prefer not to have to deal with the annoyances that come with them."
Fortunately, thanks to her education, she is as well-equipped to cataloguing draconian libraries as well as she is whipping up an excellent dessert (Cimorene specializes in making cherries jubilee).
"Knights," Cimorene guessed.
"Among other things," Kazul said, nodding. "So having a princess in residence has become a minor mark of high status among dragons."
"A minor mark?"
Kazul smiled. "I'm afraid so. It's the equivalent of, oh, serving expensive imported fruit at dinner. It's a nice way of showing everyone how rich you are, but you could make just as big an impression by having some of those fancy pastries with the smooth glazed icing and spun-sugar roses."
Instead of being princessy and spending her days embroidering and doing stupid shit like that, Cimorene now spends her days cleaning out the dragon treasure troves, cataloguing (and polishing) old dragon treasures (some of them magical!). Along the way, she has to deal with the constant stream of idiotic Knights and Princes who want to rescue her (does anyone bother asking Cimorene if she wants to be rescued? No.), entertaining some other fluffy-headed fellow princesses"I'm Cimorene," Cimorene said. "I don't need comforting, and I'm not particularly sad or sorry to be here, but if you'd like to come in and have some tea, you're welcome to."
...among whom she unexpectedly finds a good friend, and dealing with, among other things, a jinn, a killer bird, a witch with many cats (or more appropriately, cats and their witch), and some wascally wizards. There is magic. There is mystery. There is a potential threat to the dragons for whom Cimorene has come to care deeply.
The first two princesses looked as if they would have liked to be startled and appalled by this announcement but were much too well bred to show what they were feeling.
The Setting, the Plot, All That Good Stuff: This is a very short book, and there is not a single dull moment. There is not a lot of introspection, but there is an exceeding display of Cimorene's competency. She is a person of action, and she fills the book with her energy. The book is driven by Cimorene's initiative, and she is always on the move, be it finding a fire-proofing spell in an ancient spellbook, or outwitting some poor Prince Charming's misguided attempt to rescue her, to fooling some nefarious wizards who think she is a typical princess. The setting is magical, but it is not exceedingly detailed, just enough to build up the imagination.
The Main Character: Cimorene and her dragon are the stars of this book, and they make me love it. I recommended this book for young readers, and it is just so darned appropriate for an impressionable young woman. She is an awesome main character. She is book-smart, and she is not perfect. She is a librarian at heart, a researcher who relies on her skills in research and her thirst for knowledge rather than outright brilliance. Cimorene is relatable and reliable, smart, witty, absolutely pragmatic and practical without ever becoming bitchy and annoying in the least. And however resourceful Cimorene is, she knows when to call for help when she needs it.
Every young girl should have a copy of this book (and this series). -
The scholarly princcesses, the very sensible dragons and irritating princes... What else can a girl want?
Q:
There was a great deal of etiquette, from the proper way to curtsy before a visiting prince to how loudly it was permissible to scream when being carried off by a giant...
When she couldn't stand it any longer, she would go down to the castle armory and bully the armsmaster into giving her a fencing lesson.
Q:
"Well, I fence… So it is too done by a princess."
Q:
Nothing interesting seems to be proper…
Q:
And that was the end of the magic lessons.
The same thing happened over the Latin lessons from the court philosopher, the cooking lessons from the castle chef, the economics lessons from the court treasurer, and the juggling lessons from the court minstrel. (c)
Q:
Nowadays, all the princes are talking birds, or dogs, or hedgehogs. (c)
Q:
Nine times out of ten, talking is a way of avoiding doing
Q:
"Dragons are… are fond of princesses, aren't they?"
"Very," said the dragon, and smiled.
Q:
"Being a dragon's princess is a perfectly respectable thing to do, so my parents couldn't complain.
Q:
"Well, I'm not a proper princess, then," Cimorene snapped. "I make cherries jubilee, and I volunteer for dragons, and I conjugate Latin verbs-or at least I would if anyone would let me. So there!"
Q:
She had always been more interested in what the knights and dragons were supposed to say than in memorizing the places where she was supposed to scream.
Q:
"The fencing lessons were just the beginning," Cimorene assured him.
"So you see why I'm perfectly happy being a dragon's princess."
Q:
"But what does a dragon want with a crepe pan?"
Q:
There were two knights the following day, and four more the day after that.
On the fourth day there was only one, but he was exceptionally stubborn…
Q:
"Aren't you a little slow?" she asked irritably. "There've been eight knights here before you."
"Eight?" the prince said, frowning. "I thought by now there'd have been at least twelve. Perhaps I'd better come back later."
Q:
I didn't come here to argue… I came to meet the person who keeps borrowing my crepe pan. (c)
Q:
"I was going to say that it isn't wise to run away from your dragon… I believe it's done all the time." (c)
Q:
it was best to be polite to anyone as large and toothy as a dragon, even if he wasn't being at all polite to her.
Q:
… a flood a few years later. Some hero or other shoved a giant into a lake to drown him. The silly clunch didn't realize that if he put something that big into a lake, the water would have to go somewhere. (с)
Q:
"It's not that easy to get into the Enchanted Forest," she explained.
"At least, not if you're trying to get in. Princes and youngest sons and particularly clever tailors stumble into it by accident all the time… (c)
Q:
Very few things are willing to mess with a dragon, even in the dark. (c)
Q:
"Well, you're a dragon," ...
"What difference does that make to a cat?" (c)
Q:
"Will wonders never cease. For once a human with sense is getting the forfeit. Yes, you can take someone with you, as long as you're touching him. Same for objects; if you can carry it , you can take it with you. You get one trip per feather. That's all." (c)
Q:
She pored over the book all evening, and Cimorene found it fascinating to watch the dragon delicately turning pages with her claws. (c)
Q:
"You. Dragons. Us. That looks interesting. Can I help?" … Maybe opening jars would make him forget about You. Dragons. Us, for a while. (c)
Q:
"Do you suppose he means it?" ...
"Why would he keep bellowing it at us if he didn't mean it?" (c)
Q:
"What he is matters not," ... "It is enough that thou and he shall die."
"Enough for whom?" (c)
Q:
I never thought of that."
"Well, start thinking now," (с)
Q:
"But what do I do if someone comes in?"
"Duck into the banquet area… And if someone comes in there, too, curl up in the corner and pretend you're a rock." (c)
Q:
In her experience, someone in a good mood did not throw things at visitors. (c) -
Charming and cute. Nostalgia and a sale on the electronic boxed set brought this to my attention; while I have the paperback set, they get more and more challenging to both store and read. The first two books in the series were/are comfort reads from long ago, and Dealing with Dragons has successfully withstood the nostalgia test.
Language is young adult; it's clear and straight-forward with that occasional side-eye wink that makes it enjoyable to non-young adults as well. Cimorene of the Kingdom of Linderwall is a princess who is fed up with having her options limited (fencing, magic, philosophy, cooking and economics) because she's told that's just not proper. One day, she discovers her parents are in the process of arranging a marriage to a properly eligible prince, which sounds absolutely boring. So she takes advice from a frog--which is, in fact, perfectly acceptable in the fairy-tale world--and runs off to find a dragon. Kazul is a senior dragon, and she and Cimorene get along famously. Then the troubles begin.
Female-centric characters are center stage. It has a slower start as Cimorene gets her gumption, but eventually ramps up into a lot of conflicts both small and large, mostly according to acceptable fairy-tale standards. The villains are villainous and appropriately hateable, and Wrede follows acceptable gentle young-person standards in dealing with them.
What was a surprising bit of fun about this re-released edition is that Wrede writes a retrospective introduction. She writes, "This book was a tremendous amount of fun to write, because I liked Cimorene and her intensely practical approach to all the fairy-tale tropes I have always loved." She further elaborates that her family provided a number of similar women who "takes any guff from anyone. They aren't proving a point about what women could, should or can do; they are ignoring that whole question (which none of them considers a question worth asking at all) and getting on with doing the things that interest them most."
I've always loved Cimorene's practical and can-do attitude. She doesn't fuss; she reaches a roadblock and finds a way around. One can do worse. -
4.5/5 stars
This is my 4th time reading this. Still good. I did dock half a star down because second book is better than the first - still, the whole series are amazing, even if I am well out of reading age for these books I enjoy them immensely.
After I got finished with the book, my first thought was:
-why haven't they made a movie out of this yet?
And then I thought
-what if the casting is wrong, what if they don't follow the book, what if cgi is cheap?
Oh, the horrors! So now I am actually happy that they haven't, no need to ruin THE BEST MIDDLE GRADE FANTASY EVER! Can you tell that I am a fan?
To not make this review too long (as I would like to review the whole series on my blog sometime) I will just say that Cimorene is the best female character ever invented.
Girls, if you need a hero, look no further.
This book was first published in 1990 and since then there were many great female role models, but comparing to Cimorene, they all are trying a little too hard.
If you are looking for a great easy fantasy book that includes princesses, dragons and magic (without being cookie-cutter) look no further. Read this book, and then make your daughter read it. Because the world needs more Cimorenes.
My
WEBSITE
My
INSTAGRAM
My
WORDPRESS BLOG -
If you think you know what a princess story is, think again.
There's a magic to this series I haven't experienced since reading Harry Potter. It's one of the most playful books I've ever read, constantly making jokes out of well-known tropes and famous fairy tales. Plus it's a mystery in which the prime suspects are a dragon with bad wizard allergies and a prince made of stone. The entire universe is as quirky as the suspects and although there's some plot holes and a lot of things that seem to happen for no reason, like J.K. Rowling, Patricia C Wrede has the narrative authority to somehow pull it off.
But best of all is the main character, Cimorene. She's a princess that's had it with the pampered life and runs off to do some dirty work and be a servant to a dragon. And although princes try to rescue her left and right, she doesn't want to be a damsel in distress. She proves she's more than that when she unravels a mystery and saves the dragons from their conniving foes in the nick of time.
The way the author constantly plays with this theme of transcending societal expectations is freaking awesome. I think anyone who dreams big but is still a kid at heart would find this insanely enjoyable. I know I sure did. -
My daughter is but 9 months old and I already daydream about when I'll introduce her to this series.
5 stars. A formative book from my own childhood which deserves everybody's attention not only for featuring a strong young female lead but doing so in a wonderfully detailed reinvention of the typical fantasy setting. -
This is the first book of the Enchanted Forest Chronicles. My daughter read them when she was at the point where reading changes from being work to being fun. So it was one of the first "serious" books (> 100 pages and no pictures) that she read on her own for pleasure. First my wife read the series aloud to her. Then she read them all to herself. Then she read this book out loud to me.
The story is told from the point of view of Princess Cimorene. She's a curious, intelligent girl who hates the stereotyped role she's expected to play as a princess---she has to learn to needlepoint and dance, but isn't allowed to cook or fence or learn magic. Finally, she runs away and winds up getting captured by a dragon, Kazul. Unlike other captured princesses, who lament their situation and wait to be rescued by young knights they can then marry, Cimorene befriends her dragon and refuses to be rescued. The plot thickens when some oily wizards show up...
The character of Cimorene is engaging. She is spunky and has a sarcastic wit that makes my daughter laugh. I liked her almost from page one and was quickly sucked into the story. The plot has some interesting twists, but there is never a sense of real peril. From the beginning it's pretty clear who's good and who's bad, and that it will all work out in the end. These characteristics all appeal to my (then) 8 year old daughter. She also loves the humor and has adopted a similar style in some of her creative writing projects.
The writing is clearly targeted at younger (pre-teen) readers, but this is a fun story that many older readers will enjoy, too. -
A princess who does not want to be captured by dragons and rescued by princes.
Instead she works for a dragon and tells the would be rescuing princes to go away.
All the etiquette a young princess needs to know.
The King and Queen did the best they could. They hired the most superior tutors and governesses to teach Cimorene all the things a princess ought to know — dancing, embroidery, drawing, and etiquette. There was a great deal of etiquette, from the proper way to curtsy before a visiting prince to how loudly it was permissible to scream when being carried off by a giant.
The bleak employment prospects of a princess who does not want to marry an empty headed prince.
Her skills are;
The frog looked at her disapprovingly. "Can't you do anything?"
"I can curtsy," Cimorene said disgustedly. "I know seventeen different country dances, nine ways to agree with an ambassador from Cathay without actually promising him anything, and one hundred and forty-three embroidery stitches. And I can make cherries jubilee."
"Cherries jubilee?" asked the frog, and snapped at a passing fly.
"The castle chef taught me, before Father made him stop," Cimorene explained.
The frog munched briefly, then swallowed and said, "I suppose there's no help for it. You'll have to run away."
The jinn in the bottle
A black cloud of smoke poured out of the jar. As Cimorene and Therandil watched, it condensed into a dark-skinned giant wearing only a turban and a loin-cloth. He was more than twice as tall as Therandil, and the comers of his mouth were turned down in a stem frown.
"What is it?" whispered Therandil.
"Trouble," said Cimorene.
"Thou speakest truly, 0 Daughter of Wisdom,"said the giant in a booming voice that filled the cave. "For I am a jinn, who was imprisoned in that jar, and I am the instrument of thy death and that of thy paramour."
"My what?" Cimorene said, outraged.
"Thy lover," the jinn said uncomfortably. "The man who stands beside thee."
"I know what you meant," Cimorene said. "But he isn't my lover, or my fiance, or my boyfriend or anything, and I refuse to be killed with him."
"But Cimorene, you know perfectly well—" Therandil started.
"You hush," Cimorene said. "You've made enough of a mess already."
"If he is not thy paramour, nor any of those other things, then what is he?" the jinn asked suspiciously.
"A nuisance," Cimorene said succinctly.
"Cimorene, you're not being very kind," Therandil said.
"What he is matters not," the jinn said grandly after a moment's heavy thought. "It is enough that thou and he shall die."
"Enough for whom?" Cimorene said.
The jinn blinked at her. "For me. 'Tis my will that thou and he shall die by my hand. Thou hast but to choose the manner of thy death."
"Old age," Cimorene said promptly.
When you don't meet other people's expectations.
"The soothsayer took one look at me and said that I would grow up to do a great service for a king. I've been stuck with his blasted prophecy ever since."
"It doesn't sound so terrible to me," Cimorene said.
"It wasn't, at first," the stone prince admitted. "I had special tutors in all sorts of interesting things to prepare me for being of great service to a king. My father even sent me to a special school for people who're supposed to do special things.
"Did you do well?"
"I was the top of my class," the stone prince said with a flash of pride. His face fell again. "That's part of the problem."
"I don't understand," Cimorene said. "This way. And can you walk a little faster, please? I'm in a hurry."
"It's been three years since I graduated, and everyone's still waiting for me to do something spectacular," the stone prince said, lengthening his stride. "The rest of my dassmates are already making names for themselves. George started killing dragons right away, and Art went straight home and pulled some sort of magic sword out of a rock. Even the ones nobody expected to amount to much have done something. All Jack wanted to do was go back to his mother's farm and raise beans, and he ended up stealing a magic harp and killing a giant and all sorts of things. I'm the only one who hasn't succeeded."
A humorous tale with exciting scary bits that ends "Happily ever after - until the next adventure!"
Enjoy! -
I would place this book somewhere between The Ordinary Princess and the Harry Potter series in terms of complexity of plot, age appropriateness and the amount of fun I had reading it. I really enjoyed reading this book and likely would have given it 5 stars if I had read it at a younger age (say at the age of 8 years or so). As it is, after Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings, it's hard to give this book 5 stars. Having said that, this is a very interesting story of a Princess who detests traditional princessy stuff and decides to volunteer to work/cook/clean for a dragon. Throw in the requisite witches and wizards and an underlying conspiracy and you end up with this very enjoyable book. A great present for young girls (and boys).
August 2019: Just reread it. I was too stingy back in 2008 when I gave it 4 stars. It certainly deserves 5 stars I think so I'm changing my previous rating; the comparison to Harry Potter isn't really fair given the length of HP. -
[5.0 Stars] Re-Read 2016
I adore this book. I always will! It was one of my favorites series growing up and still is to this day! I implore you all to check it out! -
I picked up this book after seeing it featured in A Mighty Girl's excellent
list of kick-ass Princess books, and thought it might make a good Christmas gift for a fantasy-loving little sister.
Of course I had to read it first, the way you have to taste the cookie dough, to make sure it's just right. And of course, Little Sister caught me at it.
"What's that?"
"A book I'm reading."
She executes a perfect pre-teen exasperated sigh-and-eye-roll. "I KNOW it's a book. What's it about?"
I decide to test the waters. "It's about a princess who doesn't like being a princess--all she does is sit around wearing crowns and embroidering, and she thinks it's boring. So she runs away to live with a dragon. She has to trick the knights and princes who try to come rescue her, because they don't realize she doesn't need to be rescued."
Her eyes light up. "Cool." She pronounces it like the kids do these days, as if it were spelled "kewl."
And after finishing the book, I have to agree with that assessment. This is a snappy, fast-paced adventure, packed full of both action and wit, and humorously subverts fairy-tale tropes at every turn. The writing is crisp and clear, the story well-plotted and not too predictable (I guessed certain elements were going to be important later, but not exactly how they would come into play.)
The heroine is an absolute delight: a strong-minded, sensible person who Gets Things Done and doesn't give a fig whether it's the respectable thing for a Princess to do. I was reminded more than once of Terry Pratchett's Tiffany Aching (
The Wee Free Men (Discworld, #30)), another of my favorite fantasy Mighty Girls.
In fact, this book is full of great female characters--from Cimorene's fellow princess, to the neighboring witch who lends her soufflé dishes and spells, to the Dragon Kazul herself. I love the dragons' egalitarian take on government: either a male or female dragon can be chosen as Dragon King. (They have a Queen too, who also is chosen regardless of gender, but nobody cares to be Queen much.) Positions of authority (like the privilege of being a dragon at all, it seems) are chosen entirely on merit, not social status; and Kazul wisely extends that judgment-based-on-merit system to her Princess as well.
As the kids say, cool.
I could go on about all the other reasons this book is wonderful, but I believe I'll just finish my story, as it speaks pretty well for itself:
When I set the book down and left the room for a minute, I came back to find that Little Sister had hijacked my seat and belongings. She sat brazenly wearing my coat, my knit hat flopping over her ears--and her nose buried in my book. She'd already reached the second chapter. Her laughing protests at being ousted became sincere when I teasingly-but-firmly pried the book from her fingers.
"But I need to know what happens next!"
Sorry, Sis, you'll have to wait 'til Christmas.
** Update 12/26/14
She loved it.
Upon tearing open the wrapping and seeing it, Sis actually shouted "I LOVE this book!" (despite having only read the first chapter and a bit) and wanted to sit down and read it then and there.
I don't know where she gets it from. -
Read this way back in grade school. I also read
Calling on Dragons which also at my school's library, but I just learned that it wasn't a direct sequel and that there are other books in the series. I guess a re-read is destined for the future. -
hey is this book load-bearing walls because it HOLDS UP
http://www.frowl.org/worstbestsellers... -
This book was simply delightful, with enchanting characters of different kinds and lots of good witty humor, hinting to many classic fairy tales, but with twisted meanings. Here's a little example:
“The rest of my classmates are already making names for themselves. George started killing dragons right away, and Art went straight home and pulled some sort of magic sword out of a rock. Even the ones nobody expected to amount to much have done something. All Jack wanted to do was go back to his mother’s farm and raise beans, and he ended up stealing a magic harp and killing a giant and all sorts of things. I’m the only one who hasn’t succeeded.”
I think this book can be even more enjoyable for adults than for kids, I totally recommend it.“I didn’t ask what you’d said about it,” the frog snapped. “I asked what you’re going to do. Nine times out of ten, talking is a way of avoiding doing things.”
“I’d much rather have good teeth than have diamonds and roses drop out of my mouth whenever I said something,” Cimorene said. “Think how uncomfortable it would be if you accidentally talked in your sleep! You’d wake up rolling around on thorns and rocks.” -
“Well, I’m not a proper princess, then,” Cimorene snapped. “I make cherries jubilee, and I volunteer for dragons, and I conjugate Latin verbs—or at least I would if anyone would let me. So there!”
So What's It About?
Cimorene is an exceedingly improper princess, always asking inconvenient questions and sneaking off to learn new skills. When she realizes that her parents will be forcing her to marry a boring prince, she takes matters into her own hands and runs away. She volunteers to be a dragon's princess, and soon falls into a fulfilling new life of systematizing her dragon's magical treasures and library. But trouble is stirring amongst the wizards of the land, and Cimorene's new life proves to be more exciting than she could ever have expected.
What I Thought
Nothing makes me happier than a children’s book that is clearly written with deep regard for young people’s intelligence, imagination and humor. Dealing with Dragons is one such book- it knows that its readers are clever enough to pick up on the way it plays with tired fairy tale tropes, and it argues enthusiastically and joyously that they deserve better. It’s a book that is positively suffused with charm and humor in every line, and it upends the aforementioned fairy tale tropes very cleverly:
‘“It started when the wicked fairy came to my christening.”
“She put a curse on you?”
“No. She ate cake and ice cream until she nearly burst and danced with my Uncle Arthur until two in the morning and had a wonderful time. So she went home without cursing me, and Aunt Ermintrude says that that’s where the whole problem started.”’
The returning theme with each upended fairy tale trope is that we limit ourselves to the suffocating roles that have been prescribed to us by society, and that the world is a complex place that inevitably demands more of us than stereotyped behavior. The question then becomes one of whether we are able to find it within ourselves to search for a more authentic and challenging way of being. Cimorene has an absolute knack for thinking outside the box, and every time she challenges the norm and presents the opportunity for a new way of existing, there is pushback from the people she is challenging:
‘“Improper?” Cimorene murmured.
“Twould be improper to do otherwise,” the jinn said, nodding.”’
She is constantly navigating these stereotypes, be it encouraging a fellow princess to stand up for herself, convincing a bothersome prince to leave her alone or stopping a jinn from laying a curse on her. Dealing with Dragons makes it clear that it can be scary and difficult to exist outside of the way that you have been told to, but it is a much richer and fulfilling way of living once you push through the initial discomfort. The fact that it delivers such an important message to young readers while also weaving a delightful tale about shady wizards, curmudgeonly dragons and quick-thinking princesses makes it all the better.
In addition to the general theme of challenging the normative roles that we’ve been assigned, there are a few other points that I want to make about the book’s take on feminism. Interestingly, the dragons appear to select what sex they want to be as opposed to being assigned one based on biological characteristics as a baby:
“The last dragon was apparently still too young to have made up its mind which sex it wanted to be; it didn’t have any horns at all.”
In addition, any dragon can be made King of dragons irrespective of their gender, which offers a stark contrast to what Cimorene is used to:
“‘King’ is the name of the job. It doesn’t matter who holds it.”
Cimorene stopped and thought for a moment. “You mean that dragons don’t care whether their king is male or female; the title is the same no matter who the ruler is.”’
I think Cimorene is a wonderful role model for young readers: she is extremely resourceful, intelligent and quick-thinking. She is also very emphatic in asserting her rights, articulating when she has been disrespected/bothered, and dismissing the unwanted attention of men. Especially with the wizards, she is constantly confronting sexist and patronizing expectations that attempt to place her at a disadvantage, and she often manipulates these expectations in order to actually gain the advantage. She surrounds herself with a group of wonderful and unconventional female characters who include a no-nonsense witch, her dragon Kazul and a fellow princess who is very timid in the beginning of the story but is eventually the one who discovers how to defeat the wizards. -
Carol.s review, nearby, is the best one here:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Sale (sadly) is over. Thanks again, Carol -- and for many other fine reviews, too.
"Don't judge a book by its cover"! The library copy in front of me, the HMH 2015 reprint, has AMAZINGLY sappy cover art: a big-headed, busty princess and a sappy-looking dragon with long eyelashes! Plus, the library classes it as a "juvenile." So I was left wondering why I had ordered the thing.....
Anyway, I loved it, especially the start! I was struck by the similarity to Jack Vance's "Madouc," which I had just reread, another tale of a Princess who wouldn't behave. Lots of chuckles at Princess Cimorene's (mild) adventures: volunteering as a dragon's maid, cook and librarian. You will find some cute quotes nearby. One of my favorite details was Cimorene's Enchanted Closet, that always offers just exactly what she wants to wear! Very handy.
I expect to come back and add a few more delicious details for my own amusement and memories. Highly recommended, and not just for kids! Strong 4 stars, maybe even 4.5. I'll definitely be reading the next in the series.
Author Wrede is a well known Minnesotan writer and F/SF fan. LM Bujold has publicly acknowledged Wrede's help with getting Bujold's first novel published. More details:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrici... -
This is a truly charming middle-grade/children's fantasy book which really captivated me, and which (even though I am 21 when first reading it) I loved. The story follows a very wilful, strong female Princess who doesn't like the silly troupes of being a Princess to which everyone else around her conforms. Princess Cimorene decides that she wants to learn to Fence, and when she's told this is un-lady-like and most definitely un-princess-like she decides to try something else equally as un-princess-like. As her parents chide her and she rebels, she soon realises that living in harmony with them isn't going to be possible much longer so she runs away and finds some Dragons to live with...
What I love about this is that it definitely subverts many of the naive, silly Princess troupes we see a lot of in fantasy. The main character of this book is a role model for young girls, not someone waiting for her Prince to come save her, but someone who goes out and gets what she needs/wants for herself and along the way makes herself not only useful, but invaluable to those around her.
Cimorene and her Dragon have a lovely relationship, and as the book goes on we see Cimorene develop as a character and an adventurer. The story is certainly one where I feel like many young girls would love to read it, and would be inspired and excited by the heroine they met.
Overall, this is a light, quick but very wonderful read and it's the start to a series I certainly want to carry on with very soon. I am very grateful that
Giselle recommended it to me, and I can't wait to see how the series shapes up in future. 4*s overall. -
I found this book at the library and I was so excited because I read it a couple of times when I was younger, in 4th or 5th grade I think. So it's a kid's book but it is so much fun. Great fantasy and tons of humor. You can't help but laugh, at least I couldn't! Funny story related to this book. Back when I first read this, when I was younger, like I said, I had a friend my age who also read it. Well, she and I happened to have some little plastic toy dragons and wizards and we'd use them to act out this book. We gave them all the right names and our biggest dragon was Kazul. I believe we had to improvise on the princesses... we might have used a Barbie doll for Cimorene... but it was such a kick. Great book! I'll have to try and track down the rest of the series!
-
I should have read this years ago.
Cimorene is a rebellious princess, which I sometimes have misgivings, but given that she was an early-comer to the genre and that she doesn't reject her feminity and is rebelling more against boredom than against anything else, I really can't fault her.
The world is amazing, and as a fairy tale enthusiast, I loved all of the references. I have accepted it wholeheartedly as a Bookania story. (Which, for the record, just means that it's a lovely fairy-tale world.)
Now I need to chase down the next book in the series. -
Bloody close to perfect and great for all ages. Chefs kiss
-
Reading this book felt less like fun and more like dealing with DEALING WITH DRAGONS. If there's one thing middle grade fiction should not feel like, it's a chore. But Wrede's solution for her princess, Cimorene, who tired of her humdrum princess life of doing--what, effeminate activities, I guess?--was to start cooking and cleaning up for a dragon with the same sorts of self-serving, ironical mindsets as her own.
The text follows the adventures of a young princess, Cimorene, yet the style clunks along, heavy with old expressions and cliches like, "will wonders never cease," uttered by a dying character in admiration of the protagonist's wit. The book reads just exactly as though the narrator and every single character were your middle-aged aunt saying and thinking and doing how she thinks a heady sixteen year old and her friends would.
Wrede's attempts at unraveling moral dilemmas in the text were illogical or, worse, questionable. On page 110, for example, the dragon Kazul (a protagonist) encourages Cimorene to absolve herself of guilt for having just killed a vicious bird, saying "it would have fed you to its nestlings." She loses sympathy for the animal she killed, but asks if the nestlings will starve, to which Kazul explains that other birds will feed them until they are large enough to catch their own food. The empathy extension in this scene is strange. This conversation results from a brew of competing moralities that produce literature only superficially logical. Below the surface, if the reader were to peek there, it would be impossible to tell where Wrede, Kazul, or Cimorene stands morally on the birds, killing them, killing magical animals that raise young communally and those that don't, or killing magical animals in general.
"Well I'm going to ask Kazul about it when I get back..." p155. This story claims that it is the story of Cimorene striking out and winning her independence. But really, she just trades in a King ordering her around for a dragon doing it. Kazul tells her what to do through the whole book, and indeed, Cimorene's big reward for all her work throughout the book (including helping Kazul become King)--to continue being Kazul's servant! Oh, but Kazul says, "We'll give you a different title: King's Cook and Librarian" p204! I don't know how Cimorene contains her excitement.
I'm giving this book 2 stars instead of 1 because somewhere in this absurd mess, Wrede talks about doing what is suited for you. Apparently, she was trying to hammer home that Cimorene was suited to organizing, cleaning, and the gastric arts. I missed that point, but I did get the larger point that every princess deserves to know and grow their suited skills, and maybe even deserves a dragon (i.e. a fierce friend in some form) who will help them cultivate those skills.
Also, I think this book could be read and enjoyed by an actual nine-year-old, but I'm not sure I'd give it to one. Not when there are much better books in this genre, i.e. heady princesses take on their independence. I also have the urge to give grace to the book's era, which is my own, the 80's, and how hard this book tries to make space for girls in both the story and real worlds.
Rating - 2 stars
First reading
Finished July 2022
Recommended for children ages 9, 10 who are sophisticated enough to ask questions about what they are reading. I gave a copy to my niece. -
Es la segunda vez que leo este libro y me gustó tanto como la primera. Cimorene es mi tipo de princesa, literalmente de armas tomar y que no se queda suspirando por la llegada de un caballero (sino más bien renegando porque llegan).
Tratar con dragones es mucho más interesante que la vida de palacio.
Me gustaron todos los personajes, me encantaron los diálogos llenos de humor e ingenio y por supuesto la historia me pareció muy buena también. Ahora sí finalmente voy a seguir leyendo la continuación!
----
Opinión anterior:
Hacen falta más princesas como Cimorene. Además de que sea un libro divertidísimo, original, lleno de humor y bastante irreverente con los cuentos de hadas.
Basta de damicelas débiles que esperan ser rescatadas. Ella, harta de la aburridísima vida de palacio y clases de bordado, siguiendo el "consejo" de un sapo que habla, decide escaparse e irse a vivir con un grupo de dragones.
Cimorene no es sumisa, ni recatada... ni rubia. Es la única de todas sus hermanas con cabello negro, y en lugar de atender obedientemente a las clases de bordado, baile y protocolo, se las fue ingeniando (por un tiempito, hasta que la descubrían) para tomar clases de esgrima, magia, latín y repostería. Todo lo que a Cimorene le gusta es considerado altamente impropio, expresión que se verá muchísimo y que me hizo reir cada vez que alguna otra princesa la decía.
Pese a lo que creí en un principio, hay bastante más argumento de lo que se puede suponer. Lo cierto es que el que Cimorene se vaya a a vivir con los dragones es sólo el comienzo. Las verdaderas aventuras comienzan una vez que se vuelve oficialmente la princesa de la dragona Kazul (que es genial y por momentos bastante maternal) y tiene que lidiar con los problemas cotidianos de la vida de los dragones, su amistad con una bruja y los caballeros que insisten en querer rescatarla aunque ella pidió muy claro que la dejen en paz.
El mundo se rige por las leyes y razonamientos de los cuentos de hadas, así que se encuentran muchos elementos conocidos. Pero lo genial es que lo que para otras princesas es un asunto absolutamente serio, la muy práctica Cimorene se lo toma con total ligereza... como por ejemplo convocar a su hada madrina. Ella como protagonista es genial, además de ingeniosa y muy inteligente, no deja que nada la desaliente y siempre se las arregla para tratar de resolver cuanto problema se presente.
Los diálogos son buenísimos, el texto en general tiene un tono muy inocente-simpático. Es una historia muy apta para chicos y para grandes, sabiendo que tiene estilo de cuentos de hadas.
Reseña de
Libros junto al mar -
YA comic fantasy. Cimorene is not a proper princess. She learns fencing, cooking and magic, and when she discovers her proposed marriage, she runs away to offer herself to a dragon. She's been told that they like to keep princesses, and she thinks that this is one princessly thing that she could possibly do.
This was charming, but light on substance. It may have been more original when it was written, but it feels derivative now. Also, I was annoyed that the only way that Cimorene could do anything awesome was to break out of the fairy tale role. Fairy tale maidens do awesome things all the time. They climb mountains of glass and fall down wells into alternate kingdoms and push witches into ovens and endure silence for seven years; they're not vapid creatures who do what's expected of them.
Basically, I enjoyed this book, but in a mild way. I'm currently sort of reading the sequel, but not in a very dedicated fashion. -
2004 or 2005
October 6, 2007
Currently reading aloud to the Possum - She's decided to carry on on her own in favor of me reading
The Mysterious Howling. Well, I can't blame her. That's also a good one.
July 20, 2014
I originally read this series out loud to the kids when they were wee. Going back, I didn't recall much except that we had all enjoyed them. Some of the things I had forgotten: that Cimorene had studied fencing and Latin and that she was unusually tall, all now true of the Possum. So I loved them then in a mild sort of way, but now that my kid is growing up into This kind of princess, I love them in a whole new way.
Personal copy. -
This is my second time or third time around with this book, I hadn't read it in years. The first time I read it I was a teenager and enjoyed and as an adult I love it just as much. It is a really fast read, I would highly recommend Dealing with Dragons to anyone who loves fantasy.
It has lots of adventure, lots of dragons and a sassy princess who takes her fate into her own hands. -
"Well, I'm not a proper princess, then," Cimorene snapped. "I make cherries jubilee, and I volunteer for dragons, and I conjugate Latin verbs-or at least I would if anyone would let me. So there!"
A princess who refuses to be proper and runs away to live with dragons? Sign me up! Combine this with turning fairy tale tropes on their head and a dash of humor and you have Dealing with Dragons, the first book in the Enchanted Forest Chronicles by Patricia C. Wrede. I wish I'd discovered this series as a kid. It would easily be a childhood favorite.
I never knew I wanted to be Cimorene when I grew up. She doesn't let society's expectations of what a princess should be get in the way of living the life she wants. Organizing her dragon's treasure, cooking and fencing are much preferable to being a damsel in distress to be rescued by knights. In fact Cimorene has to keep turning the knights away so she can stay a dragon's princess. They are such a nuisance! Cimorene is courageous, witty, a creative problem solver and learns how to work as a team to accomplish her goals. It's a great message.
Plot wise, there is a mystery to solve. As a story aimed at a middle-grade audience it's not overly complex though Wrede manages to add a couple twists that keep things from being too predictable. There is plenty of action, the story is fast paced and plenty of sly humor to go around.
There is something magical about Dealing with Dragons. It's one of those books that as soon as I finished I couldn't wait to read it again. I'm looking forward to the rest of the series. -
How will you describe a book which entertains you in every chapter?
Well, this will be my first review about that kind of book.
MY FEELINGS FOR THIS BOOK
Before Reading This Book:
I was unaware of dragons, wizards, witches, giants and jinns (I think I am still unaware of giants and jinns but not anymore after reading the whole series) So, it's obvious I didn't know how they look like Or what are their abilities?
After Reading This Book:
I thought "I chose to read books and I didn't even know any magical creature. What could be more worse than that?"
**Be Alert! Don't open any spoiler if you are looking forward to read this book OR you don't want any revelation!**
MAJOR CHARACTERS
Princess Cimorene
Bio:
--She is the princess of Linderwall (best kingdom in the story). She doesn't like any thing which can make her a perfect princess, I mean she doesn't want a life like princess. She likes the things which she finds interesting like: fencing, latin, magic etc.
My feelings:
--Even if I would use all the best adjectives, I couldn't be able to describe how much I liked this character. She was very different from every protagonist I have ever read. But in a good way.
I have one issue with this character:
Kazul
Bio:
--This character is a dragon.
My feelings:
--I liked this character almost as much as I liked Cimorene. I liked its name very much.
Zemenar
Bio:
--He is a wizard. He is also the head of Society Of Wizards and the antagonist of this book.
My feelings:
--WOW WOW WOW! I liked him but most importantly; I liked his dialogues. He is written as a very clever as well as an evil-minded wizard and I like clever + evil-minded characters in books.
Princess Alianora
--Bio
She is also a princess of some kingdom (I doesn't feel necessary to mention which kingdom because that doesn't matter for me. If you want to know just tell me I will mention that.) and a close friend of Cimorene.
--My feelings
She was very good for me to read. I liked her because of her hilarious + sad backgound story.
OVERVIEW
This book revolves around Cimorene. She doesn't want to marry a prince who her parents choose for her. One day, she meets a frog by chance [I have some issues with the frog (see Unsatisfied Things)]. The frog suggests her to escape from here to the new place. She meets dragons in the new place (Which is the place where only dragons live). In that place, Kazul volunteers Cimorene to do Kazul's works. As the time passes, They realize that wizards are trying to make trubble in the dragon's place. They find out and fix that trubble.
I am afraid I will not give you even a hint of the "trubble" because that is the main focus of the story.
THINGS I LIKED
The Story
I liked this very much. This was very interesting and gripping for me. I didn't feel any unnecessay elements which could make this book slow. This book has a very decent pace.
Characters
As I mentioned above: I adore them.
Writing Style & Dialogues = Awesome!
In short, I liked every thing of this book.
A RANDOM FACT I WANTED TO MENTION
When I was reading this book, I felt some references of stories which I heard in my childhood. I didn't feel they were same but I felt that there was something changed in every story reference. But in good and funny way. I liked that.
According to the facts I mentioned above, I would like to give:
***5 Wonderful Stars***
RECOMMENDATION
This book will be perfect for dragons and magic lovers. I highly recommend this book to children of age above 10.
I hope you like my review, if you don't then please point out my mistakes. I would be happy to see that!
Thanks for your attention! -
One word: Perfecto!
This was just splendid! I was enchanted from the very first paragraph, I ain’t even kidding. I found myself loving it more and more with every page. It was as lovely as Diana Wynne Jones’ Howl’s Moving Castle series which I’m very fond of. I’ll devour anything that has the word “Dragon” in it which is why I read it. This time I read the blurb but it doesn’t so much as give a hint as to how wonderful this book really is.
It’s set in a world filled with all sorts of fairytale elements; there are princesses, dragons, knights, wizards, dwarves, fairy godmothers, fairies, giants, jinns and many more. Excitingly enough, different stories and their characters are hinted at and we are told that they exist in the same world like King Arthur, Jack from Jack and the Beanstalk, Sleeping Beauty, etc. The references were so casual that I couldn’t help but be delighted. But these things aren’t the focal point of the story. As the name suggests, it has a lot to do with dragons. And wizards. And one particularly adorable princess.Princess Cimorene hates doing the proper things. She finds her usual princess routine with the boring etiquette lessons and embroidery lessons extremely off putting and loves doing things which her parents repeatedly deem inappropriate for a princess like fencing, learning magic, Latin and cooking. But she is strong-minded and knows what she wants. She simply doesn’t take no for an answer.
“The King and Queen did the best they could. They hired the most superior tutors and governesses to teach Cimorene all the things a princess ought to know— dancing, embroidery, drawing, and etiquette. There was a great deal of etiquette, from the proper way to curtsy before a visiting prince to how loudly it was permissible to scream when being carried off by a giant. Cimorene found it all very dull, but she pressed her lips together and learned it anyway. When she couldn’t stand it any longer, she would go down to the castle armory and bully the armsmaster into giving her a fencing lesson.”I don’t think I’ve ever loved a heroine as much as I loved Cimorene. I related with her desire to break conventions and do things she found exciting and respected and admired her for her cleverness, courage and confidence. She was a remarkable princess.
The plot was straight forward but brilliant and I found the whole thing rather amusing. Dragons in this world not only talk and read but they have a whole society of their own. There was nothing about the Enchanted Forest especially. There was no love interest.I took pleasure in every second of reading Dealing With Dragons and am more than happy to know that there are 3 more books in this series! HOORAY!!
-
I'm re-reading this fantastic series that I fell in love when I was a kid. It's a great story about a princess who thinks being a princess is incredibly boring. Etiquette and dancing lessons all day? She would much rather learn fencing or magic, thank you very much! But that just isn't done. So she runs away and volunteers to become a dragon's princess (A vocation which is usually only acquired when one is captured by a dragon).
This book has a great female protagonist, lots of humor, and puts a definite spin on traditional fairy tales.
