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Review: Dragon Slippers by Jessica Day George

Book Review and Content, Fantasy, Middle Grade 8-12, , , , ,
Dragon Slippers by Jessica Day George

Dragon Slippers (Dragon Slippers #1)
Jessica Day George
Bloomsbury USA Children’s
Published February 1, 2011 (Orig. 2007)

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About Dragon Slippers

Creel, the heroine of Dragon Slippers is hardly a damsel-in-distress. After her aunt totes her out to the local dragon in desperation (with the hope that the local prince will rescue her from certain death and marry her), Creel refuses the haughty prince and finds friendship with the dragons, who set her on a journey to the center of the kingdom with a pretty pair of what only seem to be ordinary slippers.

Along the way we discover Creel’s enormous talent at embroidery, and you can’t help but linger over the rich descriptions of her lovely tapestry-like gowns, which quickly make her the most sought-after dressmaker in the kingdom. But soon enough those mysterious slippers begin to wreak havoc, and it’s up to Creel to save the kingdom from disaster and defend the dragons from certain doom.

Creel’s feisty spirit breathes fiery new life into this epic world at every turn, making this one of the most memorable and fun fantasy debuts to hit shelves since Cornelia Funke’s Inkheart.

My Review

I know I read this book before, but I have absolutely no memory of my previous reading. I remember that I liked it so much that I gave it to two people, but reading Dragon Slippers again was like reading it for the first time. This time, I still loved it. I have some thoughts about a couple of elements that I think we took for granted or weren’t having conversations about in the mid-2000s when the book was published.

Disability and Discrimination

One of the minor characters, Larkin, walks with a limp. We never learn what causes it, but she faces discrimination for her disability. Her employer restricts her to the back room of the dress shop, refusing to allow customers to see her, as though her limp is shameful. This character makes some choices later in the book that are viewed as bad, and they do promote harm to the main characters in the story.

What I couldn’t help thinking about, and what never comes up in the course of the story is how the discrimination Larkin faced set her up to make those choices. For the first time, someone treated her as valuable and worthy. Sure, it was part of a manipulative scheme. But the narrative treats her like she’s a morally bankrupt character because she made the choice to follow someone in power who treated her well rather than addressing the societal problems that might have led her to feel those choices were her only opportunity for a better life.

Again, this was published almost twenty years ago, so we weren’t having some of the conversations about discrimination in children’s literature or having them so broadly then as we are now. I want to acknowledge that content in light of the conversations we are having and point out that even though we were perhaps less aware culturally, the discrimination was no less harmful and wrong.

A Girl and Her Dragon

One of the things I still love about the book is the relationship between Creel and the dragons, especially Shardas. I love that the dragons each collect different things. One collects shoes. Another continually adopts dogs. Shardas, Creel’s closest dragon friend, collects stained glass windows.

The connection between Shardas’s windows and Creel’s success in embroidery was also really cool. She models her first sample pieces after some of the windows in Shardas’s hoard, and those become a sensation in the town where she settles.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 8 to 12.

Representation
One minor character speaks through sign language. Another has a disability that makes it hard for her to walk.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Mild profanity used once. The book uses some language that’s outdated and now considered derogatory to describe characters with disabilities.

Romance/Sexual Content
Reference to a kiss between boy and girl.

Spiritual Content
Creel’s people worship a trio of deities called the Triunity. It’s made up of two brother gods and a sister goddess. Creel prays to them in times of need. Other characters make reference to the Triunuty or individual gods/goddess.

Some characters are dragons, who have a kind of magic. They speak to one another through pools in their caves. They share a mysterious, powerful connection to a pair of slippers.

Violent Content
Situations of peril. Creel witnesses a battle between two armed forces. She finds a dragon injured by spears and other weapons. Two dragons dive into a poisonous sea, one carrying a person.

Drug Content
References to people drinking ale to escape troubles and to celebrate an engagement.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use but help support this blog. I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

Review: The Spindle of Fate by Aimee Lim

Book Review and Content, Fantasy, Middle Grade 8-12, , , , , , ,

The Spindle of Fate
Aimee Lim
Feiwel & Friends
Published June 4, 2024

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About The Spindle of Fate

When Evie Mei discovers that her recently passed mother was the head of a guild of magical weavers, she enters the Chinese netherworld to try and bring her back in this middle-grade debut.

Twelve-year-old Evie Mei Huang never did like helping in her mom’s tailor shop. She hated helping to mend fraying clothes, how the measuring tape got all twisted up, and how pushy her mother’s clients were. Most of all, she hates that her mother is dead and isn’t here to help anymore.

But when the universe sends a life preserver, Evie knows to grab it. So yes, it’s weird when a talking monkey shows up and tells her that her plainspoken, hardworking tailor mother was actually the head of a Guild of magical weavers who can change the fate of a person with only a spool of thread. Very weird. But he also comes bearing news that her mother is trapped in Diyu, the Chinese underworld, and that only Evie can get her back. No pressure.

The important thing is that Evie’s mom isn’t dead. And if she’s got this one shot to bring her back and save her family, she’s got to take it.

Inspired by Chinese mythology, Aimee Lim’s debut middle grade peers into the dark and gritty underworld, while showcasing the unbreakable bond between a family and the lengths we’ll go to save them.

My Review

I’ve read a couple of other middle grade books in which someone must journey into the underworld to save a family member or the world, but what makes this story fresh and different is the complex relationship between Evie and her mom. While Evie’s mom was alive, she complained about her, wasn’t interested in her mom’s work, and felt that her mom didn’t understand her at all.

As Evie learns about her mom’s secret life as the leader of a magical Guild, she starts to rethink things she took for granted. Perhaps there was a lot more to her mom than she knew. And if she has a chance to save her, Evie realizes she desperately wants to take it.

I also like the boy who comes with her on her quest. He’s a bit goofy, but the story doesn’t lean too far into that goofiness. He has knowledge and abilities that help Evie, but he provides some comedic relief, too.

Another great element of this book is that her mom’s magic is through sewing. She can sew messages that appear on special fabric in someone else’s possession. She can use thread in magical ways. I loved how this was used in the resolution of the story.

Readers who enjoyed Dragon Warrior by Katie Zhao or Theo Tan and the Fox Spirit by Jesse Q. Sutanto will enjoy another chance to delve into Chinese mythology and celebrate family connections.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 8 to 12.

Representation
Most characters are Chinese.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
A man embraces a woman.

Spiritual Content
Evie meets a monkey who is also a powerful spiritual being or demon. She and another person make the journey to Diyu, the Chinese underworld. There they meet several supernatural “staff” members who run Diyu.

Violent Content
Situations of peril and brief battle sequences. Evie and her companion witness people being tortured on the various courts of Diyu. For example, they encounter people who appear to be starving, whose bowls are filled with uncooked rice they can’t eat. They don’t witness any graphic torture.

References to murder.

Drug Content
None.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use but help support this blog. I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

Review: Fat Girl on a Plane by Kelly deVos

Book Review and Content, Contemporary, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , , , ,

Fat Girl on a Plane
Kelly deVos
Harlequin Teen
Published on June 5, 2018

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About Fat Girl on a Plane
FAT.

High school senior Cookie Vonn’s post-graduation dreams include getting out of Phoenix, attending Parsons and becoming the next great fashion designer. But in the world of fashion, being fat is a cardinal sin. It doesn’t help that she’s constantly compared to her supermodel mother—and named after a dessert.

Thanks to her job at a fashion blog, Cookie scores a trip to New York to pitch her portfolio and appeal for a scholarship, but her plans are put on standby when she’s declared too fat to fly. Forced to turn to her BFF for cash, Cookie buys a second seat on the plane. She arrives in the city to find that she’s been replaced by the boss’s daughter, a girl who’s everything she’s not—ultrathin and superrich. Bowing to society’s pressure, she vows to lose weight, get out of the friend zone with her crush, and put her life on track.

SKINNY.

Cookie expected sunshine and rainbows, but nothing about her new life is turning out like she planned. When the fashion designer of the moment offers her what she’s always wanted—an opportunity to live and study in New York—she finds herself in a world full of people more interested in putting women down than dressing them up. Her designs make waves, but her real dream of creating great clothes for people of all sizes seems to grow more distant by the day.

Will she realize that she’s always had the power to make her own dreams come true?

My Review
I want to say the thing this book does best is give this 360 degree look at the way the world treats people based on their weight. The truth is, it does an amazing job at exposing these sometimes ugly truths, but the writing and the characters are also pretty spectacular.

Cookie is a strong woman. She’s competent, capable, and talented. But she’s not perfect. Wounded by prejudices she’s experienced, she allows herself to judge others based on the same system she abhors being applied to herself. Ultimately she learns that achieving her weight goal doesn’t change everything in the way she expected. Turns out being skinny isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, either.

I want to say so many things that would spoil the story because they were elements or plot moments that I thought were fantastic. Early on we’re told this isn’t a Cinderella story about a girl who loses weight and lives happily ever after, and it’s true—this is not that story. It’s much more about a girl looking for the path to her best self and her best life. That journey changes her inside even more than it changes her outside. And perhaps above all, that’s the story’s real power.

You know me—I wish Fat Girl on a Plane didn’t have some of the sexual stuff or profanity in it that it does, because those simply aren’t the things I enjoy reading. See the content information below for more details. I thought the characters and story were powerful and nicely done, though.

Recommended for Ages 18 up.

Cultural Elements
Major characters are white. For half the book, Cookie is overweight. The other half of the book shows moments from her weight loss journey and more significantly, the difference in the way people treat her at her different sizes.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Infrequent use of extreme profanity.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing between man and woman. Two relatively brief scenes showing sex but including some details.

Spiritual Content
Cookie attends some church events. (I loved the conversations with the priest in the story—he’s a funny, practical guy.)

Violent Content
Two young men get into a fist fight. Cookie experiences some bullying, cruelty, and some unwanted sexual comments.

Drug Content
Cookie drinks alcohol in a couple of scenes. In one instance, she’s overseas and over the legal drinking age.

Note: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

 

Review: Chaotic Good by Whitney Gardner

Book Review and Content, Contemporary, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , , , , , ,

Chaotic Good
Whitney Gardner
Knopf
Published on March 13, 2018

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About Chaotic Good
Cameron’s cosplay–dressing like a fictional character–is finally starting to earn her attention–attention she hopes to use to get into the CalTech costume department for college. But when she wins a major competition, she inadvertently sets off a firestorm of angry comments from male fans.

When Cameron’s family moves the summer before her senior year, she hopes to complete her costume portfolio in peace and quiet away from the abuse. Unfortunately, the only comic shop in town–her main destination for character reference–is staffed by a dudebro owner who challenges every woman who comes into the shop.

At her twin brother’s suggestion, Cameron borrows a set of his clothes and uses her costuming expertise to waltz into the shop as Boy Cameron, where she’s shocked at how easily she’s accepted into the nerd inner sanctum. Soon, Cameron finds herself drafted into a D&D campaign alongside the jerky shop-owner Brody, friendly (almost flirtatiously so) clerk Wyatt, handsome Lincoln, and her bro Cooper, dragged along for good measure.

But as her “secret identity” gets more and more entrenched, Cameron’s portfolio falls by the wayside–and her feelings for Lincoln threaten to make a complicated situation even more precarious.

My Review
I had a ton of fun reading this story for its inclusion of Dungeons and Dragons (DnD) references and even descriptions of play as well as the scenes where Cameron sews costumes. I liked her spunky attitude and soft heart made me root for her from the first page to the last. Wyatt (Why) had me at hello. Such a great, offbeat character. Loved him!

The DnD parts of the story cracked me up and made me wish I was in the middle of my very own campaign. It highlighted all the fun parts of the game but also drew some attention to some of the girl-bashing that can happen. I kind of wish there had been more resolution between Cam and the boy who harassed her in person. In the story it becomes clear he kind of doesn’t get how his behavior affects others and is deeply stuck thinking about his own past hurts. Obviously there are people like that in real life, and sometimes they just don’t grow out of those hurtful behaviors, so in that way the story kept it pretty real. I did like the way her parents both supported Cameron’s interests but also challenged her and protected her. (I know that’s really vague… I don’t want to reveal some of the story elements, but I liked the relationship between Cameron and her parents.)

Another great surprise in Chaotic Good is the way the DnD campaign is often relayed in the form of graphic novel panels. So clever! I loved that idea. It set the campaign story apart from the narrative in a really fun way and added some visual humor, too.

On the whole, I enjoyed this book and felt like I tore through the story, always eager for the next chapter.

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Cultural Elements
Cameron’s twin brother Cooper and her friend Wyatt are both gay.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Extreme profanity used pretty frequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing between boy and girl and two boys. Cameron references climbing into bed with a boy she finds attractive. She and a boy get into some heavy kissing and making out. At every step, he asks for her consent. When he seems interested in getting under her dress, she asks him to stop, saying she’s not ready yet, and he respects her wishes.

Cameron finds herself the victim of some online bullying and pretty intense trolling. She torments herself by reading comments on her blog from haters. These commenters leave cruel and sometimes explicit comments, sometimes referring to her with derogatory language.

Spiritual Content
Characters engage in a Dungeons and Dragons campaign in which one character pretends to be a wizard who can do spells.

Violent Content
Some narration of battles described for a Dungeons and Dragons campaign. Mild violence.

Drug Content
None.

Note: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.