Dealing with Dragons

Paperback

272 pages

Published November 1st 2002 by Magic Carpet Books (first published 1991)

ISBN: 0152045651 (ISBN13: 9780152045654)

Primary Language: English

Source: Borrowed from a friend

The Blurb (www.goodreads.com)

Cimorene is everything a princess is not supposed to be: headstrong, tomboyish, smart…

And bored. So bored that she runs away to live with a dragon… And finds the family and excitement she's been looking for.

The story opens with Cimorene growing up in a palace with her princess sisters. They are taught to be “proper princesses”, something Cimorene was never really interested in. She didn’t care about the proper way to speak to a prince come to rescue her from an enchantment or the correct volume for screaming when being carried off by a giant. She instead sneaked out to learn swordplay, magic, and Latin. Every time her parents, the King and Queen found out about her latest endeavor, she was called into the throne room and told to stop, because “it just isn’t done.”

When she was 16, she had finally had enough of being told what wasn’t proper, so she ran to the nearby Mountains of Morning and volunteered to become a dragon’s captive princess.

There, she spends most of her time cleaning and organizing dragon treasure, studying Latin texts, learning magic, and cooking large quantities of cherries jubilee. Oh, and convincing the many knights and princes that arrive to rescue her that she really doesn’t need rescuing, thank you very much. And, being the unconventional princess that she is, she and engages in many improper activities such as melting wizards, befriending witches, giving orders, uncovering a wizard plot and generally refusing to be the proper damsel in distress every princess is born to be.

I wish I had discovered this series when I was a kid. I would have loved it back then. I love it now. It’s the perfect story for any girl who is unsatisfied with the status quo in literature, not only showing a strong capable girl who can take care of herself, but also poking fun at all the typical fairy tale themes that show the boys having all the fun. I read the whole thing in a couple of hours, and immediately picked up the next one. I will probably be buying copies of the set for myself to read again.