Who’s it for?
The main character is in her last year at Primary School. The book, therefore, is written in style suitable to that age, but the adults who have read it have also enjoyed it greatly.
Here’s the blurb:
Bec seems to have lost everything. Her family is falling apart and now she had moved with her mum and sister to a new town where she knows nobody.
To make matters worse a group of girls in her new school seem intent on making her life a misery.
She does make one friend however: an mischievous urchin called Oz from the year below her. Together they make an amazing discovery that will change everything and give Bec the strength to fight back and take control of her life again.
Childhood is hard
As adults, we tend to downgrade the difficulties of children in comparison with our own concerns and often fail to appreciate the profundity of their struggles. Bec’s Dragon addresses some of those struggles, particularly bullying and family breakup.
It’s also an adventure story, possibly a fantasy (although the dragon is real in this story, so it probably doesn’t qualify as such), and a coming of age drama. I hope you will read it and find it poignant, exciting and moving.
Dragons are real
Narnia is great, but it’s not here.
Despite what’s implied by the title, this isn’t a fantasy novel. There are no wizards or warriors or characters named Zorg.
I wrote it at the time when my daughter was uncertain as to whether or not dragons really exist so I was at pains to make sure that the dragon in this story is a plausible inhabitant of the modern world.
I watched something go out in both of my children as they emerged from childhood into an adult world that seemed cold and grey and robbed of magic. It was a profound loss and it made me realise that we all need to keep alive the possibility that there is more in heaven and earth than is dreamt of in our philosophy