Dragon Slippers By Jessica Day George Release Date: Buy it Today Bloomsbury USA Children’s Books Ratings Action Romance Characters Overall Purchase on Amazon. Purchase at Powell’s. Find independent bookstores near you.

Creel’s parents died, leaving her brother and her in the care of an aunt and uncle who want to do the right thing, yet are already pushed to the limits while feeding and caring for their own family. So, after a few years, Creel’s aunt comes up with the [prefect] perfect plan: Let Creel get taken by dragons, and then her rescuer will have to marry her and take care of everyone. Creel is less than thrilled with this idea, and she creates her own plan to take off after her aunt abandons her and make her way to the capital city, King’s Seat, to make her fortune. Because of course a dragon isn’t going to appear; no one has seen a dragon in years.

What better time for a dragon to appear than right when they aren’t wanted? Creel strikes a deal with the dragon though–a piece of his treasure if she scares off the knight errant (well, really the local mayor’s son) who’s come to slay the dastardly beast. To her disappointment, she learns that few dragons collect traditional treasure, and instead they all tend to have an affection towards something different. The first dragon she meets collects shoes. And thus Creel finds herself in the possession of a pair of very special slippers and on her way to King’s Seat.

When she gets to King’s Seat, she offends a princess, befriends a prince, and finds herself working in a high quality dress shop. Her embroidery is soon in high demand, and she manages to catch the eye of the visiting princess who quite admires her slippers. Soon, countries are at war, dragons are attacking each other, and a girl who’d like nothing more than to sew her creative designs finds herself in the middle of a political mess.

This was one of those books that completely surprised me. I thought I had an idea of what the book was going to be about because the initial premise is “Girl’s family is poor, aunt decides giving her to a dragon to be rescued will improve their life immensely,” and that premise reminds me a great deal of Dealing with Dragons by Patricia Wrede. So I was expecting a humorous fantasy tale filled with wacky adventures. Instead, I got a somewhat humorous political story with a strong female heroine whose strength isn’t in fighting, but is a good planner and willing to do what she must to save her friends.

I hesitated to read this book for some time, because the premise reminded me of Wrede’s books, which I love, and I was afraid that the book would be one of those situations where I’m reading it, wondering why I’m not reading the other book. Part of this is the cover. The cover is rather cartoony and doesn’t really fit with the book. It elicits a lot more feelings of adventure than the book actually contains. Really, this is a political intrigue book, where the main character just happens to fall into events because she makes friends with a prince and a few dragons.

One element I really loved was how strong a character Creel was without having to fit into a “girl becomes a warrior” model. It’s always nice to see well-written fantasy girls who can be strong and still have a traditionally feminine job. Creel meets her challenges with inner courage and dignity, from befriending dragons to taking on a nasty co-worker. She doesn’t want to be involved with the fate of her country, but she’ll do what she has to to protect her friends.

Another great element of the book is the use of dragons as characters. The author fleshed out human/dragon relations nicely as well as gave some reality to the dragon myths. This world is the type where it was always your neighbor’s grandpa’s uncle who saw the dragon, not actually someone you know. I love how the dragons collected different things, like how one collected stained glass windows and another collected dogs. These little touches bring the dragons to life outside of standard dragon mythology.

Happily the author has said she’s written a sequel to this book. While the end of Dragon Slippers is satisfactory, there is definitely room for a sequel.

Ratings Reasons:
Action 4 1/2 – The action was well-written and enthralling, and even Creel’s time working in a dress maker’s shop was interesting and active.

Romance 2 –There’s a set up and a little follow through, but the real romance seems to be waiting for the next book.

Characters 5 – I really love that most of the characters weren’t your ordinary stereotypes and came off as well layered

Overall 5–I’m definitely going to recommend this book to others. Fans of the fairytale style story will probably enjoy this book a great deal.

Extras:

Jessica Day George has a personal website as well as a site for Dragon Slippers. The second site includes a beautiful illustration of the dress that Creel sews and wears to the Merchant’s Ball. The dress is styled as six stained glass window panels (across the skirt of the dress), and the illustration on the site helps bring the great description to life. I enjoyed all the aspects of embroidery in the book, because it’s always a skill I’ve admired.

Miss Erin and Little Willow did a lovely interview with the author on her blog, which delves into some of the inspiration for the book and also a bit about her next project.

Some other books you might enjoy after reading this are The Enchanted Forest Chronicles by Patricia Wrede (sheesh, how many times have I mentioned these in reviews? Really, they’re good books), Once Upon A Marigold by Jean Ferris (another blending of multiple fairytales and enchantments), and Wildwood Dancing by Juliet Marillier (fairytale style book about a girl who doesn’t exactly want to be strong, but needs to be for her sisters).

And just because I love dragons, here are some dragon legends to enjoy!

Parents: 10+ There’s nothing harmful here. It seems to be typically shelved as a middle grade book, but an older reader will most likely enjoy it as well.

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