Thursday, August 21, 2008

The Enchanted Forest Chronicles by Patricia C Wrede

The four books in this series are Dealing with Dragons, Searching for Dragons, Calling on Dragons, and Talking to Dragons. They are humorous fairy tales that turn a lot of traditional fairy tale stories on their head. The whole series is a very entertaining read.
It begins in Dealing with Dragons, with Princess Cimorene deciding that she is incredibly bored by palace life. So she volunteers to be a dragon's princess. At first the dragons aren't sure what to do with her, but Kazul takes her in. It is obvious to Kazul that Cimorene is not a typical princess, and may actually be an interesting companion, rather than a nuisance. It takes some time for knights and princes to stop trying to rescue Cimorene, but eventually she makes it clear that she wants to be there. She then helps Kazul fight off some wizards, and the book ends with Kazul being selected as the King of Dragons, regardless of the fact that she is a female.
The stories continue, with Cimorene meeting the King of the Enchanted Forest in Searching for Dragons, and then marrying him at the end of the book. The wizards keep up their dastardly attempts to thwart both the Enchanted Forest and the dragons, causing havoc as they go. And by the fourth book, it is up to Cimorene's son, Daystar to fix the problems they've caused.
Each of the books is told from a different character's point of view, though they do mainly follow Cimorene and her friends. They are hugely entertaining, and very easy to read, so they are great for anyone who enjoys this genre, or middle schoolers just looking for something different.

1 comment:

Rebecca Reid said...

I absolutely loved this series when I was a pre-teen. I read the library copies over and over again. When I was in high school, I happened to notice two of them on the "for sale" rack. I was so sad to think no one was reading them; I had to give them a home.

I found them again two weeks ago in a box. I must revisit them. Thanks for the review!