Dealing with Dragons: The Enchanted Forest Chronicles, Book One

A truly miserable book. It's meant for middle-grade readers, and it starts off promisingly-enough with a princess who runs away from her family because she doesn't like being a princess. She wants to have adventures, so she goes off and finds a cave-full of dragons! And...and...she becomes a maid-servant to one of the dragons. I kid-you-not. Most of the book deals with how she cleans, cooks, sews, and generally takes care of her dragon. To be fair, the dragon whom she works for is a female dragon, so it's not quite as bad as it could have been. And she does have a few adventures. But the overall message seems to be: "Aspire to be a maid-servant and a care-giver, and you can still have an exciting time along the way." Not the most progressive thing I've read.

SIDE NOTE: For some time, I've been searching for a fantasy novel that stars a strong heroine. Many fantasy novels have strong female protagonists as side-kicks. (e.g. Hermione in Harry Potter). Others star female characters, but they fit stereotypical molds. I've found that most female fantasy heroines are either: (a) weak, bumbling, foolish women / girls who succeed due to luck &/or intuition rather than competence & skill, or (b) sexy women who kill vampires with whips, while wearing tight-fitting leather outfits that expose as much cleavage as possible. Neither is my idea of an admirable female lead.

Reading Dealing With Dragons was an enjoyable way to spend an hour of my time. It was not great, but it was not bad either. I appreciated that Cimorene was unlike most princesses, yet not unlikable. She was not spoiled, or disagreeable, just a normal girl that wanted to have some fun. I also appreciate that the story is more complex than simply how a girl spends time with a dragon. The wizards vs. dragons plot was entertaining, and all of the characters here are delightful. Since this is a children's book it is not overly complex, and it is not bogged down with unimportant details. A perfect balance of humor, adventure, and mystery. Short, sweet, and to the point, Dealing with Dragons would be a great book to read to children, or a nice book to sit down with and escape for a little while.

Not so good. The Princess Cimorene seems to have a bad case of brain cloud, running away from repressive parents only to enter drudge service to a dragon -- but it's a she-dragon, so that's all right then.

The main character is snotty, mumbles passive-aggressively, and demonstrates that acting stupid and vain is the only way to deal with unscrupulous wizards. Not what I would call fine role-modeling for girls of any age.

Male characters (human and otherwise) are without exception either clueless morons or cruel and devious, up to no good. The narrative is overly-descriptive, full of needless, distracting detail. Action is often sluggish to nonexistent -- pages of boring conversation. Attempts at humor by alluding to classic fairy tales fall flat. Identification or empathy with characters at zero.

Suffers from a common writer's pitfall: It Fails To Entertain. During evening storytime, we skimmed and abridged the last half of the book, just to make an end ASAP.

Other reviewers and commentators have claimed that since males get better treatment in the author's related books, I should cut some slack on Dragons. Really, you couldn't pay me enough for the time lost in tediously plowing through those works. And judging by the low quantity of reviews of follow-on books, I'd guess that other readers tacitly agree.

Cimorene is the seventh daughter in the royal family of Linderwall. Everything she has to learn as a princess is terribly boring, and everything she wants to do is considered "improper." When she learns she is soon to be married off to a dim-witted (though admittedly handsome) prince, she takes the advice of a frog and runs off to a small hut in the woods. What she finds in the hut is astounding: Dragons. After getting over her initial shock, Princess Cimorene volunteers herself as a dragons' princess. One of the dragons takes her up on her offer and Cimorene's adventures begin.

This rollicking tale of a spunky princess is one of the best fantasies ever written. It's extremely humorous and Cimerone's exasperation at a "proper" life is hilarious. When a prince comes to try and rescue her, she sends him back home with his tail between his legs. This fearless and endearing princess brings the book to life and her no-nonsense attitude keeps the pages turning. This is undoubtedly one of my favorite fantasy books, and has been for the past couple of years.

I first read this back in middle school and I loved it and so I thought I'd give this another try. I found that Dealing With Dragons is not a bad book - its just a book that holds no appeal to me now as an adult. Some books stay with us and continue to grow as we grow, and to me this is how we come to define classics. DwD is no classic, but that doesn't mean it's a terrible one either.

Cimorene is your typical fantasy princess unhappy with life. Of course she's just too *spunky* and *spirited* and *smarter* that the other people around her to be happy with life. God above save me from the wish fulfillments of teenage girls. And so our intrepid reader avatar heads off into the mountains where she becomes a live in maid for a dragon with a personality as flat as a piece of carbon paper.

I will say that I did enjoy the fact that the dragon in the book is female and that Cimorene remains single throughout the entirety of the book. There's something to be said about a writer who allows her main character to remain without a paramour when she says she's not ready for one rather that forcing a romance in somewhere towards the end of the book. And we get a doubly nice touch when we see that Cimorene is very aware of her arousal to the opposite sex and views it as something natural - but she's just not ready to settle down quite yet. I'm almost willing to tack on an extra star to my rating for that one.

Over all this is a good book for anyone looking for teen fantasy aged at girls that's age appropriate. The characters are unique, the prose flows evenly, there's plenty of adventure and a main character that didn't entirely make me want to gouge my own eyes out. You can't ask for more than that in a book for teens.

This is my #1 favorite book ever!!!!! I have read it so many times I almost have it memorized! IT's exciting and magical and everybody should get a chance to read it. I LOVE this book a lot, lot lot!

It's about this princess Cimorine who doesn't want to marry to a stupid prince and, with the advise of a frog, runs away. She meets up with dragons, one of which is in need of some more handkerchiefs, and finds herself a (female) dragon's princess (Which Cimorine states clearly: "She's not my dragon; I'm her princess!").

Please, please read this book, and you'll never be sorry! It's the greatest book.

I have also read the sequels, and they're just as good. Trust me, you'll LOVE this book!

I love this book! Every time I read it (and I've read it many a time) I find I fall in love with the characters all over again. You will love this book--just make sure you buy the three others, or you will be missing out!

Princess Cimorene is the daughter to the king of Linderwall...where the knights keep their armor polished for show considering nobody's seen a dragon there in years...

Cimorene HATES it at Linderwall. And she wants to do things, not learn exactly how and when she's supposed to scream if someone decides to come and kidnap her. Cimorene takes classes behind her fathers back for extreme fun. She tries fencing...until her father makes her stop. She tries cooking...until her father stops her. She tries magic...until her father stops her. You get the pattern. If things aren't already bad enough her parents are making her marry Prince Therandil. YUCK!

"I'd rather get eaten by a dragon," Cimorene muttered.

"That can be arranged."

With the advice of a "not" enchanted frog she ends up at a dragons cave and before you know it she's the dragon Kazul's princess. And also before ya know it she's on an adventure.

What happens on that adventure? Well...

She meets a powerful witch, a stone prince, snotty princesses, a kind princess, annoying wizards, mean dragons, and a talking frog.

She finds plants that hurt dragons, a dragons magical stone, and a fire proof spell...she's found A LOT of adventure!

This book is about a plucky princess, who I found entertaining. Patricia Wrede's writing style is lively.

However, the plot isn't very good. This is a classic "plot coupon" story. The princess collects a bunch of stuff, and miraculously it is all used in the end. This happens in Harry Potter too, but in that book the character's morals are tested as well. Here the character's morals are never tested at all. I found the ending predictable and forgetable.

All that said, this book is probably a good read for someone who hasn't read hundreds of books already. More experienced readers will probably be entertained by the style but bored by the plot.

Hum... so I am not part of the appropriate age group that should read this. I found the book's plot too obvious, and from the start of the book one already knows which one will be the bad dragon. There is no suspense. However, it is a good book for girls, as it has two strong female characters: the dragon, and her princess servant.