April 1, 2025
Calling on Dragons
by Patricia C. Wrede 
There are a lot of books from my childhood that I love and were influential on me — however, this is April Fools. This is a time for humor, instead of a serious discussion about whether a book made me more compassionate (yes) or more invested in a particular issue (also yes). While children’s books do embrace humor and goofiness more than those aimed at adults, there are few that make me smile and laugh as much as Dealing with Dragons and its sequels.
Princess Cimorene is bored. Her parents expect her to be a proper princess and learn how to curtsy and the correct times to scream. Cimorene wants to do other things — literally anything — magic, fencing, astronomy, cooking, arithmetic. So, when her parents arrange a marriage for her, she runs away and becomes a dragon’s princess. Her parents can’t even complain because it’s perfectly proper for her to be abducted by a dragon, and no one believes her anyway when she says she volunteered.
Unfortunately, her efforts to organize her dragon’s library and treasury keep being interrupted by would-be rescuers. As soon as she gets rid of one, another one turns up. On top of that, wizards keep popping up where they shouldn’t be and are acting suspicious. Why is the son of the head of the Society of Wizards picking dragonsbane? What’s so important about the Caves of Fire and Night? One of her would-be suitors even releases a genie who, for some reason, insists he has to kill them now. Each event builds on the one before it to create a hilarious read suitable for all ages.
—Neesa Peak