Handbook for Dragon Slayers

Cover for Handbook for Dragon Slayers
A fun, feminist fairy tale involving dragons, the wild hunt, and a librarian princess with a clubfoot.

Handbook for Dragon Slayers

Thirteen-year-old Princess Matilda, whose lame foot brings fear of the evil eye, has never given much thought to dragons, attending instead to her endless duties and wishing herself free of a princess’s responsibilities.

When a greedy cousin steals Tilda’s lands, the young princess goes on the run with two would-be dragon slayers. Before long she is facing down the Wild Hunt, befriending magical horses, and battling flame-spouting dragons. On the adventure of a lifetime, and caught between dreams of freedom and the people who need her, Tilda learns more about dragons — and herself — than she ever imagined.

Merrie Haskell, author of The Princess Curse, presents a magical tale of transformation, danger, and duty, starring a remarkable princess as stubborn as she is brave.

  • Use of the “cr*pple” slur, both used by others and by the disabled protagonist herself. It’s challenged within the text.

Practical information

Author: Merrie Haskell
Publisher: HarperCollins
Publication year: 2013
ISBN: 9780062008169
Age category: middle grade
Disabilities portrayed: chronic pain, clubfoot, limp
Genre: fantasy

Author

Merrie Haskell

Merrie Haskell’s novels are The Princess Curse, Handbook for Dragon Slayers and The Castle Behind Thorns. Merrie won the 2014 Middle Grades Schneider Family Book Award and was a finalist for the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Children’s Literature in 2013 and 2015. She lives in Michigan and works in a library with 7.5 million volumes.

[My father] was born with a clubfoot, and [ten years after his death] I had just gone in for a surgery consult on my own foot (different issue) ... Since I was dealing with the notion of living the rest of my life with chronic pain, and it was a problem not totally dissimilar to a clubfoot, it seemed like an opportunity to explore that very tiny link between me and my father.
(Literary Rambles, June 2013)

Related posts on Disability in Kidlit

Cover for Handbook for Dragon Slayers
February 17, 2017
Comments: 5

Review: Handbook for Dragon Slayers by Merrie Haskell

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Princess Tilda does not demonstrate the need to “overcome” her clubfoot, that word many of us in the disability community have come to loathe. To me, Tilda represents a new kind of heroine, who is strong and doesn’t need saving, but also acknowledges and shows her vulnerability and insecurities.

Photo of Merrie Haskell
July 30, 2014
Comments: 8

Interview with Merrie Haskell about Handbook for Dragon Slayers

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A princess with a clubfoot. Who can resist? We can’t, and apparently the Schneider Family Book Award jury couldn’t, either. Merrie Haskell’s 2014 win of the award was just one of the reasons we wanted to discuss her MG fantasy novel Handbook for Dragon Slayers with her.