Digory the Dragon Slayer

By Angela McAllister and Ian Beck

Digory is a sweet boy, although he doesn't exactly appreciate the same things as his rambunctious brothers or blacksmith mother. He likes playing the flute, thinking interesting thoughts, and writing silly songs. But all this changes one day when Digory discovers a dragon's tooth in the forest. When he returns to the village to show off his treasure, everyone assumes Digory slayed a dragon! Can Digory still be a normal, non-dragon-slaying boy now that he's been mistaken for a hero? The story of a shy, funny-looking village boy who finds himself rescuing princesses, fighting dragons, and living happily ever after.
Reviews "Beck's rumpled drawings and vignettes add more amiably comic touches. Ready cheeks; insert tongues." -Kirkus Reviews "In this affectionate send-up of heroic fantasy, Digory is a reluctant knight who gamely tries to live up to the role of dauntless hero, while Enid is a refreshingly independent princess. The amusing black-and-white drawings add to the mock-medieval fun. The lighthearted plot and the strong underlying message about courage and individuality make this a good choice for fantasy fans."-School Library Journal
About the Author
Angela McAllister has written a dozen books for Bloomsbury, including Barkus, Sly and the Golden Egg, The Little Blue Rabbit and Trust Me, Mom! She has two children and lives in England.
About the Illustrator
Ian Beck is a prolific illustrator who created the cover for Elton John's Goodbye Yellow Brick Road. His books for children include versions of Peter and the Wolf and many fairy tales. He lives in England.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
• Release date: Jul 19, 2013
• ISBN: 9781599909998

Angela McAllister

Angela McAllister is the author of The Little Blue Rabbit and Barkus, Sly and the Golden Egg. She has written more than thirty books for young people and has illustrated several of her own books as well. She lives in Dorset, England. Angela McAllister has been published consistently since 1987, writing original fiction for all ages and also published several bestselling collections of folk tales. Her work has won many awards, including The Red House Book Award and The American Folklore Society 'Aesop Award'. Angela lives in Dorset.

Book preview

CONTENTS

Chapter One

In Days of Old

The Little Misunderstanding

News Travels Fast

A Few Words About Cleverness

The Unhappy Day

Arise, Sir Digory?

Chapter Two

Keeping Out of Trouble

Then One Morning …

The Kingdom of King Widget

Digory Meets King Widget

Just One Last Thing …

Princess Enid

The Picnic

Can It Be True?

Not Quite …

Chapter Three

Have We Forgotten Something?

The Unimportant Thing

The Usual Knightly Thing

Chapter Four

A Little Detour

To the Sea

Surprise, Surprise!

Chapter Five

The Fate Awaits

The Tunnel to the D-D-Dragon’s Lair!

HEEEEEEEEELLLLLP!

Who Wants a Chance to Escape?

The Trouble with Teeth

A Fate Worse Than Death?

To Be or Not to Be Gobbled

Digory the Navigator

Chapter Six

The Dragon Meets His Breakfast

Chapter Seven

Digory Finds Himself in a Slimy, Dark Place

Chapter Eight

What??!

Chapter Nine

The King Remembers

Digory, a Prince

Time for a Happy Ending?

A Note on the Author

A Note on the Illustrator

For Sam — A. M.

For Lily — I. B.

Chapter One

In Days of Old

In days of old, when knights were bold, there lived a boy named Digory. He came from a village where nothing much happened, and he was just a bit older than you.

Digory had lanky legs, red hair, and a nose like a sausage. This made him very popular with the village boys.

Matchstick legs! they called him.

Stick boy!

Pumpkin head!

Hey, marigold!

Digory droopy-dangle!

Nose jouster!

Sausage snout!

Digory wore a felt cap to hide his red hair but he couldn’t disguise that nose, so he kept away from the village and spent his days playing alone in the forest.

Digory loved the forest. Some days he’d build dams and tree houses. Other days he’d poke around with sticks and think thoughts. You might think he was lonely, but he had one friend who went with him everywhere—a battered old lute from his father that he carried across his back. When Digory thought some interesting thoughts, he’d turn them into a song, climb a tree, and sing to the sparrows.

Now, no one in his family understood Digory at all. His older brothers, Arthur and Tom, were big and tough and bold. Arthur won prizes for hog leaping, and Tom was the local turnip-tossing champion. The thoughts they had were mostly to do with chasing bulls and arm wrestling, and the songs they knew were drinking songs, which had to be shouted wildly as you poured a mug of beer over your head.

The only time Arthur called for Digory was to keep watch when he was stealing apples, and the only time Tom needed Digory was to pick up the arrows after archery practice.

Even his sister, Ethelburg, captain of the Mucky Maidens’ Mudflinging team, had no time for Digory.

Ear shriveler! she would cry whenever he played the lute, and she put a basket over her head.

When he wasn’t in the forest, Digory would hang around the forge where his mother, Betsy the blacksmith, worked, hoping she might notice him. But nobody heard Digory strumming and singing except his father.

You know your mother, son, he said gently as he hung up the laundry. She likes iron and fire and sweat and muscles. She doesn’t have much time for thinking and songs.

Unless they’re songs about iron and fire and sweat and muscles! shouted his mother from the smithy, as she pounded her hammer on the anvil.

But Digory’s songs weren’t like that. They had lines that went:

See the happy swans that float,

Around the castle’s rippling moat.

Hear the water lilies sigh,

As the dragonflies dart by.

Well, nobody wanted to listen to that. So Digory’s family left him to wander with the forest animals, playing songs to himself, poking around in streams, and thinking thoughts.

The Little Misunderstanding

Digory never got into much trouble in the forest. Sometimes an acorn fell on his head. Sometimes he stepped into a pile of wild pig poo. But one day he found something that caused a little misunderstanding, something that changed his life forever, something that made

Reviews for Digory the Dragon Slayer

[zacswic · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I love this book because Digory got to be a dragon slayer and he got out from the gnawing bone pulling flesh ripping dragon. At first he was an ordinary boy who played on his instrument and made little stick bridges and dams. But when he finds a dragon tooth his people think he slayer a dragon. They immediately make him become a knight but will digory be shoe to slay a rail dragon? And be an ordinary boy again? read it and find out.

[librarygirl66 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Digory, a gentle boy who likes to spend time alone in the forest and make up songs to sing, accidentally becomes a knight and reluctantly sets off to rescue damsels in distress, slay dragons, and marry a princess.