Dwarf Story is a fun story filled with dwarves, fairies, epic adventures and a fantastical war. While the book is written for a Middle Grade audience it will still charm readers of all ages.
Title: Dwarf Story
Author: W.W. Marplot
First Published: June 30, 2020
Publisher: Waxing Gibbous Books
Genres: Children’s Fiction, Fantasy
Acquired: from the publicist
*** Thank you to the publicist, Books Forward, for providing me with an advanced e-copy of this book in exchange for an unbiased review. ***
An adventure filled with dwarves and dragons and fairies, oh my! And that’s only the beginning in a new extraordinary tale based on the manuscripts and research of the reclusive Professor Welkin Westicotter (W.W.) Marplot. His great-granddaughter, Gertrude Dee Marplot, has pieced together the scattered stories of the historian’s dusty, tattered piles to form “Dwarf Story,”
First, Arty finds a sweaty, bearded ax-swinging warrior Dwarf scaring his dogs. Soon enough, Emma, Cry, and other middle-school friends also find fairy creature—Elves, Spriggans, Pixies, and a hoped-for Dragon—crashing into their normal homework-doing, backpack-carrying, phone-charging schooldays. They soon learn their neighbourhood is hardly conventional. Rather, it’s a hub for legendary fairy creatures – a land worth fighting for. And it won’t be long before their foes discover them, transforming their backyard into a fantastical battleground
Why are these magical beings here? What should be done? Is that ax sharp? Can Pixies be given aspirin?
Arty, with his friends—and spying jerks and questionable strangers with long names—follow the clues and try to find out, even as things turn dark and dangerous. The mythical beings take sides. The Gwyllion, that legendary Old Woman of the Mountains, has a sinister plan that will turn the neighbourhood into a fantasy battleground.
A charming Middle Grade fantasy story
Told in Point of View chapters from a variety of characters, Dwarf Story instantly engages the reader from the start and continues to charm throughout the book. I enjoyed the way the story was told – not only was the first-person POV a good way to explore all the different characters, but the dialogue and “thoughts” of the speakers felt very authentic and their actions and words were what I would expect from their characters. The one tiny concern I had was that sometimes the characters sounded too similar to each other and there wasn’t anything to differentiate their thoughts, but that’s a minor issue.
The other item that might bother some people is that the dialogue can sometimes feel a bit fractured and chaotic. However, I think that it added to the quirkiness of the story and actually made it seem more realistic considering this story is often being told by younger narrators. I know my thoughts are often a jumble of short, fractured sentences! It does take some getting use to, but after awhile I barely noticed it.
The book is quite long for a children’s book but the chapters are short and quick. There are a few parts where the action lags a bit and the explanations and details are a bit slow. This normally wouldn’t be a problem, but it might “lose” some of the younger readers. Overall though, the pacing isn’t bad and the short sentence structure and quirky dialogue should keep most young readers engaged.
A great introduction to fantasy stories for children
What I love about this book is that it’s a great introduction to fantasy stories for Middle Grade readers. The story introduces some of the usual fantasy staples – dwarves, fairies, dragons, etc – in a nice way and takes the time to explain these creatures to help with understanding. I can definitely see this book being a story that fosters a bigger interest in fantasy (or stories about dragons, fables, magic, etc).
As in any great fantasy story, there are, of course, battles and magic, but the characters don’t really take a direct part in them. Most of the war action is just mentioned in passing or happens “off-stage”. It’s age-appropriate and offers a good, clean story for younger readers. My nephew is a bit young for this type of story just now but I can’t wait to share it with him when he’s a bit older!
Read Dwarf Story for yourself
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