Minerva Cerridwen

This is soooooo wholesome. It has everything you want in a fairytale and more. It's inclusive and has loads of representation and the characters are so adorable.
This is a book about acceptance and friendship and there is a married lesbian couple and an aro-ace character and lots of trans-representation. And the last line of this book is the BEST. But you can only understand it, if you read the whole story, so I guess you have to now, because I know you're curious :)
Also this book made me believe, that i will one day meet a dragon who doesn't know how to make friends and just be its best friend.… (meer)

I bought this kind of on impulse, not knowing much about it, when a local publisher was donating the proceeds of this book to a local pride organization. As an all ages fairy tale, it obviously went on the family story time shelf, and it was soon selected.

THIS BOOK WAS A DELIGHT. Let me tell you, we have been on SUCH a roll here with the low peril, queer friendly fantasy stories from tiny presses lately! My family loved this, especially my eleven-year-old. In fact, he loved this so much that I bought another copy to donate to his school classroom.

There is a polite but sarcastic dragon with a thieving problem. There is an exceedingly gentle knight. There is SO MUCH queer representation, including an asexual aromantic protagonist, a lesbian couple, two trans characters, and lots of people normalizing asking people their pronouns. There is a conflict over a character who is afraid to affirm their child's trans identity, but the book as a whole is very affirming, and has a focus of apologizing for mistakes AND doing your best to rectify them.

Very cozy. Will make you crave cinnamon rolls, so be warned!… (meer)

The Dragon of Ynys is a fantasy fairy tale about love and acceptance and friendship. Sir Violet investigates thefts that are happening in his town. He finds the dragon who is stealing them. But then Juniper goes missing, and Sir Violet wonders if the dragon has stolen her as well. What follows is a bit of an adventure, as the characters go looking for Juniper, and work on solving some personal relationship problems as well.

This is quite a short book, and it really does feel like a fairy tale. There's something about the language and the structure. As I was reading it, I felt like it would work quite well read aloud as a bedtime story. At first the way it was written made me feel a little disconnected from the characters, but as the story progressed I got to know and like the characters.

This story is fun and cute. The characters are interesting and likeable, and the plot is fun and engaging. There are some funny moments, and some quite emotional moments as well. For the most part, the book feels like it's aimed at children, with its simplistic, fairy tale like structure and its positive message and morals, although it can definitely be enjoyed by adults as well! Occasionally it felt more adult, though not in an inapropriate way . More that there were certain conversations that felt like they might bore children, especially younger children.

This is a fairy tale with queer representation, which I loved. I love being able to see myself and characters like myself in the kind of story that we often don't get to play a part in. But this isn't just a fairy tale featuring diverse characters. It's also a fairy tale specifically about a diverse range of characters and their identities. I especially liked that there is an aroace main character, and that there are nonbinary characters as well. In the story, people aren't restricted by gender, with women as knights and a woman as the mayor. There's a little bit of minor transphobia from some of the characters but ultimately characters are supportive, and the book would be a good way to introduce younger children to trans and gender nonconforming people, as it shows that it's important to be yourself and also to accept others as themselves. The sharing of pronouns is also normalised, which is great.

This version of the book is a rerelease, after the writer rewrote the book to be more trans friendly. I definitely think she succeeded, and I think this is a wonderful story to read and to share with children.… (meer)