When Women Were Dragons (PB) - C-format

In a world where girls and women are taught to be quiet, the dragons inside them are about to be set free ... In this timely and timeless speculative novel, set in 1950s America, Kelly Barnhill exposes a world that wants to keep girls and women small - and examines what happens when they rise up. Alex Green is a fiercely independent teenager desperate for answers, growing up in a world full of secrets, a world where society has decided that some things are unmentionable … Alex is four years old when she first sees a dragon. In her next-door neighbour's garden, in the spot where the old lady usually sits, is a huge dragon, an astonished expression on its face before it opens its wings and soars away across the rooftops. And Alex doesn't see the little old lady after that. No one mentions her. It's as if she's never existed. Then Alex's mother disappears, and reappears a week later, one quiet Tuesday, with no explanation whatsoever as to where she has been. But she is a ghostly shadow of her former self, and with scars across her body. Alex, growing from young girl to independent teenager, is desperate for answers, but doesn't get any. Whether anyone likes it or not, the Mass Dragoning is coming. And nothing will be the same after that. Everything is about to change, forever. And when it does, this, too, will be unmentionable ... From the New York Times bestselling and Newbery Medal winning author of The Girl Who Drank The Moon, comes a timely and vital feminist story. With shades of The Handmaid's Tale, The Power and VOX, and perfect for fans of authors such as Patrick Ness, Meg Rosoff and Lauren James.