The Dragon Machine by Helen Ward
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Summary
George is a little boy who is lonely until he starts seeing dragons everywhere. When the dragons become a problem, he builds a machine to take them home to the wilderness.
The art is okay, but the story and characters make up for it only because they bring to mind a story. I want to tell you that story.
Once there was a little boy named Evan. Evan had a very active imagination. He made up little men, kinda the size of the Brownies (picture here played by Kevin Pollack and Rick Overton) from the movie Willow. These Brownies had no names, but they acted out every movie that Evan saw, every book Evan read. The Brownies drove time machines, rode horses, fought Dracula, and solved mysteries. Over time, the Brownies moved out of these pre-formed plotlines and acted on their own. Evan wrote down what they did, laughed at their jokes and was upset when one of them was hurt or died (as the plot required).
The problem came when the Brownies started to show up when Evan did not think about them. This was most horrible when it happened at church, because Evan would not pay attention to the preacher and would get into trouble. He could not explain to his parents about the Brownies because that was silly. As Evan grew up he made a decision and abandoned the Brownies. They would attempt to crawl back in his mind at church, but he would not write down their stories or even pay attention to what they did. The preacher and his stories about God were the only stories that mattered. The Brownies were a distraction and the devil sent distractions, the preacher said. Evan devoted his mind to the church and the baptismal waters washed away the Brownies for good.
A while later, Evan got in an accident. Nothing serious, but he started questioning. Why did God let that happen? Why did God let anything bad happen, particularly in His name? The Crusades, the Spanish Inquisition, slavery: all done in one god’s name or another. Evan started to think that maybe God was just as made up as all his little Brownie friends. If that was true, maybe his little Brownies were not so bad after all. So he called them back.
But the Brownies would not come back. Evan had pushed them away, far back in his mind and they would not tell him wonderful stories anymore. Evan tried and tried, reading more and watching more and looking for the types of stories his Brownie friends had made for him, but he could not find them inside or out. Then Evan just started writing and writing, hoping to make what he had lost. He has found some peace in the writing, but everyday he reads and watches and writes, always looking for his little Brownie friends to tell him one last great story.
Thanks.
Each day in the month of April 2012 (starting the first Sunday, then excluding every other Sunday) we will blog using the alphabet as our guide. I will link each post to the letter and you can find them all on this page. If you want to keep up with the challenge for my fellow bloggers, check out the A to Z Challenge Page.
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Summary
George is a little boy who is lonely until he starts seeing dragons everywhere. When the dragons become a problem, he builds a machine to take them home to the wilderness.
The art is okay, but the story and characters make up for it only because they bring to mind a story. I want to tell you that story.
Once there was a little boy named Evan. Evan had a very active imagination. He made up little men, kinda the size of the Brownies (picture here played by Kevin Pollack and Rick Overton) from the movie Willow. These Brownies had no names, but they acted out every movie that Evan saw, every book Evan read. The Brownies drove time machines, rode horses, fought Dracula, and solved mysteries. Over time, the Brownies moved out of these pre-formed plotlines and acted on their own. Evan wrote down what they did, laughed at their jokes and was upset when one of them was hurt or died (as the plot required).
The problem came when the Brownies started to show up when Evan did not think about them. This was most horrible when it happened at church, because Evan would not pay attention to the preacher and would get into trouble. He could not explain to his parents about the Brownies because that was silly. As Evan grew up he made a decision and abandoned the Brownies. They would attempt to crawl back in his mind at church, but he would not write down their stories or even pay attention to what they did. The preacher and his stories about God were the only stories that mattered. The Brownies were a distraction and the devil sent distractions, the preacher said. Evan devoted his mind to the church and the baptismal waters washed away the Brownies for good.
A while later, Evan got in an accident. Nothing serious, but he started questioning. Why did God let that happen? Why did God let anything bad happen, particularly in His name? The Crusades, the Spanish Inquisition, slavery: all done in one god’s name or another. Evan started to think that maybe God was just as made up as all his little Brownie friends. If that was true, maybe his little Brownies were not so bad after all. So he called them back.
But the Brownies would not come back. Evan had pushed them away, far back in his mind and they would not tell him wonderful stories anymore. Evan tried and tried, reading more and watching more and looking for the types of stories his Brownie friends had made for him, but he could not find them inside or out. Then Evan just started writing and writing, hoping to make what he had lost. He has found some peace in the writing, but everyday he reads and watches and writes, always looking for his little Brownie friends to tell him one last great story.
Thanks.
Each day in the month of April 2012 (starting the first Sunday, then excluding every other Sunday) we will blog using the alphabet as our guide. I will link each post to the letter and you can find them all on this page. If you want to keep up with the challenge for my fellow bloggers, check out the A to Z Challenge Page.
