Dragon Babies

Oct 31 2024 150 ep. 66 mins 168

Dragon Babies Podcast artwork

Two sisters reread their favorite YA fantasy classics and discuss why they may be even better for adults.

Copy RSS

Subscribe on Podcast Addict

Episode 133 - Greenwitch, by Susan Cooper

Oct 31 2024 74 mins

We’re celebrating Halloween with a return to the icons that started it all: Celtic witch effigies! Greenwitch continues the exquisite Dark is Rising Sequence by throwing us for a weird, wonderful loop - forget the big stakes Light vs. Dark battle, let’s narrow in on a wayward angry painter and a spring holiday in Trewissick. The Drew children and Will Stanton meet, solve a dogn

Episode 132 - Well Wished, by Franny Billingsley

Oct 14 2024 78 mins

Franny Billingsley’s debut novel Well Wished is alternately eerie and joyful, filled with natural wonder and existential dread. The residents of Bishop Mayne live under their cruel wishing well’s thrall… but why?? We discuss the realistic childhood friendship at the center of the book, shifting from friend to foe as they swap bodies (and one refuses to return). We’re meetin

Episode 131 - Mariel of Redwall, by Brian Jacques

Oct 01 2024 96 mins

Down with Pirate King Gabool, up with prophetic bells! We’re covering Mariel of Redwall, by Brian Jacques. Although this is our third episode on a Redwall book, we still have a significant amount of puzzling to do over the relative size of things, the meaning of different creatures’ dialects, badger supremacy and the greensap milk of it all. Enter badger Bloodwrath mode and joi

Episode 130 - Bloodmarked, by Tracy Deonn

Sep 08 2024 81 mins

We’re continuing Bree’s fraught journey through the Legendborn world with Bloodmarked! Tracy Deonn’s followup to Legendborn takes Bree far from UNC and the Arthurian Order and into her ancestors’ other magical communities. There are so many hot magical boys and SO MUCH PLOT and by the end we need an aether shot at The Crossroads. We debate cambion morality, where we’d mak

Episode 129 - Gone-Away Lake, by Elizabeth Enright

Jul 29 2024 72 mins

We’re spending the summer at Gone-Away Lake! Elizabeth Enright’s classic story of creating your own adventure is rich with wish-fulfillment fantasy. Enright brings cousins Portia, Julian and Foster to life as they tromp through swampland, evade the Gulper and befriend Min and Pin, kindly siblings living out of time. We discuss the decline of American aristocracy, summer’s swe

Episode 128 - The Lives of Christopher Chant, by Diana Wynne Jones

Jul 10 2024 91 mins

We’re continuing Diana Wynne Jones’ beloved Chestomanci series with The Lives of Christopher Chant! We follow Christopher as he journeys through the Anywheres, chafes under the controlling adults in his life, and dedicates himself to cricket and cricket alone. A romp, a revelation, the best time we’ve had in quite a while - you owe it to yourself to revisit Throgmorten’s ch

Episode 127 - Magic's Promise, by Mercedes Lackey

Jun 30 2024 90 mins

We're returning to Valdemar with Magic’s Promise, by Mercedes Lackey! In his second book, Vanyel is 12 years older but perhaps not wiser as he struggles to move past his lover Tylendel’s tragic death. While attempting to find some rest at his family’s home (and mostly just finding homophobia), Vanyel and his companion Yfandes are pulled into a mysterious royal murder in a nei

Episode 126 - Abhorsen, by Garth Nix

Jun 10 2024 82 mins

We’re completing the Old Kingdom trilogy and becoming Abhorsens in our own right. We discuss Lirael’s interiority, forgive Sam for his book 2 failings, start a cult dedicated to Mogget worship, and consider how this series helped inspire the current YA fantasy horror boom. We went to the ninth gate and returned, what did you do this weekend? And remember: nothing says fell

Episode 125 - The Castle in the Attic, by Elizabeth Winthrop

May 30 2024 75 mins

Sir Simon has us in his thrall! The Castle in the Attic remains a pure delight, bringing out the child searching for a magical miniature castle in us both. We discuss Sir Simon’s bizarre (yet winning) quirks, the joys of soft boy William, and the key ways that fictional parents disrupt fantasy narratives. Put a mouse to roast over your tiny fire - it’s time to defeat an evil wi

Episode 124 - Trickster's Queen, by Tamora Pierce

May 06 2024 95 mins

We finally finish a series! Trickster’s Queen brings the many threads of political intrigue loose in the Copper Isles to a satisfying (if predictable) conclusion. We discuss the coziness of a perfect fantasy regime change and how overly rosy depictions of righted systemic injustices both help and harm the readers. Perfect spy blobs, spice intolerance, crow-man coming of age, and