George R.R. Martin Presents The Ice Dragon for Younger Readers
The Ice Dragon by George R.R. Martin
In a phrase association game, the list of nouns would go for pages before you get from George R.R. Martin and his Song of Ice and Fire to anything remotely resembling a children's chapter book.
The Song of Ice and Fire is the name of the epic fantasy series currently being written by George R.R. Martin. It's a sprawling story crossing continents and a cast of characters numbering in the hundreds. It's a richly detailed, highly populated world rich in intrigue, politics, and lore. It's also filled with violence, incest, and torture. In later books (there are four so far) it seems to compete with itself in an effort to make each chapter gorier than the one that came before.
So no one should be surprised if fans of the series raise an eyebrow at The Ice Dragon and do a double-take to see it placed on the shelves that it is. A children's novel? Set in the same world as the Song of Ice and Fire? Is it even possible.
Well, yes, it is. Martin is a highly talented writer who has already proven his versatility. Don't expect, though, that he has suddenly gone soft or gentle just because his audience is younger. His world is a rough one and The Ice Dragon has many of the same qualities of the adult novels — just not the sex or torture.
In fact, when it was originally written as a novella in the 80s, it had a significant degree more gore. Now, though, the tale has been shortened and made far more symbolic, a story told in a lyrical fashion rich in symbolism that may be lost on many of its youngest readers but which help to give it an almost poetic flavor.
It is the story of Adara, the youngest daughter of a hard-working farmer. Her mother died at her birth, victim of a vicious cold that had gripped the land. It was a cold that marked her as well, for while summers made her listless and sad, she came alive during the winter, eagerly awaiting its yearly, cold embrace. She romped with ice lizards that anyone else killed with their body heat. She also develops an unusual relationship with a mythical ice dragon, a dragon that leaves the land barren where it lies and brings with it a bitter cold.
Eventually, the seven-year-old Adara must make some difficult choices about where and with whom she belongs. There is no heavy-handed lecturing in this book, but it does speak to duty, to perseverance, and to courage. It is a somber book that includes some violent and unsettling scenes.
As a chapter book, it is shorter and a quicker read than a Lemony Snicket book, but longer than Mary Pope Osborne's Magic Treehouse books. My son was instantly engrossed in it, though once he put it down, he was slow to return to it. I can't say that I was particularly moved one way or another by the story. I appreciated its style and some of the ideas expressed, but it wasn't one that I found nearly as compelling as the adult novels. However, I am not the book's audience.
The story is beautifully illustrated with pencil drawings by Yvonne Gilbert. The pictures manage to capture the somber tone and help to further bring Adara and her family to life.
Given the plethora of dragons present in the novel, this is a story that takes place either many years before the Song of Ice and Fire series or long after where the story currently is. It's not something that matters much as it isn't a story of kings or great battles. It is the story of a small girl and of a family that is determined to live on the land to which it belongs.
