What’s your favourite mythical beast?

Darwin’s Dragons

Written by: Lindsay Galvin @LindsayGalvin

Cover illustration: Gordy Wright @gordyjwright

Published by: Chicken House @chickenhsebooks

Published on: July 2020

Price: £7.99

First line: Mr Darwin crouched in front of a giant tortoise, notebook in hand.

Genre: Fantasy

Age: 9+

Thanks to my school library for the review copy.

What’s it all about? Syms Covington is the cabin boy and then assistant to Charles Darwin on the Beagle, the ship, that in 1835, Darwin took around the world while forming his idea of evolution. While travelling and studying in the Galapagos Islands Darwin and Syms are washed overboard in a storm while trying to get back to the Beagle. Syms eventually finds himself wash up on one of the deserted islands in this chain. Using everything that his dad and Mr Darwin taught him, he sets about to survive the brutal environment. Stranded, he makes an amazing discovery about the local wildlife as he tries to survive on the island by himself whilst waiting for rescue. When back in England, Syms and his discovery struggle to fit in and cope in the new environment even with help from an unexpected corner.

Why should I read it? The story arc is clear and easy to follow for this age group. There are not that many main characters, so they are easy to get along with. Syms is a great character with depth and feeling. I enjoyed seeing his brave nature coming to the fore as his masters a fear of the dark in the tunnels on the island and his quick tempermament when devending the dragons in England. A clear love and wonder of all nature comes across deeply. There are quite a few flashbacks when he thinks back to his father to give his character some depth; however, teachers will need to be wary of this depending on the children in their class. Children also need to be able to deal with the death of animals as well. Darwin is quite a resolute and focused character, which I dont know if it’s true, and his kind nature doesn’t really appear until near the end of the story. I like how the end of the tale shows what happens in the future with Sym’s own family. I’m going to be using it this half term to link to our Year 6 topic of evolution, and I think it fits nicely and will provide a good basis for Guided Reading and some of our writing topics as well. A magical tale that really brings to the forefront the wonder of nature! 🐉