The Wrath of the Woolington Wyrm

Mary-Kate Martin is an anxious child and follows various coping rituals to avoid the possibility of avalanches and train crashes as she accompanies her archaeologist mother in an investigation into a collection of bones in a well in Woolington. Travelling on the train into a worryingly unknown future has her breathing deeply, and thinking of five things she can hear, five she can feel, and five she can see, which helps her to feel better. She is wearing her red sparkly shoes, has packed her favourite items instead of sensible clothing, and, once her lovely new glitter pens are opened, they can never be perfect again – is today a pen packet-opening day? She does open them and uses the different colours to write in her strawberry-scented notebook in an investigation of her own into the legend of the Woolington Wyrm. She writes her questions down: why is the town so deserted, why does every building have a bowl of milk outside it, and why is Wyrm spelled with a ‘y’? Meeting Yolanda Honey, President of the Wyrm Watch Society, leads her to a meeting in the library, and the investigation begins.

Lord Woolington wants to knock down the town square and build a shopping mall, expecting concrete to be poured very soon, but Professor Martin is not going to be pressurised before her investigation is complete. Mary-Kate finds an unexpected ally in his daughter Arabella, who is more interested in her plump pony, Pickles, but together they can be very brave, and eventually they meet a dragon-type creature depicted by Freda Chiu as fierce, but, as Mary-Kate realizes, it is anxious and misunderstood, and she finds a resolution that satisfies everyone.

This is a real page-turner, and Freda Chiu’s illustrations are lively and fun.