This is a magical, heart-warming story – beautifully packaged in a small hardback volume with a silver-embossed title set against stars and a night sky. From the moment I picked up Dragon Skin I was enthralled by Pip, the central character and Karen Foxlee’s magical story which focuses on friendship, love, loss and growing up.

The story begins when 10-year-old Pip discovers a tiny baby dragon who is near death. Pip decides that she will do everything in her power to rescue it, which means skipping school, making alliances with unlikely classmates and raiding the pantry for suitable ‘dragon’ food. As the story unfolds, we learn more about Pip’s unhappy family home life and a special friend, Mika.

What makes this story so appealing is Karen Foxlee’s ability to make you feel that you are in Pip’s shoes as she navigates and overcomes many tough challenges – which not only include a hungry growing dragon, but also overcoming the pain of loss and learning when to let go. This book is a winner.

Reviewed by Karen Williams
Age Guide 10+

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Karen Foxlee is an Australian author who writes for both kids and grown-ups. She grew up in the outback mining town Mount Isa and still frequently dreams she is walking barefoot along the dry Leichhardt River there.

One of four children she started telling stories when she was young. She filled countless small exercise books with sweeping sagas of orphaned girls illustrated with pictures cut from the back of Reader’s Digest magazines.

She has worked as an underground cable mapper, pool kiosk attendant, library assistant and hotel laundry hand and eventually became a registered nurse. All the while she never gave up her secret dream of becoming a writer.

Her first novel The Anatomy of Wings was published in 2007. The story of the sudden death of a teenage girl in a desert mining town won numerous awards including, the Dobbie Award and the Commonwealth Writers Prize for Best First Book. Her second novel about the disappearance of a girl in tropical north Queensland, The Midnight Dress, won the Sisters in Crime Best YA Debut Crime Novel in 2014.

Ophelia and the Marvelous Boy, Karen’s first novel for children was published internationally in 2014 to much acclaim. It was an E.B. White Read Aloud finalist that year. Her second novel for younger readers, A Most Magical Girl was published in 2016 and won the Readings Children’s Fiction Prize 2017 and was CBCA shortlisted the same year. Lenny’s Book of Everything, was the children’s / young adult publishing sensation of 2019 winning multiple awards, including Children’s Book of the Year at the Indie Book Awards and the Ethel Turner Prize for Young Adult Literature at the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards.

Karen lives in South East Queensland with her daughter and several animals, including two wicked parrots, who frequently eat parts of her laptop when she isn’t looking. Her passions are her daughter, writing, day-dreaming, baking, running and swimming in the sea.

Visit Karen Foxlee’s website