Niki Verzuh Smith

Dragonville Niki Verzuh Smith

Dragonville was written for young beginner readers, and their families and friends. Everywhere on the planet, we are dealing with gender equality where little girls are considered lesser than boys. A little girl dragon gets in trouble for doing something she is not allowed to do. We watch as she bravely faces the music, her family and the whole village and ends up changing their rules for girls and boys.

The universal themes of gender equality, family structure, and community morals and how they affect the development of young children are all represented in Dragonville. Parents and all community establish the rules of how things are done. This has happened since the beginning of time. Change comes very slowly and usually through the people that disobey and suffer the consequences. Through the pain of loved ones, people will open their hearts and minds and have another look at the rules to see if they need to change.

Reading Dragonville will hopefully make people look at how things need to be changed in order for little girls everywhere to be who they are; to be able to use their strengths and passions to live full lives even if they are just 'girls'. We have made many inroads in the last 100 years or so to bring equality to gender and give our children the strength to continue to battle the status quo.