Children's fantasy book

January 10, 2005 2:13 PM

Children's SF-Fantasy: For years, I have been trying to remember the name of a book I read as a child, in the mid-1980s. It is a novel, appropriate for 8-12 year olds, in a vaguely medieval/fantasy setting. The main character (I think) is a boy who goes into a forest (on a journey? a quest?) - he meets a girl there who is a firewitch, with really bright orange hair. Sorry for the vagueness, but I was about eight at the time, and haven't been able to find it since.

One more (possibly unhelpful) clue - it might have something about dragons in the title. At one time, I thought it might be "Dealing with Dragoins" - but that turns out to be the first in the Enchanted Forest series by Patricia C. Wrede, which I have just bought - it's a great series, but not what I'm looking for. This book is a similar length/reading level, but more serious, and definitely has a young orange-haired fire-witch as one of the characters.

posted by jb to Media & Arts (7 answers total)

Best answer: If you've just bought the series, you may be in luck; I believe you're thinking of the fourth book, "Talking to Dragons."
posted by shirobara at 2:27 PM on January 10, 2005

(And just in case I misread your post and you only bought the first one, making it hard to go and quickly check the other books, here's the Amazon link.)
posted by shirobara at 2:30 PM on January 10, 2005

Response by poster: Oh dear, I think I might have just answered my own question. In looking ahead through the Wrede series, I have realised that the last book (but first published) may be the one I was looking for. It's just that at age eight I didn't understand that it was suposed to be so silly.
posted by jb at 2:31 PM on January 10, 2005

Jack and the Fire Dragon? Can't find a mention of orange-haired maidens though...
posted by icontemplate at 2:31 PM on January 10, 2005

Response by poster: Thanks shirobara - I do have the series. One of the reviews on Amazon says it is different from the first three (I'm just re-reading the first now). I look forward to getting to it now - I imagine it will be very different from what I remember (or at least that I am very different), but still enjoyable.
posted by jb at 2:35 PM on January 10, 2005

Hey, I was just trying to remember what this series was called the other day, too. Couldn't recall for the life of me. I really enjoyed those books as a kid as well. Thanks for answering your own question for me!
posted by ruddhist at 3:41 PM on January 10, 2005

Response by poster: Some advice for anyone reading this series for the first time (or rereading after such a long time it may as well be): read the "fourth" book first. The others are prequels that give away much of the plot of the fourth, and I think the series would be more fun read in the order it was published, rather than chronologically (which is how the box set implies it should be read).
posted by jb at 4:12 PM on January 17, 2005