Benevolentia Gaudium, or “Grisha,” is a 300-year-old dragon, although he spent much of his life as a teapot after being captured by a sorcerer at 60 and transformed. But the teapot’s second owner recognized Grisha for what he was and kindly restored him to his original dragon state. Grisha is now living in Vienna, where all remaining dragons were exiled after the World War II. Maggie is an 11-year-old, homeschooled human who lives in a hotel with her father. Maggie is friendless, but when she and Grisha meet they quickly grow fond of each other. Grisha is delighted that Maggie can see him at all; most humans no longer have time or need for magic and therefore cannot see magical creatures. When Grisha discovers over 70 dragons were put to sleep and buried somewhere in the city after the war (gold-eyed dragons like Grisha were allowed to live in the overcrowded city; purple-eyed dragons were put under a spell), he and Maggie, armed with a strong sense of justice and rudimentary knowledge of magic, set out to find, awaken, and free the missing creatures. Grisha and Maggie have skills, talents, and personalities that complement one another beautifully, while their shared commitment to justice extends to sacrificing the thing they value most. (Ages 8–12)

A forgotten dragon and a magical girl set out to find Vienna’s missing dragons in this YA fantasy novel: “Extraordinary—not to be missed” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review).

Grisha is a dragon in a world that’s forgotten how to see him. Maggie is an unusual child who thinks she’s perfectly ordinary. They’re an unlikely duo—but magic, like friendship, is funny. And it has chosen Grisha and Maggie to solve the darkest mystery in Vienna.

Decades ago, when World War II broke out, someone decided that there were too many dragons for all of them to be free. As they investigate, Grisha and Maggie ask the questions everyone’s forgotten to ask: Where have the missing dragons gone? And is there a way to save them?

At once richly magical and tragically historical, The Language of Spells is a novel full of adventure about remembering old stories, forging new ones, and the transformative power of friendship.