A Dragon's Guide to Making Your Human Smarter

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A Dragon's Guide to Making Your Human Smarter

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Author(s)

Laurence Yep

Co-Authors / Illustrators

Publisher

Crown Books for Young Readers

Genre(s)

Age Range

Release Date

March 15, 2016

ISBN

9780385392327

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Three-thousand-year-old Miss Drake has arranged to send her dear pet Winnie to The Spriggs Academy, an extraordinary school for humans and magicals alike. Winnie is particularly excited about magic class and having Sir Isaac Newton for science. She’s also making new friends—and frenemies. . . . When a plot to snatch Winnie from her San Francisco home is uncovered, Miss Drake is ready to use all her cunning and magic to thwart it. Not that feisty Winnie needs the help. . . . As a team, the intrepid duo you first met in A Dragon’s Guide to the Care and Feeding of Humans is unstoppable!

When a plot to snatch Winnie from her San Francisco home is uncovered, Miss Drake is ready to use all her cunning and magic to thwart it. Not that feisty Winnie needs the help. . . . As a team, the intrepid duo you first met in A Dragon’s Guide to the Care and Feeding of Humans is unstoppable!

Editor reviews

2 reviews

School trauma... with magic!

March 27, 2016 (Updated: June 04, 2026)

Overall rating

4.0

Plot

4.0

Characters

N/A

Writing Style

N/A

Illustrations/Photos (if applicable)

4.0

In this sequel to A Dragon's Guide to the Care and Feeding of Humans, we find Winnie and her mother much better off. They are living in Miss Drake's house, and Winnie's mother has a job at a local stable. Even though their lot is improved, Winnie's grandfather Jarvis is trying to gain custody of Winnie by having his goons follow her. In order to learn more about magic, as well as to be kept safe from her grandfather, Winnie is enrolled in Spriggs Academy, a school for magicals. Since Miss Drake is a big benefactor of the school, Winnie should be welcomed with open arms, but the mean girls give her a hard time. Luckily, she meets Liri and Mabli, who take her under their wing and share their magic with her as much as they can. The school has field trips to Loch Ness, a massive Halloween party, and lots of fun activities, and soon Winnie feels like a part of the magical community.

Good Points

Told from both Winnie and Miss Drake's perspective, this has a lot of charming details about the magic in Miss Drake's world. Famous people from the past (like Isaac Newton) show up as teachers at the academy, and the students learn all sorts of spells and potions. Vasalisa, the family cook, has a delightful Small Doll who comes to Winnie's aid at school-- but be careful, no chocolate is safe in the house when she's around!

The San Francisco setting is fun as well, and Jarvis' spies add a level of tension to Winnie's experience. This book would be good for readers who really would like to pick up Harry Potter but are not yet strong enough readers, or for readers who want a less scary alternative to David Lubar's Monsterific Tales.