Year of the Griffin

What makes it funny?

Elda’s crush on a professor begins because he reminds her of her old teddy bear: she wants to pick him up and carry him around. The Emerald City Book Review singles out this first-chapter joke, which gives an ordinary student infatuation a very different scale when the student is a large griffin.

The comedy at work

Corkoran sees students as a source of family donations while concentrating on his dream of reaching the moon. Their curiosity and resourcefulness expose how little the university is prepared to teach them. Jones directs the sharper jokes at the adults who should be helping.

Try this if…

Supportive friendships make this a warm magical-school story. Elda and her classmates encourage each other through their troubles, while the faculty provide plenty to enjoy for anyone who has suspected that a teacher’s priorities lie elsewhere.

Good to know

The story shifts from Dark Lord of Derkholm to a new group of university students. The Emerald City reviewer suggests the earlier book for backstory if you want it; the focus here is the students’ growing independence and their efforts to learn together.