What the Dickens by Gregory Maguire. Candlewick Press, 2007. Fiction/Fantasy
“Fourth Quarter Outside Reading Book Review”
Gregory Maguire is not only an author, but a middle school English teacher. He gave his students an assignment to write about a meeting between an extraordinary creature and a normal human. The result of his own writing example developed into What the Dickens,
a story within a story. It is about three children stranded in a huge storm, who are entertained by a story told to them by their older cousin. The story provides distraction and a lesson, as the kids hear about a mysterious creature known as a skibbereen, one of many such beings who become a tooth fairy.
The New York Times Book Review says about What the Dickens that “Gregory Maguire does for the dark and stormy night what he did for witches in Wicked.”
Wicked, now famous as a Broadway play, also began as a novel with an original point-of-view. The classic Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum was rewritten from the Wicked Witch of the West’s perspective. In What the Dickens the reader is treated to a new understanding of how tooth fairies may come to be as the adventurous story gradually unfolds. What the Dickens is the name of the title character, an innocent creature trying to find his identity. He is born not knowing his name or purpose, and seeks other skibereen like himself. He does find companionship, society, and meaning in his world.
The author uses the storytelling and the characters to look at how imagination affects human and creature development. The real children have grown up in a sheltered environment, and have been homeschooled. They have been taught that they must “govern themselves against imagination”. Yet they are told to believe and follow Bible stories. Gage, the babysitting cousin, points out that “the existence of stories is real”, and that through “accidents and acts of the imagination” is “how we make ourselves and how we are made.” The story ends with the understanding that story, prayer, and magic are all correct, and all exist for the betterment of the world.
“Have I got this right? wondered What –the-Dickens. The possibility of wishing strengthens the imagination to consider, at times, that things could improve. Could be different. They could. They might.”(303)
I liked the thought that imagination is a possibility, a form of hope, and that being open to creativity opens your world. I was also amused that Cousin Gage was an English teacher, and Maguire’s own love of English was obvious. There were references within the story of at least seven other famous books, and the skibbereens kept repeating that “math was a myth.” The book jumped back and forth between the “actual” story of the kids being stranded and the “pretend” story that was being told to distract them from their predicament, but the message of imagination and creativity applied to both situations.
I also enjoyed the story for its language. “He sneezed, issuing a little crumpled fold of a sound.” (39) The writing had an almost fairy-tale feel to it, crossed with a late night ghost story. It was creepy at times, showed a great sense of humor and really made me think. I also appreciated that it was unique, unlike anything I’ve read before. It made me want to blow out a birthday candle, make a wish, and see what could come true.
