Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher

A children’s fantasy novel written in 1991 by Bruce Coville, Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher is the second of five books in the Magic Shop series and focuses on a boy named Jeremy Thatcher, the son of a veterinarian, who raises a dragon after he purchases an egg from Mr. Elives’s magic shop. The novel received positive reviews and was nominated for the 1992 Mythopoeic Award for Children’s Literature. It was also awarded the 1994 Utah Beehive Book Award for Children’s Fiction.

Bruce Coville is a prolific writer of children’s literature who has received several awards and nominations for his writing. These include three Golden Duck Awards for children’s literature, a Skylark Award for contributions to the science fiction genre, and two nominations for the Mythopoeic Awards for contributions to the fantasy genre. He also co-founded Full Cast Audio, a company that produces audiobooks of children’s literature performed by a full cast of actors, bringing stories to life and emphasizing the tradition of oral storytelling.

This guide refers to the 2007 e-book version by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

Plot Summary

The novel begins with a boy named Jeremy Thatcher who, despite his innate talent for drawing, is struggling in art class because his teacher, Mr. Kravitz, humiliates him. This incident fuels Jeremy’s determination to win the upcoming spring art contest now that he is old enough to compete for the top prize. He discusses his plans with his best friend, Spess. However, their talk is interrupted when Jeremy is forced to escape from a pair of local bullies and from Mary Lou Hutton, the girl who has a crush on him. He ends up at a mysterious shop called Elives’s Magic Supplies, where he is drawn to a strange, multicolored sphere. The shopkeeper, Mr. Elives, sells the sphere to him for a quarter, claiming that the sphere has chosen him. He also gives Jeremy instructions and a stern warning to follow them closely.

Jeremy is magically transported home. When he reads the instructions, he finds that they explain how to hatch a dragon’s egg. The required spell needs to be spoken under a full moon. Jeremy learns from his father that the full moon is the next night, so he decides to try the spell and find out whether the sphere really is a dragon egg. He sneaks outside to recite the spell, then falls asleep in a lawn chair while he waits. He wakes again to find the sphere changing color and beginning to hatch. When the little dragon hatches, Jeremy brings her inside for safety. Boy and dragon are initially wary of each other, but they quickly form a mental bond. By morning, the dragon starts perching on Jeremy’s shoulder, and Jeremy checks the instructions again to discover that they now contain advice on how to care for the dragon. The instructions stress the importance of keeping the dragon a secret. They also advise feeding the infant dragon small pieces of meat like chicken liver, and Jeremy must preserve the dragon’s shed skin, baby teeth, and fragments of eggshell for later use.

After Jeremy feeds the dragon, he heads to the library for more information. He is disappointed by what he finds about dragons there, so he asks for help from the librarian, Miss Hyacinth Priest. She gives him a book about dragons that was written by Mr. Elives. When Jeremy returns home with the book, he finds the dragon causing chaos. He struggles to calm her using their mental link, then realizes that she is hungry and is targeting his gerbils as food. During the commotion, his mother enters, puzzled by the noise, and Jeremy realizes that the dragon is invisible to her. Jeremy awkwardly explains away the noise and is then informed of an impending dinner with the Hutton family, which sends him into a panic due to Mary Lou’s crush.

His mother asks him to help with yard work, which he does after feeding the dragon some milk to get her to sleep. When he returns, he proposes several names to the dragon before she agrees to “Tiamat,” a name with an origin in Mesopotamian mythology. Spess visits, but he does not notice Tiamat either. Jeremy tries to get Spess’s help to find the magic shop again, but they have no luck. The search ends in a heated argument between the two boys; Spess leaves, and in the aftermath of the argument, Jeremy is unable to find Miss Priest’s book. He wants to stay home from school to look for it, but Jeremy’s parents make him go to school. Once there, he faces ridicule from his classmates and dismissive treatment from his art teacher, Mr. Kravitz. Overwhelmed by the pressure from school and feeling a signal of pain from Tiamat, Jeremy leaves school early. At home, he finds Tiamat distressed after having shed her skin. Jeremy is also shocked to see that Mary Lou has followed him home and is able to see Tiamat. Although she promises to keep the dragon a secret, her attempts to help lead to an argument, and she leaves.

The dinner with the Huttons finally arrives, and under his father’s guidance, Jeremy spends time with Mary Lou at his veterinary office, where they talk about their shared interests in books and animals. However, the dinner erupts in chaos when Tiamat decides to chase the cats. The incident also causes the family dog, Grief, to pull the tablecloth off the table, making a complete mess. The chaos leaves everyone upset except for Dr. Thatcher, who finds it all funny. Despite his innocence, Jeremy feels overwhelmed with guilt over the situation. His mood continues at school until Tiamat escapes the house through the cat door and joins him at school. Her presence provides comfort at first, but after Mr. Kravitz disparages fantasy art, she feels Jeremy’s anger and breathes fire on Mr. Kravitz’s shoe. Infuriated and unsure who caused the prank, Mr. Kravitz bans Jeremy’s entire class from the art contest until the responsible party confesses. Jeremy and Spess are devastated by the decision. Spess also confesses that he accidentally took Miss Priest’s book after their fight, further straining their friendship. Later, Jeremy receives a letter from Mr. Elives telling him to bring Tiamat and her eggshells, teeth, and shed skin on Midsummer Night for her return home. Jeremy also learns from the book that the dragons left this world long ago for their own protection; however, because they can only hatch under Earth’s moon, they must hatch on Earth and then be sent to their rightful world. With Midsummer Night looming, Jeremy realizes that his time with Tiamat will come to an end much more quickly than he anticipated. At school, he finally confesses to Mr. Kravitz that he is responsible for the fire incident, hoping that his admission will allow the others, including Spess, to participate. Mr. Kravitz believes that Jeremy is covering for someone else, and in the following argument, Jeremy learns that his teacher is jealous of his innate artistic talent. Ultimately, Mr. Kravitz allows the class to participate, but he still insists on banning Jeremy.

As Midsummer Night looms closer, Jeremy moves Tiamat to a barn on his family’s property because she has grown too big to remain in the house. Although Mary Lou helps him to provide milk for Tiamat, he is exhausted by the effort of taking care of her. However, he delights in the new nightly ritual of taking long flights on Tiamat’s back as she goes hunting.

On Midsummer Night, Jeremy gathers the eggshells, skin, and teeth, and he and the full-grown Tiamat reminisce over their time together. She sheds a diamond tear, which he keeps. When Jeremy brings the full-grown Tiamat to the magic shop on Midsummer Night, he is also surprised to see Miss Priest there. He helps her to build a magical gate for Tiamat, using the dragon’s shed skin and teeth. After they finish, Jeremy says an anguished goodbye to Tiamat and lets her go through the gate to her own world. Miss Priest tries to console Jeremy by telling him that nothing he loves is ever lost, but he is left grieving Tiamat’s absence for the rest of the summer. He withdraws from his friends, loses interest in his art, and avoids Miss Priest and the library. On Halloween, his parents throw a party to cheer him up, but he remains distant until suddenly, his mental link to Tiamat miraculously reappears, and she shares visions of her world with him. Miss Priest, who has also come to the Halloween party, quietly reveals that she also carries a diamond dragon tear. Overjoyed at being reconnected with Tiamat in his mind and his dreams, Jeremy returns to drawing the next day.