Year of the Griffin facts for kids
Front cover of the US first edition
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| Author | Diana Wynne Jones |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | John Sullivan (UK) Joseph A. Smith (depicted) |
| Country | United Kingdom United States |
| Language | English |
| Series | Derkholm |
| Genre | Fantasy novel, parody |
| Published | 2000 (Gollancz/UK, William Morrow/US) |
| Media type | Print (hardcover) |
| Pages | 218 (UK) 267 (US) |
| ISBN | 978-0-575-07046-2 |
| OCLC | 42726020 |
| LC Class | PZ7.J684 Yc 2000 |
| Preceded by | Dark Lord of Derkholm |
Year of the Griffin is a fantasy book written by the British author Diana Wynne Jones. It was published in 2000. This book is a follow-up to The Dark Lord of Derkholm. The story mostly takes place at a magical University a few years after the big changes from the first book.
The story follows six new students at the University who are learning magic. It shows their adventures with their teachers, their families, their studies, and how they get along with each other. Reviewers have called it a fun and playful take on stories about school life and traditional fantasy.
Contents
The University's Magical World
The story of Year of the Griffin happens in a fantasy world. This world used to be controlled by a tourist business from our world. Now, several years later, the University is trying to fix the problems caused by those tours.
Challenges at the University
The University used to train many wizards to be tour guides. Now, the staff wants to train wizards who can help heal the world. But the school has money problems because fewer students are signing up. The head of the University, Wizard Corkoran, is very busy trying to be the first person to visit the moon. He spends most of his time on this goal, which means he doesn't pay much attention to the school itself.
A Special Group of Students
Wizard Corkoran picked six new students for his class. He hoped their rich families would donate money to the University. But these students turn out to be very unusual.
- All six are very talented, even if they don't fully understand their own powers yet.
- Some of them have special magical problems called "jinxes."
- None of their families are likely to donate money. Some families have high social status but not much money. Others have lost their wealth. Some students are there without their family's full permission.
Meet the Unique Classmates
- Prince Lukin is at the University even though his father, the King, told him not to go. His kingdom is also very poor.
- Ruskin is a dwarf who ran away from his home. He wants to get an education to help change an unfair system in his dwarf community.
- Felim ben Felim is from a royal family far to the east. His family's leader has even sent people to stop him from attending!
- Claudia is the half-sister of Emperor Titus. She is partly hiding from a group of powerful people who don't like her.
- Olga is the only student who seems truly wealthy. She is beautiful and smart, but she keeps her family background a secret.
- Elda is the youngest daughter of Wizard Derk, who was once a very important "Dark Lord." Elda is a griffin, a large magical creature, and her father doesn't really approve of her going to University.
Friendship and Challenges
The six classmates quickly become good friends. Two of them even fall in love. They often agree about their teachers and classes. They also start studying magic together on their own.
They all have trouble with Wizard Wermacht, a strict teacher who teaches many subjects. He teaches in a very old-fashioned way. When Elda's father, Derk, visits, he almost takes her home. Instead, he gives the students a list of books to read about magic theory. This helps them learn a lot, even if it doesn't help their grades right away.
Family Visits and Big Problems
Almost every visit from the students' families causes a big problem for the classmates and sometimes for the whole University.
- From the east, a royal family sends seven people to stop Felim.
- Important leaders from the South and from the dwarf community bring political and money problems.
- Olga's father turns out to be a pirate!
- Two royal leaders arrive with their armies.
- Prince Lukin trades Ruskin to be his "servant" to get a special book called the Book of Truth. Olga had stolen this book from her father. Any lies written in it simply disappear.
- The Emperor Titus arrests the powerful leaders who were causing trouble for Claudia.
Eventually, three of Elda's older and more powerful siblings get involved: her human brother Blade, and her griffin siblings Kit and Callette. Chancellor Querida, the former head of the University, also returns. She was the one who successfully planned against the tourist industry. Together with a few others, they help save the University and get it back on the right path.
Main Characters
Here are some of the important characters in the story:
The Classmates
These six new students are the main focus of the story. They take classes together and become close friends.
- Elda: She is a griffin and the youngest daughter of Wizard Derk. She is much bigger than most people at the University, even though she's not fully grown yet.
- Felim: He is the brother of a ruler from a far-off eastern land. Felim wants to be a scholar or inventor, not a ruler. His family causes the longest-running problem of the year. To protect him from skilled people sent to stop him, the classmates do their most important self-study project.
- Ruskin: He is an adult male dwarf from the Central Peaks. He is seen as a runaway by some, but he is actually chosen by his community to get magical training at the University. He hopes to help change an unfair system.
- Olga: She is a human woman who is very beautiful, smart, and rich. She keeps her background a secret. She is used to waking up early from working on her father's ship. She is also great at rowing and can talk to elementals (spirits of nature).
- Lukin: He is the Crown Prince of Luteria, a poor kingdom. His father, King Luther, told him not to go to the University. He has a magical "jinx" that affects his magic.
- Claudia: She is a teenage girl and the younger sister of Titus, the young Emperor of the South. She also has a jinx and is half-Marsh (meaning she has family from the Marshlands).
University Staff
These are some of the teachers and leaders at the University.
- Wizard Corkoran: He is the head of the University and also teaches the friends. He loves wearing colorful ties. His biggest goal is to be the first person to go to the moon. He spends so much time on his moon studies that he often ignores the University. He's also not very good with money.
- Wizard Wermacht: He teaches most of the first-year classes and is the youngest teacher. He is mean, strict, and doesn't like Elda, Lukin, or the other students. He especially dislikes Lukin after Lukin accidentally created a deep hole in his classroom on the first day. His name sounds like "Wehrmacht", which was the name for Nazi Germany's army. This fits his character because he is very rigid in his teaching and treats students who seem weak or different very badly. He even insulted Wizard Derk before knowing who he was, and called Elda "a monster."
Characters Outside the University
These characters are important to the story but don't work at the University.
- Wizard Derk: He is a powerful wizard who specializes in creating new animals. He is the father of Elda, Shona, Kit, Blade, Callette, Lydda, Angelo, and Florence.
- Querida: She is one of the most powerful wizards in the world and used to be the High Chancellor (head) of the University. She let Corkoran handle the daily tasks, which she later regretted.
- King Luther: He is the King of Luteria and Lukin's father. He is not a very nice person and treats his grown-up children like little kids. He told Lukin he couldn't go to the University.
- Emperor Titus: He is the Emperor of the South and Claudia's half-brother. He was the only person who was kind to Claudia when she was little. He has been fighting a long war with King Luther.
- Flurian Atreck: He is a griffin from another continent. He is one of the four most powerful wizards in the world. He takes over many of Wizard Wermacht's classes after Wermacht gets turned into a bar stool for complicated reasons.
