Sadi’s Dragons - Summary

Sadi’s Dragons

Once there was a girl who didn’t want to remember, and a woman who didn’t want to forget. Thrown together by luck and by chance, they discover that some of life’s dragons can be tamed even if (and maybe especially if) you’re not a princess.

Sadi is an eleven-year-old girl recovering from an acquired brain injury and struggling to keep memories at bay of the accident that killed her father and twin brother. Marguerite is an old woman who’s losing her memory and has forgotten how to paint; she’s even forgetting how to care for her little dog. Fleur, Sadi’s mother—is fighting a lengthy battle with the insurance company after the boating accident that has killed her husband and son.

The story is told in alternating chapters from the third-person voices of Sadi and Marguerite. It begins as Sadi is counting the days since her mother has gone to the city, and trying to survive by scavenging for food in the neighborhood near the riverbank where she and her mother have been living in a tent. In the second chapter, we learn that Marguerite, an artist, is desperately afraid that she will not be able to paint anymore and will have to go into a care home.

Facing one’s fears is an overarching theme of the book, as well as the importance of art in self-expression and identity. The dragon stories Sadi tells operate as a framing device for the action within the real story, and, in the end, their metaphorical dragons are dealt with as Sadi, Margeurite, and Fleur come together as found family.

subjects: intergenerational friendships; visual art; grief and recovery; homelessness; found family; aging; identity; acquired brain injury; dementia

Realistic fiction for ages 8 - 12+

Thistledown Press, 2026