So you're a medieval peasant boy living a typical medieval peasant life, until one day a traveling minstrel tells you that you're destined to become a hero. What do you do? Enroll at a school for dragon slayers, of course! It's not all it's cracked up to be, though; the food is terrible, the teachers are kind of weird, the headmaster cares more about gold than the welfare of his students, and on top of all that, there's the frequent encounters with a wizard who can't do anything right. This is the premise of Dragon Slayers' Academy, a series of children's books by Kate McMullan. The series chronicles the strange (and occasionally downright improbable) adventures of Wiglaf, a student at the eponymous Dragon Slayers' Academy.
List of books in the series
- The New Kid at School
- Revenge of the Dragon Lady
- Class Trip to the Cave of Doom
- A Wedding for Wiglaf?
- Knight for a Day
- Sir Lancelot, Where Are You?
- Wheel of Misfortune
- Countdown to the Year 1000
- 97 Ways to Train a Dragon
- Help! It's Parents Day at DSA
- Danger! Wizard at Work!
- The Ghost of Sir Herbert Dungeonstone
- Beware! It's Friday the 13th
- Pig Latin — Not Just for Pigs!
- Double Dragon Trouble
- World's Oldest Living Dragon
- Hail! Hail! Camp Dragononka
- Never Trust a Troll!
- Little Giant — Big Trouble
- School's Out... Forever!
These books provide examples of:
- Accidental Misnaming: Zelnoc never pronounces Wiglaf's name correctly.
- Anachronism Stew: There's a lot of this, in case the fact that the books are set in a school during the medieval period didn't tip you off.
- Crossover: Countdown to the Year 1000 is a crossover with The Zack Files.
- Extranormal Institute: Aside from the Dragon Slayers' Academy itself, there's also the other DSA, the Dragon Slackers' Academy (a school for dragons who are also slackers).
- Forced Transformation: In Danger! Wizard at Work!, Zelnoc turns the main characters into dragons.
- Kid Hero: The entire point of DSA is to create kids who can become heroes capable of slaying dragons.
- Massive Numbered Siblings:
- Wiglaf has twelve of them.
- Then there's Seetha, who has 3684 children. They don't call her "the Mother of All Dragons" for nothing!
- Money Fetish: Mordred will do anything to get his hands on some gold.
- Mother of a Thousand Young: Seetha has 3684 children.
- One-Gender School: DSA starts out as an all-boys' school, which is why Erica disguises herself as a boy so she can attend. This is eventually subverted after it becomes a co-ed school (purely so Mordred can make more money from more students attending), which allows Erica to be open about her gender.
- Only Sane Man: DSA's librarian, Brother Dave is one of the very few adult characters who isn't The Ditz, a Jerkass, incompetent, or all three.
- Pig Latin: Daisy (who is an actual pig) speaks Pig Latin because Zelnoc messed up a spell that was meant to turn her into a Talking Animal. In Pig Latin — Not Just for Pigs!, King Ken also ends up speaking Pig Latin after yet another messed-up spell, courtesy of Zelnoc.
- Public Domain Character: Characters from the Arthurian mythos are featured in some of the books.
- Revenge: In Revenge of the Dragon Lady, Seetha comes after Wiglaf for killing one of her sons (hence the title).
- Shout-Out:
- Erica's parents are Queen Barb and King Ken.
- Erica's aunt and uncle are King Homer and Queen Marge.
- Wiglaf is most likely named after a character from Beowulf.
- The Sixth Ranger: Technically the fourth ranger — Janice, who joins the Power Trio after DSA starts accepting female students.
- Sweet Polly Oliver: Erica pretends to be a guy until Mordred turns DSA into a co-ed school (
because more students = more money).
- Weaksauce Weakness: Every dragon has a secret weakness, and some of them are very weak. For example, Gorzil's is bad jokes and Seetha's is bathing.
