1. Communication
2. Disability
3. Dragons
4. Fables
5. Language
6. Literary techniques

Boy ‘couldn’t hear, but he was happy.’ His country’s king and army have done their best to destroy a dragon and the protracted battle has reduced their environment so that it is almost uninhabitable until Boy asks, ‘Why?’

The setting and back story are rendered in full on the book’s cover. The front cover shows a boy standing in a landscape suffused with the pinky orange of a post-fire sunset, with the burnt twigs of what were once trees. The boy’s expression is confidently winsome, contrasting his battle dress, and he has written his name with a stick. The back cover shows the castle and a hamlet built close to the walls of the castle, and with a few living trees in the foreground. On a turret, the figure of a king stands under a flagpole pointing to the wasteland.

Despite these clues to simmering violence, DeVries’ digital artwork keeps all of the characters as child-like, round and pink-cheeked. His dragon is an overgrown puppy fighting an army of chessmen. Boy’s Auslan – literally misunderstood by all but his loving parents – is drawn as soft lines while CLING! CLONG! TING! are printed above the bloodless scenes of hand-to-hand combat. Boy risks his life to save a baby dragon, with the aid of his trusty helmet. His Auslan sign for Why? can’t be interpreted so he takes up his stick to write, ‘WHY ARE YOU FIGHTING?’

The king and the dragon both attempt to justify their actions with hand gestures of their own – pointing, accusing and finally listening to each other’s truths. They all gather round to look at Boy’s drawings of how they could live (unfortunately not completely visible to the reader). All the villagers sign ‘Thank you’ at the end of the story.

Another story of a peace-loving dragon is ‘The Reluctant Dragon’ (Walker Books, 2005) by Kenneth Grahame. First published as a chapter in his book ‘Dream Days’, it has also been illustrated as a picture book for older readers by Australian illustrator Inga Moore.

1. Phil Cummings Official Website https://philcummings.com/
2. Shane Devries Official Website https://www.shanedevries.net/#/boy/
3. Queensland Department of Education, YouTube, Auslan 101: Learn common Auslan phrases, 14 Sept 2020 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ax1eKpo9RuQ
4. International Board of Books for Young People (IBBY) Australia, Outstanding Books for Young People with Disabilities 2021, 3 Aug 2022 https://ibbyaustralia.wordpress.com/awards/outstanding-books-for-young-people-with-disabilities/
5. ustralian Psychological Society, Special Interest Group Psychologists for Peace biennial award Children’s Peace Prize (awarded in 2017 to ‘Boy’), 3 Aug 2022 https://groups.psychology.org.au/awards/literature/#y2017
6. Smithsonian Magazine, Iconic helmets falsely attributed to Vikings actually 3,000 years old, 10 Jan 2022 https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/iconic-viking-horned-helmets-actually-3000-years-old-180979339/#:~:text=%E2%80%9CBut%20actually%2C%20it's%20nonsense.,Vikings%20really%20wore%20horned%20helmets
7. Scholastic Teacher Notes for ‘Boy’ by Phil Cummings and Shane Devries, including profiles of author and illustrator https://resource.scholastic.com.au/resourcefiles/8495028_65542.pdf
8. Reading Time review by Romi Sharp of ‘Boy’ by Phil Cummings and Shane Devries, 29 June 2017 https://readingtime.com.au/boy/
9. Review by Asphyxia of ‘Boy’ by Phil Cummings and Shane Devries which raises concerns about the portrayal of a deaf boy https://helloasphyxia.wordpress.com/2017/10/18/a-review-of-boy-by-phil-cummings/