Dragons in a Bag

Published in 2018, Zetta Elliott’s Dragons in a Bag is a middle grade urban fantasy novel and the first installment in the Dragons in a Bag series. When nine-year-old Jaxon is left with Ma, a mysterious woman his mother once knew, he discovers that Ma is a witch tasked with delivering baby dragons to a magical realm. As Jaxon embarks on this unexpected adventure through Brooklyn and beyond, he learns about magic, responsibility, and the importance of family and community. The novel was named an ALA-ALSC Notable Children’s Book, an NPR Best Book of the Year, a Chicago Public Library Best Book of the Year, and a Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the Year.

This guide refers to the e-book edition published by Random House Children’s Books in 2018.

Content Warning: The source material and guide feature depictions of death and racism.

Plot Summary

Jaxon’s mother, Alicia, tries to shield him from the family’s problems, especially their landlord’s efforts to evict them. When she has to appear in court, she asks an elderly woman whom she calls Ma to watch her son for a few hours. Jaxon has never met the mysterious woman before and assumes that she’s his grandmother. At first, Ma curses and refuses to let Jaxon into her apartment, but she reluctantly relents when Alicia tearfully pleads with her.

Inside Ma’s apartment, Jaxon notices a box on her kitchen table. She says that it was sent to her by a friend who lives in Madagascar. Jaxon sees the box move when Ma’s back is turned. He receives another surprise when Ma informs him that she is not his grandmother. When Ma leaves the kitchen to make a phone call, a squirrel tries to enter through the kitchen window. Jaxon lets the animal into the apartment after realizing that it can understand what he’s saying. The squirrel goes to the mysterious box and then tries to open a locked cupboard above the fridge. Ma enters the kitchen and makes the squirrel leave by threatening it with her cane.

Ma tells Jaxon to read a book, and he chooses a volume about Madagascar’s lizards by a writer named L. Roy Jenkins. Ma transfers the box’s contents into a mint tin and places the tin in her purse. When Jaxon asks Ma what she put in the tin, she angrily tells him not to meddle in adults’ business. The old woman tells the boy that he and his mother are both stubborn and ill-prepared for life’s problems. Jaxon tears up and tells Ma not to talk about his mother like that. She counters that she knows Alicia better than he does. Furious, Jaxon storms out of her apartment, forgetting that he’s still holding Jenkins’s book.

Ma hurries after Jaxon and asks him to accompany her on a delivery. They begin to bond when she explains that she helped raise his mother. Jaxon accurately surmises that Jenkins sent her a box of lizards from Madagascar. Ma tells him that the baby lizards need to be with their own kind. When the boy asks if she’s a veterinarian, she tells him that she’s a witch.

Ma meets an unhoused man named Ambrose at the entrance to Prospect Park. He unlocks a disused guardhouse that functions as a transporter that allows travelers to move through space and time and visit other worlds. Ma tells Jaxon that the three lizards that Jenkins sent her are actually dragons and that there isn’t enough magic left in Brooklyn to sustain them. She invites the boy to stay behind with Ambrose, but he decides to join her because she might need help. The transporter malfunctions and takes Ma and Jaxon to the Mesozoic era.

When a dinosaur chases them through the jungle, Ma uses her magic to protect Jaxon by sealing him in the guardhouse. The frightened boy wishes to return home, and the transporter responds to his thoughts and takes him back to Prospect Park. Jaxon tells Ambrose that Ma is trapped in the past, and Ambrose reaches out to an interdimensional navigator named Charlie “Trouble” Randall who can help them find Ma.

Jaxon asks his friend Vikram to meet him at the park because he possesses extensive knowledge about dinosaurs. Soon after Ambrose leaves, Vikram arrives with his sister, Kavita. While the boys are distracted, Kavita opens the tin and feeds the baby dragons sweets, causing them to imprint on her. The boys admonish Kavita, and Jaxon hurriedly returns the dragons to Ma’s purse.

When Trouble arrives, Jaxon explains that Ma is stranded in the Mesozoic era. Vikram and Kavita use their knowledge of dinosaurs to determine that she’s likely in the Triassic period and then head home, wishing Jaxon luck in his search. Trouble reveals that he’s Jaxon’s maternal grandfather. He tried to share his love of magic with Alicia, but she rejected it and him. Trouble wants to make amends with his family and tries to use his supernatural powers to help people.

Using a different guardhouse, Trouble and Jaxon transport to a magical realm with a shimmering lavender sky, turquoise grass, and towering trees that grow upside down. Trouble explains that some members of the magical community, including Jenkins, want Earth and the magical realm to merge, while others, like Ma, think that the two worlds should remain separate. Jaxon suggests building a bridge between the worlds, and Trouble enthusiastically endorses the idea of establishing a middle ground.

Jaxon and Trouble find Ma in a tent with Jenkins and a stern woman named Sis. When Jaxon returns Ma’s purse to her, she’s shocked and deeply disappointed to find only two dragons inside. They realize that Kavita has taken the third baby dragon, which has likely bonded with her by now. Jaxon and Ma prepare to return to Brooklyn, and Sis sends a glowing red butterfly to accompany them. Trouble hugs his grandson goodbye and promises him that they’ll see each other again. Jaxon hopes to become Ma’s apprentice, so he’s startled when he learns that Ma has promised Sis that she will retire to the magical realm soon.

Back in Brooklyn, night is falling. Ma decides that they should make a plan before they try to retrieve the baby dragon. When they return to Ma’s apartment, Alicia is anxiously waiting for them, having been unable to contact them and verify her son’s whereabouts for hours. Ma and Alicia start to argue, but Jaxon suggests that they stay with Ma because their landlord is trying to force them out of their home. Ma acknowledges the strain between her and Alicia but tells the younger woman that she will always be family to her. Jaxon explains that he wants to become Ma’s apprentice and return the baby dragon to its home. Although Alicia is initially upset at this development, she comes to understand why her son wants to help. Together, Jaxon and his mother follow Ma upstairs to her apartment.