Uploaded November 2015 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
This is a quick book summary of What-the-Dickens by Gregory Maguire. This channel discusses and reviews books, novels, and short stories through drawing...poorly.
Transcript: This is a story about a girl named Dinah who lives with her parents and two siblings, Zeke and Rebecca Ruth. They live far away from modern towns and are homeschooled in the ways of Christianity and the simple life.
A bad storm hits the area, causing mudslides and high-speed winds. Cousin Gage arrives and helps watch over Dinah and her siblings as their parents left without them. It’s Rebecca Ruth’s birthday, and, to pass the time, Gage tells the children a story.
Gage’s story is about a small skibbereen, or fairy, named What-the-Dickens. He appears in the world without knowing who or what he is. What-the-Dickens is carried away by a bird and falls into the home of an elderly woman who thinks he’s the Angel of Death.
What-the-Dickens becomes trapped by the elderly woman when he tries to take her false teeth from a glass. He later escapes the elderly woman and wanders into a home with a sleeping mother and child. There, What-the-Dickens meets Pepper, a girl fairy who is on a mission to trade the child’s tooth for money. After taking the child’s tooth, Pepper agrees to take What-the-Dickens home in order to explain what her kind do.
Pepper and What-the-Dickens arrive at Undertree Common, home to a local fairy group. Pepper gets reprimanded for arriving late and What-the-Dickens is questioned by Old Flossie, a fellow fairy, but is found to be harmless and not a spy.
After learning about their fairy origins in a pageant, Pepper and What-the-Dickens meet with Doctor Ill, the leader. Doctor Ill tells Pepper that she can’t be licensed to fly outside, but What-the-Dickens defends her. Doctor Ill allows Pepper to try again to become a licensed fairy, but she must lead What-the-Dickens away from Undertree Common for good.
Pepper goes to the bank to get money for her assignment. She then explains the different roles of the fairies, such as money collectors, traders, harvesters, and wish givers. In essence, the fairies collect money to trade for teeth so that they can plant the teeth, which grows into birthday candles, which they substitute with normal candles to grant wishes.
They fly to a farmhouse and enter the room of a boy named Gale, the same person telling the story to Dinah and her siblings. Just as Pepper is about to take Gale’s tooth, a cat walks in. The cat attacks Pepper, but Gage saves her. Gage traps Pepper and asks her questions about herself. Pepper refuses to answer and sends What-the-Dickens out to complete her last mission.
What-the-Dickens arrives at a familiar house where the elderly woman who thought he was the Angel of Death lives. After demanding her tooth, he realizes that he was sent there for her grandson’s tooth.
What-the-Dickens retrieves a tiger’s tooth from the zoo before arriving at Undertree Common. What-the-Dickens explains to Doctor Ill that Pepper did the best she could to finish her mission. Doctor Ill says that the mission was impossible and that he wants What-the-Dickens to take her job now that Pepper is gone.
Suddenly, an alarm goes off, indicating that Undertree Common is under attack. However, the intrusion isn’t an attack, but Gage returning Pepper’s body.
Doctor Ill doesn’t trust Gage to keep the tooth fairy secrets and wants to kill him. However, they compromise and allow Gage to wish on a wishing candle that he’ll forget about the fairies.
After Pepper recovers, What-the-Dickens and Pepper decide to go on their own.
In the end, Gage and the kids celebrate Rebecca Ruth’s birthday and they all make different wishes in hopes it will come true.
Facebook Page - facebook.com/pages/Minute-Book-Reports/1148331925195691
Paper by Fifty Three was used to make this video.
At Rest - Romance by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
Source: incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1100748
Artist: incompetech.com
This is a quick book summary of What-the-Dickens by Gregory Maguire. This channel discusses and reviews books, novels, and short stories through drawing...poorly.
Transcript: This is a story about a girl named Dinah who lives with her parents and two siblings, Zeke and Rebecca Ruth. They live far away from modern towns and are homeschooled in the ways of Christianity and the simple life.
A bad storm hits the area, causing mudslides and high-speed winds. Cousin Gage arrives and helps watch over Dinah and her siblings as their parents left without them. It’s Rebecca Ruth’s birthday, and, to pass the time, Gage tells the children a story.
Gage’s story is about a small skibbereen, or fairy, named What-the-Dickens. He appears in the world without knowing who or what he is. What-the-Dickens is carried away by a bird and falls into the home of an elderly woman who thinks he’s the Angel of Death.
What-the-Dickens becomes trapped by the elderly woman when he tries to take her false teeth from a glass. He later escapes the elderly woman and wanders into a home with a sleeping mother and child. There, What-the-Dickens meets Pepper, a girl fairy who is on a mission to trade the child’s tooth for money. After taking the child’s tooth, Pepper agrees to take What-the-Dickens home in order to explain what her kind do.
Pepper and What-the-Dickens arrive at Undertree Common, home to a local fairy group. Pepper gets reprimanded for arriving late and What-the-Dickens is questioned by Old Flossie, a fellow fairy, but is found to be harmless and not a spy.
After learning about their fairy origins in a pageant, Pepper and What-the-Dickens meet with Doctor Ill, the leader. Doctor Ill tells Pepper that she can’t be licensed to fly outside, but What-the-Dickens defends her. Doctor Ill allows Pepper to try again to become a licensed fairy, but she must lead What-the-Dickens away from Undertree Common for good.
Pepper goes to the bank to get money for her assignment. She then explains the different roles of the fairies, such as money collectors, traders, harvesters, and wish givers. In essence, the fairies collect money to trade for teeth so that they can plant the teeth, which grows into birthday candles, which they substitute with normal candles to grant wishes.
They fly to a farmhouse and enter the room of a boy named Gale, the same person telling the story to Dinah and her siblings. Just as Pepper is about to take Gale’s tooth, a cat walks in. The cat attacks Pepper, but Gage saves her. Gage traps Pepper and asks her questions about herself. Pepper refuses to answer and sends What-the-Dickens out to complete her last mission.
What-the-Dickens arrives at a familiar house where the elderly woman who thought he was the Angel of Death lives. After demanding her tooth, he realizes that he was sent there for her grandson’s tooth.
What-the-Dickens retrieves a tiger’s tooth from the zoo before arriving at Undertree Common. What-the-Dickens explains to Doctor Ill that Pepper did the best she could to finish her mission. Doctor Ill says that the mission was impossible and that he wants What-the-Dickens to take her job now that Pepper is gone.
Suddenly, an alarm goes off, indicating that Undertree Common is under attack. However, the intrusion isn’t an attack, but Gage returning Pepper’s body.
Doctor Ill doesn’t trust Gage to keep the tooth fairy secrets and wants to kill him. However, they compromise and allow Gage to wish on a wishing candle that he’ll forget about the fairies.
After Pepper recovers, What-the-Dickens and Pepper decide to go on their own.
In the end, Gage and the kids celebrate Rebecca Ruth’s birthday and they all make different wishes in hopes it will come true.
Facebook Page - facebook.com/pages/Minute-Book-Reports/1148331925195691
Paper by Fifty Three was used to make this video.
At Rest - Romance by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
Source: incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1100748
Artist: incompetech.com
