Dactyl Hill Squad

Daniel José Older makes his middle-grade debut with Dactyl Hill Squad, a Civil War-era historical fantasy--with dinosaurs.

 

Twelve-year-old Magdalys Roca lives in the Colored Orphan Asylum in New York City. On this July 1863 evening, Magdalys and her fellow orphans Two Step, Mapper, Little Sabeen and Amaya head out on the orphanage's "huge old triceratops," Varney, to see a performance at the "only all-black Shakespearean company in New York." When the group is stopped mid-trip by the white Magistrate Riker, supposedly to make sure the children aren't "fugitive slaves," Magdalys's fear and anxiety make her wish Varney would take evasive maneuvers--which he immediately does. Magdalys, it turns out, can talk to dinos. And she learns this not a moment too soon.

 

The group escapes the Magistrate and arrives at the play--but hooded white folks on raptors are rioting, setting the city on fire and attacking black citizens. Unsurprisingly, the Magistrate is among the hooded rioters, no doubt working with the Kidnapping Club to steal free black children and sell them into slavery. Magdalys's newly discovered ability comes in handy when she steals a brachy from the fire brigade and brings it to the orphans' rescue.

 

They flee, ending up at a refuge in Dactyl Hill where adult men and women of color work together as a Vigilance Committee, fighting the Kidnapping Club and Magistrate Riker whenever they can. Magdalys and her fellow orphans soon become freedom fighters themselves.