THE DRAGON'S HANDBOOK
By
Brian found the Dragon's Handbook but he refused to return it to Culhane, the dragon, until he had learned how to do one of the tricks. Brian really wanted to be able to breathe shooting flames, but Culhane explained that that would be too hard. The lessons Brian tried to follow turned out to be quite suitable for dragons, but Brian wasn't built right. The boy's aim was always to try to terrify his next door neighbor Tim--his eventual success is rather nondescript, and far less satisfying to readers than shooting flames would be. It's a mildly pleasant spoof on dragon legends for young readers, but not to be equated with The Reluctant Dragon. The cartoonish drawings are by Kelly Oechsli. The amphibious green tinge of the paper is off-putting although it may serve eye ease.