A sweetly offbeat adventure that will have readers peering into their toilets for a dragon of their own.
Can you spot the friendly dragon?
“There are no dragons in this book,” an unseen narrator tells us repeatedly as kids frolic throughout a rambling house. But sharp-eyed readers will realize that in fact there is a dragon to be found here. The lurking dragon’s claws are visible beneath a coat hanging in the mudroom, there’s a gaping maw in the fireplace, and what’s that peering out of the toilet?! Kids will shout out with glee upon catching the creature that’s hidden in plain sight. When the sheepish, bespectacled dragon is finally revealed, it informs readers that there are no dragons here—“There’s only one. ME!” The beast tells us that its friends are hidden in a crack in the wall (the book’s gutter) and notes that the book must be jiggled to release them. This tried-and-true trick for engagement will delight. The art has a colored pencil–esque look, and the house has a messy, cozy feeling that matches the pacing and tone. Grown-ups appear throughout, though they don’t intervene in the mayhem even when the kids climb steep ladders, which may tickle some while arousing concern in others. Characters are racially diverse.
A sweetly offbeat adventure that will have readers peering into their toilets for a dragon of their own. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: March 5, 2024
ISBN: 9780735845497
Page Count: 32
Publisher: NorthSouth
Review Posted Online: Jan. 5, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2024
Like the last sip of a chocolate milkshake, it’s very satisfying.
A story-reading dragon—what’s not to like?
Duncan the Dragon loves to read. But the stories so excite him, his imagination catches fire—and so do his books, leaving him wondering about the endings. Does the captain save the ship? Do aliens conquer the Earth? Desperate to reach the all-important words “The End” (“like the last sip of a chocolate milk shake”), he tries reading in the refrigerator, in front of a bank of electric fans, and even in a bathtub filled with ice. Nothing works. He decides to ask a friend to read to him, but the raccoon, possum, and bull all refuse. Weeping, Duncan is ready to give up, but one of his draconic tears runs “split-splat into a mouse,” a book-loving mouse! Together they battle sea monsters, dodge icebergs, and discover new lands, giving rise to a fast friendship. Driscoll’s friendly illustrations are pencil sketches painted in Adobe Photoshop; she varies full-bleed paintings with vignettes surrounded by white space, imaginary scenes rendered in monochrome to set them apart. Duncan himself is green, winged, and scaly, but his snout is unthreateningly bovine, and he wears red sneakers with his shoelaces untied—a nicely vulnerable touch. Though there are lots of unusual friendship stories in picture books, the vivid colors, expressive faces, and comic details make this one likely to be a storytime hit.
Like the last sip of a chocolate milkshake, it’s very satisfying. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: June 9, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-385-75507-8
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Another absurd tale of the omnivorous old woman consuming the inedible.
A very silly fairy tale–inspired riff on the nursery rhyme.
The light-skinned old lady scarfs down a dragon for no discernable reason: “Can you imagine?” The dragon is followed by a tan-skinned princess “to guide the dragon,” a light-skinned knight “to soar with the princess,” a castle “for all to assemble,” a moat “to surround the castle,” a light-skinned mermaid “to float in the moat,” and finally “a book.” That volume proves to be a purgative: The old lady “began to exhale,” and “out came a magical fairy tale.” The one page of the fairy-tale book shown depicts the knight saving the princess from the dragon (the mermaid is just an onlooker) above the final phrase, “Happy reading!” No guiding, soaring, or assembling in sight. The mortal peril of ingesting heaps of the ridiculous has disappeared: There’s no more threat that “perhaps she’ll die.” Frequent repetition of imagine to rhyme with dragon might prove trying, but the zany action overcomes the tedium: Lee’s cartoon characters, bug-eyed and bulbous-nosed, slide down the old lady’s maw and float in her belly. Like many of the books in this astoundingly popular and drawn-out series, this one abandons the metrical structure and the logic of the original, and unlike some, it does not add educational tidbits. Still, past performance and the wacky illustrations promise library, classroom, and bedtime thrills. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Another absurd tale of the omnivorous old woman consuming the inedible. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: April 4, 2023
ISBN: 978-1338879117
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Cartwheel/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Feb. 7, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
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