HERE THERE BE DRAGONS
by Jane Yolen & illustrated by David Wilgus
New, reworked, or reprinted—13 stories and poems. Here, St. George is not a dragon-slayer but a friend; the dragon pits of Austar IV test trainers as well as dragons; the healer Tansy is no healer to dragons, while dragonslayer Lancot is no hero at all, except to Tansy; and, in "The Dragon's Boy"—a short story that was a predecessor of the novel of the same name—old "Linn" (a.k.a. Merlin) makes a bad dragon but a good teacher for Artos. These stories and poems are a little uneven, with language and ideas extending over a considerable span of difficulty and sophistication. Still, most have at least a glimmer of an idea, and there continues to be a ready market for dragons. And Wilgus's full-page illustrations, in soft pencil emulating the effect of lithographs rendered on stone, are especially appealing—beautifully modulated forms, subtle characterizations, classic images of dragons, handsome, formally structured compositions. Inviting. (Fiction. 10+)