Pleasant if unexceptional.
The way to a dragon’s heart is through his stomach.
It’s a damp, cold, spring day, and all train travel in the village of Little Chiddling has ground to a halt because there’s a sleeping dragon on the tracks. People try to wake him, but to no avail; his loud snores fill the air. The mayor offers a reward, prompting a little girl named Georgie to spring into action. Nobody notices her riding her red tricycle right up to the dragon’s snout. She waves a bag of potato chips, and immediately the dragon opens one sleepy eye. He gobbles them down, sits up, and asks Georgie for more. “Follow me,” she says. In the park, the dragon fills up on cake, cheese, and sausages. He uses his hot breath to dry the wet grass and start a barbecue grill. At a wedding reception, the intimidated groom tells him to help himself, and the dragon responds with a welcome gust to warm the shivering bride. It takes only one more demonstration of his usefulness—drying the damp fireworks for the village festival—to ensure his welcome by the community. Saunders’ cartoon illustrations look digital and kit out the dragon with red scales, wings, horns, googly eyes, and small fangs. The villagers, depicted with mostly fixed expressions, display a variety of skin tones, but the principal human characters are almost all white. Reading-comprehension questions conclude the book.
Pleasant if unexceptional. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: July 5, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-60992-938-1
Page Count: 24
Publisher: QEB Publishing
Review Posted Online: March 15, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
A wandering effort, happy but pointless.
The perfect book for kids who love dragons and mild tacos.
Rubin’s story starts with an incantatory edge: “Hey, kid! Did you know that dragons love tacos? They love beef tacos and chicken tacos. They love really big gigantic tacos and tiny little baby tacos as well.” The playing field is set: dragons, tacos. As a pairing, they are fairly silly, and when the kicker comes in—that dragons hate spicy salsa, which ignites their inner fireworks—the silliness is sillier still. Second nature, after all, is for dragons to blow flames out their noses. So when the kid throws a taco party for the dragons, it seems a weak device that the clearly labeled “totally mild” salsa comes with spicy jalapenos in the fine print, prompting the dragons to burn down the house, resulting in a barn-raising at which more tacos are served. Harmless, but if there is a parable hidden in the dragon-taco tale, it is hidden in the unlit deep, and as a measure of lunacy, bridled or unbridled, it doesn’t make the leap into the outer reaches of imagination. Salmieri’s artwork is fitting, with a crabbed, ethereal line work reminiscent of Peter Sís, but the story does not offer it enough range.
A wandering effort, happy but pointless. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: June 14, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-8037-3680-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: March 27, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2012
A syrupy tribute to mothers that may please fans of the series.
Another creature is on the loose.
The long-running series continues its successful formula with this Hallmark card of a book, which features bright illustrations and catchy rhymes. This time, the mythical creature the racially diverse children set out to catch is an absent mom who does it all (lists of descriptors include the words banker, caregiver, nurse, doctor, driver, chef, housekeeper, teacher, entertainer, playmate, laundry service, problem solver, handywoman, cleaner, and alarm clock) but doesn’t seem to have a job outside the home and is inexplicably a dinosaur. As the children prepare gifts and a meal for her, the text becomes an ode to the skills the Mamasaurus possesses (“Day or night she’s always there. / She meets every wish and need”) and values she instills (“Sometimes life can mean hard work,” “kindness matters,” and “what counts is doing your best”). This well-intentioned selection veers into cliche generously sprinkled with saccharine but manages to redeem itself with its appreciation for mothers and all that they may do. Endpapers include a “to” and “from” page framed in a heart, as well as a page where young gift givers or recipients can draw a picture of their Mamasaurus.
A syrupy tribute to mothers that may please fans of the series. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: March 5, 2024
ISBN: 9781728274300
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Sourcebooks Wonderland
Review Posted Online: Dec. 6, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2024
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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