IN COMPANY OF THE DRAGON

Torrey, a young girl with legendary connections to the natural world, enlists the help of friends of various ethnic backgrounds to fight the monster that threatens to consume nature entirely.

The protagonist and her dog, Charlie-Gobbles, are surprised to find a sweet baby dragon in the park one evening. As it follows them home, Torrey realizes that the adults they pass do not see the creature, nor the red ribbon it tends to morph into when traveling in public. Children, on the other hand, are privy to the sight of the dragon that “seemed lost, almost as if someone had shocked him with a stun gun.” Once Torrey and her friends figure out what to feed it–the dragon reveals an indefatigable passion for vegetation–the creature starts to grow exponentially. Soon they discover the dragon is not quite as benign as they first thought. Overnight, it eats the park and makes a start on the surrounding nature preserve. Luckily, with the help of a wise Chinese hermit, the children form a plan to stop the beast. The book is a blatant call to arms, and Toman reveals more than a passing familiarity with biology and marine biology. Her descriptions of the fish tank and the paintings in Mr. Meng zi’s house include detailed lists of fish and animals, species thriving and extinct. She is obviously passionate about curbing global warming, but this passion is revealed through a plot that relies too heavily on manufactured coincidence, like Little Jiro’s collection of hat pins that they use to defeat the dragon, and stereotypical characters, like Mr. Meng zi, the Chinese hermit who reveals to Torrey her destiny as savior of the natural world. The author is capable of lovely phrases like, “The next morning, the sun fractured into the bedroom,” but the strength of these original descriptions is diluted by grammatical inconsistencies such as fluctuating verb tenses and adjective/adverb confusion. The few crayon drawings do not add enough visual flair to the book. Though it encourages children to take better care of the earth, this narrative doesn’t sufficiently impart the importance of stewardship.

An impassioned plea to children that should be more engaging.