THE DRAGON AND THE GRUESOME TWOSOME

This story begins like the others in the series, including The Egg (2001), The Great Dragon Rescue (2004) and The Dragon Snatcher (2005): An English boy named George sits in his garden, concerned with little more than “his mother’s favourite chicken.” On the next page, he is without explanation transported to a land “where knights were bold, and carried big shiny swords to prove it.” The story then unfolds with fairy-tale predictability: The King will reward half his kingdom to anyone who rids the land of a pair of gruesome trolls, and of course, George can achieve what the entire army cannot. Robertson’s illustrations feature truly ugly trolls—twins with the same ears, bad taste in jewelry and severe underbite—and beautiful dragons, but the divide-and-conquer story line comes to a quick and tidy solution, with readers placed once again back in George’s yard with just the turn of a page. Recommended for fans of the series. (Picture book. 4-8)