THERE WAS AN OLD DRAGON WHO SWALLOWED A KNIGHT

In days of yore, before a certain fly’s ultimately fatal encounter with an Old Lady, there was an old dragon who felt rather peckish.

“There was an old dragon who swallowed a knight. / I don’t know why he swallowed the knight // It’s not polite!” He follows the knight with the knight’s steed (“that galloped around at a terrible speed”). Then a squire, a cook, a lady, a castle, and finally a moat are each swallowed in turn. But…“With all of that water, he started to bloat. / And that’s when the dragon roared, and I quote: / ‘Okay, enough! I’ve had enough— / More than enough of this swallowing stuff!’ ” So realizing that eating all those things might have been “a tad impolite,” the old dragon burps them all out in reverse except the knight (which is “ahhh…just right”). Klostermann’s debut is a rollicking and warped Medieval take on the well-worn cumulative rhyme. Prolific British animator and illustrator Mantle’s expressive and bright cartoon illustrations of the red, horned dragon (and the contents of his stomach) are a perfect match. The antics within the dragon’s stomach—every image of the steed is accompanied by a little “clippity, clippity, clippity, clop” in teeny type—and his copious burping will leave ’em laughing.

No matter how many swallowed-fly titles you own, this one belongs on your shelf too.