In this send-up of a familiar tale, a hard-of-hearing fairy manages to modify the crib-side curse so that instead of dying under the wheels of a pie wagon, the princess will turn into a sleeping dragon, who can only be awakened by a quince. Up grows the princess, so perfect thanks to her other fairy gifts that she has no friends, and when the curse finally strikes, she is transformed into a huge, snoring dragon—with red lips and nails, in Fine’s typically boisterous illustrations. Nor can any wake her, until the arrival of dapper Prince Quince, whose kiss reverses the curse . . . with, that is, one important exception that only becomes apparent on their wedding night. Nonetheless, thanks to a pair of earplugs “they lived happily—and noisily—ever after.” Hale gives the story a frog narrator, a cast with silly names and the lightly applied message that nobody’s quite perfect. Set this next to the similarly themed likes of Jane Yolen’s Sleeping Ugly (1981) or Margie Palatini’s Three Silly Billies (2005). (Picture book. 7-9)
Pub Date: May 1, 2008
ISBN: 978-0-15-216314-3
Page Count: 44
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2008
Polacco again exercises the surprising streak of goofiness revealed in The Graves Family (2003). Doug and Shalleaux Graves take off, with attendant children, oversized spiders and other household companions for Lake Bleakmire—a site so isolated that, along with Vernicious Knids, gnashing knarps, bilge leeches and other atypical fauna, the last Flatulent Sulphuric Fermious Flying Griffin (more commonly known as fire breathing dragon) lurks. Several misadventures later the Graves break away, despite the lonely monster’s efforts to trap them, only to discover back home that it has followed along, eager for more of Mrs. Graves’s delectable Jum Jill pastries. Wielding her brushes in a quicker, more cartoony fashion than usual, Polacco places her freewheeling, carrot-topped clan amid all sorts of oogy creatures, capped by a scaly, bat-winged behemoth whose explosive eructations ultimately provide the town of Union City with its most spectacular Fourth of July fireworks show ever. Delightfully gross and utterly unserious. (Picture book. 7-9)
Pub Date: May 1, 2005
ISBN: 0-399-24369-0
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2005
What is it about dragons that so appeals to children and fantasy readers? While visiting his cousin Daisy, Jesse finds a geode that even a geologist’s band saw cannot open. It’s no geode, of course, but a dragon’s egg, which hatches volcanically in his sock drawer. Of the two children, Daisy is the more active and adventurous, while Jesse tends toward thoughtfulness, but they are both determined to hang onto their new pet. Of course, all babies grow larger and Emmy, the dragon, who talks in a staccato English (One. Word. At. A. Time.) becomes a handful to feed, entertain and hide. All would go smoothly if not for a new professor at the college, the very unpleasant and dangerous Professor Saint George, who has terrible breath and who will stop at nothing to have the dragon for his very own. Some tense moments occur as the children rescue Emmy from the evil professor before all ends well. The characterization is black-and-white in this mild adventure story for readers who have not yet graduated to fuller fantasies. (Fantasy. 7-9)
Pub Date: July 22, 2008
ISBN: 978-0-375-85587-0
Page Count: 176
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2008
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