No matter how silly it gets, this title never loses its engagement with readers.
A big blue monster and a little yellow monster try to drum up an entertaining dragon story for the audience.
“Oh, hi, everybody,” says the big blue monster at the start of this cockamamie tale. “Want to hear a story? Great!” It is a brief story. “So, there’s this kid… // And he gets eaten by a dragon. / The End!” The little yellow monster suggests a slightly longer tale—one without a dragon. But the big blue monster insists on a hungry dragon character. “Dragon stories usually don’t end well,” warns the little yellow monster. “But, if you insist...” and out comes a story of a dragon that does end well for all concerned, for it was Tuesday, and, as is stipulated on the dragon menu, Tuesday is noodles only. Back in the frame story, the big blue monster says the story is ridiculous, though it doesn’t really matter because a hungry dragon arrives on the storytelling scene and, it being Wednesday, when monsters are on the menu, well…“GULP!” This recursive tale invites young readers right into the storytelling process to create their own, as well as to enjoy the efforts of the two monsters. And Bentley’s artwork, which has the look and liveliness of animated cartoons, works well with the broad fits and starts of storytelling. Pleasingly, in the story within the story, it is the clever damsel of color who saves the day and not the milquetoast white knight.
No matter how silly it gets, this title never loses its engagement with readers. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: March 26, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-338-12551-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Nov. 20, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2018
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Fans of the series will delight in seeing these favorites again, and Girl and Dragon should win some new ones.
A young girl and a dragon take their sweet friendship on an adventure.
After sharing the beginning and deepening of their friendship in Lovabye Dragon (2012) and Evermore Dragon (2015), Joosse puts this twosome on a journey to the high seas. Girl, forever sleeping in her same bed, dreams of sailing away. Dragon, snug in his lair, dreams of sailing with Girl. “Sometimes when friends share a heart / they dream the same thing, apart.” So they pack a wicker basket, a spyglass, and a banner and wave goodbye. The ocean provides plenty of interest with dolphins, whales, and Bad Hats with ratty beards (depicted as Vikings who differ only in the amount of their facial hair). There’s also a cat. The dreamy, highly textured oil pictures by Cecil in his signature palette of gentle grays, greens, and blues make the transition from land to sea seamlessly. With a tender nod to “The Owl and the Pussycat,” the scenery is full of diversions while the clever rhyming verse full of wordplay drifts the story farther from Home. The hazy images allow young minds to see this tiny princess with dark hair as racially ambiguous. As in many famous stories, one must leave home to find home, which is the same for these two loving friends. “With Dragon as boat / and Girl as crew / there was nothing—nothing—they couldn’t do!”
Fans of the series will delight in seeing these favorites again, and Girl and Dragon should win some new ones. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Oct. 24, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-7636-7313-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Aug. 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2017
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