An engaging collection, cast in modern but not anachronistic prose and equally suitable for reading aloud or alone.
Heroes, monsters, gods, and kings collide in 11 tales retold from ancient sources by a Scottish storyteller.
Battles and slaughter feature in most (though not all) of these exploits. Don opens with the tale of how Fafnir, transformed into a dragon by greed, is killed and closes with a riddle contest in which Odin himself is sent packing. In between, she tells of a warrior who accidently kills his shape-changing lady and protector; the death of the explorer Thorvald, brother of Leif Eiriksson, in what would come to be called North America; and a weary berserker who finds an abandoned baby and exchanges violence for “sleepless nights of teething, the strains of potty training and the many worries of a father.” As she explains in her excellent source notes, she leaves tedious family trees out of her retellings but adds elements to some yarns to suit modern young audiences—such as a captive polar bear who finds its way home from Denmark and how young Grettir the Strong rids a farm of an undead “zombie” by leaving its sliced-off head next to its “buttocks, to break the power of death.” In James’ cartoon illustrations the shaggy, smiling, light-skinned warriors and other human figures look far from ferocious, and even the monsters are decidedly nonthreatening.
An engaging collection, cast in modern but not anachronistic prose and equally suitable for reading aloud or alone. (Folk tales. 8-11)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-84780-681-9
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Frances Lincoln
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
More charged up than daunted by encounters in previous episodes with vampire squid, ninja frogs and a fearsome were-wiener, irrepressible dragonling Danny charges off into the Mexican jungle to visit Cousin Steve, a feathered lizard and bat scientist. Delivering her punch lines as usual in green-tinted cartoons strewn liberally through the narrative, Vernon dials up reader interest with, first, a visit to a bat cave (“The smell was eye-watering and pungent, and it crawled up inside your nose and your mouth and burned your eyes and your tear ducts and the roof of your mouth. It was like old cheese soaked in cat urine wrapped in gym socks dipped in boiled cabbage. ‘You get used to it…’ said Steve unconvincingly”). Then Danny’s suddenly kidnapped by Camazotz, a not–(as it turns out)–so-legendary monster bat with unsatisfied maternal instincts. A night of narrow squeaks ensues, capped by the discovery of a golden treasure guarded by Camazotz’s larger and much more hostile mate. Thanks largely to the efforts of Danny’s nerdy sidekick Wendell, the scaly buddies do get home by morning—but not before readers get plenty of reasons to echo Danny’s trademark: “That. Is. So. Cool!” (Graphic hybrid fantasy. 8-11)
Pub Date: March 17, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-8037-3525-5
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: Jan. 8, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2011
“It’s impossible! It’s unnatural! It’s weird!” exclaims Suki. Readers will echo Danny’s response: “Good enough for me!”...
Tasked with driving a fearsome Dream Wasp away from Wendell, their nerdy reptilian buddy, Danny Dragonbreath and Suki the salamander crawl into his sleeping brain. Eeeww.
So exhausted from lack of rest that he gets an A- on a test and reluctant to seek help from his New-Age mother (“No, Mom, not the kelp!”), Wendell turns in desperation to Danny’s wise if mythological great-grandfather Dragonbreath for advice. Thus it is that Danny and Suki, with a “baku” (dream eater) in tow, are soon on their way. They stumble through dream chambers stuffed with mounds of unappetizing health food, run from monstrous school bullies and search zillions of books (Reasons That I Will Die of Shame if Suki Ever Finds Out I Like Her) on the way to climactically vanquishing the giant Wasp (eek) and smashing her slime-filled eggs (yuck). As in episodes past, Vernon tells the tale in a running mix of prose and green-highlighted drawings with dialogue balloons, slides in wisecracks galore and closes with a teaser for the next chapter (something involving “mutant thieves”).
“It’s impossible! It’s unnatural! It’s weird!” exclaims Suki. Readers will echo Danny’s response: “Good enough for me!” (Graphic hybrid fantasy. 8-11)Pub Date: Jan. 29, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-8037-3846-1
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: Oct. 30, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2012
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