A fine collection of mostly well-known short stories and excerpts from novels about dragons, including works by J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Kenneth Grahame, Andrew Lang, and E. Nesbit. Stories include ``Perseus and Andromeda,'' ``The Deliverers of Their Country,'' and ``St. George and the Dragon,'' and excerpts from ``The Hobbit'' and ``The Voyage of the Dawn Treader,'' among others. Of course, they are widely available elsewhere, but here are accompanied by Hague's lavish paintings. His dragons are imbued with highly individual personalities, including a particularly goofy-looking creature in ``The Reluctant Dragon.'' The people seemed to have stepped out of the pages of early 20th-century children's illustrations, but the glowing backgrounds and skies, in deep, rich palettes, mark them as Hague's. For fans of the artist this is another must-have; the cover is stunning. (Anthology. 10+)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1995
ISBN: 0-688-10879-2
Page Count: 146
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1995
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A striking and heartfelt debut.
Fifteen-year-old Marjan Dastani discovers hidden family secrets and assumes new responsibilities after her father dies.
Until his murder, Marjan’s Iranian immigrant father was a veterinarian who ran West Berkeley Animal Clinic. Now, the high school sophomore, whose Norwegian American mother died of cancer years earlier, is left trying to run the business. Francesca Wix, her African American neighbor, is now her legal guardian. As Marjan attempts to keep her father’s veterinary practice afloat, she ruminates on her resentment of the demands it made on her father’s time—and is startled to learn that she is part of an ancient lineage tasked with healing mythological creatures. The layers of complex emotional and identity issues Marjan tackles give her character great depth; moments when she reflects on her connection to Persian culture feel natural and raw. The more readers learn about how she helps fantastical animals, the more is revealed about her father and the mystery surrounding his death. Marjan also deals with emotional triggers that do not allow her to bury her feelings, and the exploration of grief will affect readers deeply. The detailed visual descriptions clearly conjure up the enchanting world Monsef has created, one populated by expressive, surreal beings, each of which has its own backstory.
A striking and heartfelt debut. (Fantasy. 10-14)Pub Date: April 4, 2023
ISBN: 9781665928502
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Jan. 24, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2023
Facing sneering peers, plus a cave full of vicious young dragons and two mountainous, malign adult ones, brings an ordinary Viking lad around to becoming a “Hero the Hard Way” in this farcical import. Dispatched to capture and train some breed of dragon as a rite of passage into the Hairy Hooligan Tribe, unprepossessing Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III returns not with a mighty Gronkle, or an aptly named Monstrous Nightmare, but a shrimpy creature laughingly dubbed “Toothless”—who also turns out to be about as trainable as a cat, with an attitude to match. But Hiccup and Toothless develop into a doughty team when two humongous, fire-breathing Sea Dragons pull up to shore, looking for the odd village or army to devour. Cowell adds lots of jagged, William Steig–like sketches to a narrative rich in dragon muck, cartoon violence, and characters with names like Snotlout and Dogsbreath the Duhbrain. Her genuinely fierce, intelligent, and scary dragons nearly steal the show, but Hiccup and his diminutive sidekick ultimately come out on top, both displaying a proper hero’s mix of quick wit, courage, and loyalty. (Fiction. 10-12)
Pub Date: May 1, 2004
ISBN: 0-316-73737-2
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2004
BOOK TO SCREEN
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