WHEN YOU MEET A DRAGON

In this parable, a tot discovers and implements activism.

A small, brown-skinned child, accompanied by a racoon sidekick, tries to alert people in a city to an impending threat: an enormous, sky-filling, fire-breathing dragon. Initially folks laugh or deny that dragons exist, but the protagonist’s persistence overcomes resistance, and soon many pitch in to fill water buckets. A bigger child who’s “wise and patient” (and fearless) climbs a ladder to the dragon’s ear to try to persuade it but fails. Everyone works hard to clean up the smoldering consequences. The dragon defies them, but the dozen committed people (and animals, including the raccoon, a squirrel, a dog, and a cat) vow never to give up. Soon their numbers grow as people from other towns arrive to help. The dragon, looking miffed, finally just departs—but leaves a huge mess and doubts in its wake. Will it return? Maybe, but everyone now knows how to rally others and work together, and no one will have to “face it alone.” The illustrations are cheery; the characters are stylized but easily differentiated, and pages where the colorful art leaves no room for a vacuum alternate with well-composed designs against white space. The dragon is awe-inspiring but not nightmarish.

Teaches a worthwhile lesson in grit and teamwork.