Hold Your Fire! Dragons Love Tacos by Adam Rubin

MAYBE IT'S THE SMELL OF THE SIZZLING PAN.

MAYBE IT'S THE CRUNCH OF THE CRISPY TORTILLAS.

MAYBE IT'S A SECRET.

EITHER WAY, IF YOU WANT TO MAKE FRIENDS WITH WITH DRAGONS, TACOS ARE KEY.

And if you are entertaining dragons, you'd better have lots of tacos. Boatloads of tacos. Really.

But there's one thing you must NOT have with the tacos. SPICY salsa. (Not unless you want to throw a party that will make the Olympic cauldron look like a backyard barbecue.)

That means no hot chili peppers in the salsa. NO hot chilis. No jalapenos, no serranos, no anchos, no poblanos. And not even a whiff of Tabasco.

That means MILD SALSA only. What's that at the bottom of that label in really small print?

Totally Mild Salsa. {Now with spicy Jalapeno peppers.]

Jalapenos? Stop the party. Don't let those dragons get to the plates of tacos. Stop that one--the one about to take a bite!

TOO LATE!

KBLOOOOEY! Fiery breath everywhere. The dragon party is a flaming success, if you don't count the burned-down houses.

The dragons are apologetic, and get busy rebuilding the charred houses until the neighborhood is restored.

MAYBE THEY'RE GOOD SAMARITANS.

MAYBE THEY'RE JUST IN IT FOR THE TACO BREAKS.

Together again after their 2008 hit Those Darn Squirrels! (Clarion), this talented pair of jokesters are back again with another hot hit, Dragons Love Tacos (Dial, 2012). Adam Rubin contributes a breezy, off-the-cuff narrative style while Daniel Salmieri's stylized guouache and colored pencil illustrations are an object lesson in visual humor. Publishers Weekly quips that this book gives "a whole new meaning to 'housewarming,'" and says it is "off-kilter fun for those who like their picture books (and salsa) zesty and fresh."