DON'T FORGET TO WAKE THE DRAGONS BEFORE SCHOOL.

LOVE,
MOM

“Let sleeping dragons lie” is the watchword of fantasy tales, but in this little knight’s case, that is NOT an option. MOM SAID!

But a dragon is a drag to get out of bed. Even the smoke from his nostrils is barely rising!

DRAGONS WAKE UP.

DRAGONS RISE.

DRAGONS OPEN

DRAGONS’ EYES.

Already up and at ‘em and in his armor and greaves, our little knight still quails a bit, looking eyeball to eyeball with a bleary-eyed dragon who would rather stay in bed. But his mom said to wake the dragon, and our knight knows his duty and is determined to do it. He drags the dragon’s covers off and get him to the sink for a fang-brushing, with the little knight manhandling the dragon-sized toothbrush, and then it’s off to the kitchen to break their fast.

Dragon is still draggin’, but luckily there is a handy labor-saving device for those tasty waffles. Our knight knows his way around siege machines and soon puts his toy catapult to work tossing waffles right into dragon’s mouth. Then it’s time to jam the used jammies into the hamper, find their backpacks, and then–forget the big yellow bus: it’s time to get to Knight School the fun way:

INTO THE SKY,

WHERE DRAGONS
GET TO FLY.

It’s a light-hearted look at getting off to school on dragonback for Jane Yolen and Derek Anderson in their delightful new book, Waking Dragons (Simon & Schuster, 2012). Award-winning fantasy writer Jane Yolen knows from dragons, and to her rhythmic rhymes Derek Anderson plays the trusty illustrative squire in this eye-opening humorous morning tale which really takes off. A cheery morning read-aloud or a fine book for those "early" emergent readers to try out their word attack skills.