Teller of Tales: Duncan the Story Dragon by Amanda Driscoll

DUNCAN THE DRAGON LOVED TO READ.

WHEN DUNCAN READ BOOKS, THE STORIES CAME ALIVE.

AND HIS IMAGINATION CAUGHT FIRE.

UNFORTUNATELY, SO DID HIS BOOKS.

After all, Duncan is a dragon, and for a dragon, fiery breath goes with the territory, right?

But for a bibliophilic little dragon, that's a major glitch in the system.

Duncan never gets to finish a book. Just when it starts to get good, POOF! It's up in smoke.

Duncan tries to cool it. He sits in a circle of every electric fan in the house. The good news is that the pages turn themselves in the breeze, but the bad news is that he stills spouts flame and vaporizes his story. He scrunches himself into the fridge, but it gets defrosted when he scorches the story.

He tries chilling out in a bathtub full of ice cubes. His booty is freezing, but his breath is as flaming as ever.

He looks for someone to read the stories to him. Strangely, his friendly neighborhood raccoon declines the honor. A 'possum up a tree elects to play dead. PLOOP! The big bull in the meadow chases him right up a tree. Yeow!

Will Duncan ever get to that last page, with those two words as sweet as the last slurp of a milkshake?

THE END.

Sometimes it just takes a special mouse to finish a book in Amanda Driscoll's Duncan the Story Dragon (Alfred A. Knopf, 2015), a tale of a book lover who provides plenty of heat for the treats--roasted hot dogs and toasted marshmallows--for his designated reader. Duncan is a darling dragon in little coming-untied red tennies in Driscoll's charming full-page and spot-art illustrations. A nice story of friendship found and books finally finished. As Kirkus Reviews adds, "Like the last sip of a chocolate milkshake, it's very satisfying."

Mom Knows Best: Stinky Feet the Dragon by Rhonda Stewart

ELVIN WAS A BEAUTIFUL DRAGON, WITH COLORS THAT SHIMMERED AND GLEAMED. HIS SCALES WERE LIKE PAINTED GLASS THAT SPARKLED WHEN THE SUN SHINED.

BUT ELVIN THE DRAGON HAD A PROBLEM.

No, it wasn't his fiery breath. It wasn't that his wings were too small to get him off the ground.  It wasn't that he couldn't go out to play because he had to guard his hoard in the family lair.

HE HAD.. . STINKY FEET!

Who ever heard of a dragon with stinky feet? But whenever he came down the mountain to the playground to try to make friends withe the children, they shrieked and ran away. When he dropped in on the public pool, the swimmers screamed and scampered for home.

Trailing clouds of serious stink, Elvin the Dragon was draggin' his feet toward his mountain when Mr. Leatherman the shoemaker spotted him.

"WHAT'S WRONG, ELVIN?" MR. LEATHERMAN ASKED.

"THE KIDS WON'T PLAY WITH ME BECAUSE I HAVE STINKY FEET."

MR. LEATHERMAN SMILED AND SAID, "YOU KNOW, ELVIN, JUST WHEN THINGS SEEM DARK, THERE'S USUALLY A RAINBOW RIGHT AROUND THE CORNER."

But Elvin is not buying it.  There's not a rainbow in sight as he drags his scaly tail up the winding path to his mountaintop.

But Mom has a big hug and a BIG surprise in the stack of boxes waiting for him. Inside the boxes are all sorts of shoes.

"MOM! DRAGONS DON'T WEAR SHOES!" ELVIN SAID.

"THEY DO NOW!" MOM SMILED.

Who knew that shoes and fancy socks could counter his stinky feet? It's worth a try, and Elvin, shod in his new red sneakers, tries a casual approach to the kids in the park.

"HI, KIDS!"

Nobody runs away, screaming and holding their noses. Elvin is no longer Stinky Feet the Dragon. He's just a friend come to play.

Everything's coming up rainbows for Elvin, in Rhonda Stewart's Stinky Feet, the Dragon (Inspiring Voices, 2015).  Foot hygiene is an unusual playground problem, but it seems that dragon moms are up to the challenge in this simple little lighthearted tale. Cortni Green's artwork is done up in coloring-book styled blackline outlines filled in with colored pencil for the dragon, and faux naif drawings of the children--with, of course, the inevitable child-styled rainbow at the conclusion, which may just inspire young readers to pull out their pencils and crayons and create their own adventures for Elvin the Dragon.

Heart to Heart! Evermore Dragon by Barbara Joose

AT THE BREAK OF DERRY-DAY

THE FRIENDS DECIDED WHAT TO PLAY.

"HIDE-AND-SEEK! HIDE-AND-SEEK!"

DRAGON JUMPED UP AND DOWN. "ME FIRST!"

While Girl closes her eyes to count, Dragon hustles off to hide--behind a rather small (that is to say, way too little rock to hide his bulky, angular body. But Girl kindly pretends to search for him fruitlessly.

SHE PEEKED INSIDE HIS LAIR.

"NO, HE ISN'T THERE!

As she feigns being flummoxed, Dragon jumps out with a jolly "BOO!" and Girl declares him the cleverest Dragon ever!

But now it is Girl's turn to hide and she is determined to show Dragon she can be truly clever. She climbs inside a hole in a tree, and totally concealed, she waits to be found.

DRAGON LOOKS EVERYWHERE... EVERY HERE, EVERY THERE.

And Girl waits... and waits, and finally falls asleep in the cozy dark of the hollow. But when she awakes, it's not bright derry-day; it is  a deep, deep dark outside her hiding place, too. Where is Dragon? Girl tries not to cry, but she cannot control the loud, fast beating of her heart.

And still searching, the loyal Dragon's super senses catch the faint sound of her heart.

AND HE BREATHED HIS DRAGON FIRE

AND IT LIGHTED UP THE SKY.

And all's well that ends well for the frightened maiden and her protector dragon, in Caldecott-winning author (for Mama, Do You Love Me?) Barbara Joosse in her Evermore Dragon (Candlewick Press, 2015), a companion book to her Lovabye Dragon. (see my 2012 review here). Damsels and dragons are a staple of folkloric tales, and Joose's clever wordplay and artist Randy Cecil's atypical fairy-tale illustrations make a striking pair together in this quixotic picture book. As Publishers Weekly puts it, "The unexpected contours of Cecil's figures, like Girl's pancake-flat head and Dragon's ping pong ball eyes, add smiles, but there's also unexpected depth in the tiny, scratchy strokes and dusky shades of his paintings. It's a noteworthy alternative to more commercially flavored princess stories."

Family History! Dragon's Extraordinary Egg by Debi Gliori

IT'S BEDTIME IN THE LAND OF ICE AND SNOW.

"NIGHT-NIGHT!" SAYS BIB'S MOMMY.

"PLEASE READ ME A STORY," SAYS BIB.

Mom agrees, with the usual stipulation that there will be just one before sleep-tight time, and opens a storybook with a dragon on the cover. It tells of a time when the dragons flew far south to the land of ice and snow and sheltered in a mountain with a fire inside for warmth. They flourished and in time all the lady dragons laid eggs of their own--all but one.

This dragon was very sad, and left the other proud mommy dragons to be alone.

"POOR DRAGON," SAID BIB.

"I KNOW," SAID MOMMY, BUT... SOMETIMES THINGS HAPPEN FOR THE BEST."

But one day she finds an egg, a smallish one, with no mother to keep it warm. But when it hatches, it is not a scaly baby dragon at all, but a downy penguin baby. Still, the Mommy Dragon loves her baby, names it Little One, and takes her back home where the other babies are growing up.

The dragon gives Little One all her love and time, But the other little dragons know a penguin is not a dragon, and they are mean to her.

"YOU'RE NOT A REAL DRAGON. YOU CAN'T BREATHE FIRE. YOU'RE COVERED IN...FEATHERS!

WIMP!"

But Little One has her feet firmly on the ground, and she suddenly feels that the mountain is growing warm, too warm, and she realizes that it is a volcano, about to blow its top.

"FLEE!" SHE CRIES.

The dragons take to their wings, but Little One has no way to escape but to sled down the mountain to safety on her smooth, feathery tummy.

Then she spots an egg, a small egg....

Mommy closes the storybook and looks at Bib.

"THEN THE EGG HATCHED, AND WHO DO YOU THINK WAS INSIDE?: SHE SAYS.

"YOU!"

"I WAS THE EGG AND YOU WERE LITTLE ONE!" BIB CRIES!

The story Mommy read was indeed her family story, but Debi Gliori's Dragon's Extraordinary Egg (Bloomsbury, 2014), has yet one more surprise in store, as Grandma Dragon appears just in time to read their own story to Bib again.

Author-illustrator Gliori tells this story with lyrical language and lovely illustrations that contrast the large angular dragons with the small sleek penguins. This is a appealing story of an unusual family, but one filled with plenty of love. "One would be hard-pressed to find a warmer or more engaging adoption/blended-family tale than this one," says Kirkus in their starred review.

Flying High: Freddie and Gingersnap by Vincent X. Kirsch

TO A LITTLE DINOSAUR LIKE FREDDIE, IT LOOKED AS IF THE OTHER DINOSAURS HAD THEIR HEADS IN THE CLOUDS.

Freddie is obsessed with seeing what is up there in the wild blue yonder. But Freddie is a long-neck, not a pterodactyl, and he hasn't got either patience to wait or the wings for flying.

Gingersnap, a little purple girl dragon, has the wings, but she hasn't gotten the hang of getting off the ground with them yet.

The two meet rather suddenly when Gingersnap tries to launch herself into the wild blue yonder and lands right on Freddy. The two face off, baring their little fangs and twirling their spiny tales, eyeball to eyeball, growling their fiercest little growls.

Then the chase is on!

But what starts as a face-off quickly turns into a fun game, and round and round they go, as they take turns catching each other and wiggling free. But just as Freddie gets a good hold on Gingersnap's tail, the two tumble over a cliff, endng with twin kerplops, into an unfortunately placed brier patch.

There's got to be a better way to play!

The two new friends decide to join forces and work on the flying thing together, and with Freddie's unique encouragement, Gingersnap's flaps finally turn into flight, and they both see what's above those clouds at last, in Vincent Kirsch's Freddie & Gingersnap (Hyperion Press, 2014).

A little green dino and a purple dragonette are improbable pals, but as many childhood friendships do, rivalry turns into teamwork, and a lasting bond is born. Kirsch's energetic artwork eschews the conventionally softly rounded shapes usually assigned to little dinosaurs and young dragons, and their spiky and sinuous bodies give this little story its wryly comic edge. Youngsters will especially enjoy Kirsch's well placed three-page vertical gatefold depicting Gingersnap and Freddie's long fall from the cliff, and by the time Ginger gets it together and flies high with her friend on board, kids will be rooting for this unlikely twosome all the way. "This stylish tale of an unlikely friendship has an infectious rhythm," says School Library Journal.

Quiet! Dragon Dad Napping! One Drowsy Dragon by Ethan Long

THREE dancing dragons
learn to tap, tap, tap.

TAPPITY TAPPITY  TAP TAP  TAPPITY 

One groggy dragon groans,
"I want to nap!"


Kids just want to have fun.

Dad just needs to catch up on his sleep.

In an inventive counting book that just won't quit, Ethan Long's One Drowsy Dragon  (Orchard Books) is a cacophonous celebration of onomatopoeia and rhyme, as first one little dragon taps out some percussion on his tin cup, a pair of  space-warring little alien wannabees shoot it out with their zap guns, and at last nine noise-making little dragonettes find yet another way to keep Dad awake.

Not since Dr. Seuss's little bears decided to hop on pop has there been a merrier group of kids keeping Dad from his nap. Dad Dragon, all set for sleep with his long nightcap and blankie, can't catch a single Z with these kids making a racket with scary videos, jamming with their garage band, and even playing a clackety croquet game.

But after a day of uproar, even little dragons get tired, and finally Daddy Dragon gets his due and the kids get a bit of payback!

One drowsy dragon finally snores deep.

              GRUNT! SLURP! SMACK! SNORE!

TEN drowsy dragons say..."TIME to sleep!"

Kids will love this story for its silly noises, and parents will appreciate the chance to teach some awesome adjectives and diverse verbs along the way. And, like all good bedtime stories, at the end the kids do settle down for sleep. "A solid storytime choice that covers several popular picture-book topics, including counting, colors, dragons, and bedtime," says School Library Journal.

Three-Alarm Dragon! Oh, No, Little Dragon! by Jim Averbeck

Little Dragon is clearly coming into his fiery powers. Thanks to that spark in his heart, he can huff and puff up a pretty impressive PHOOOSH! and push out an impressive plume of flame, earning a congratulatory kiss from Mommy.

But like most youngsters, he just can't resist upping the ante.

PHOO-PHOOSH! PHOO-PHOOSH! PHOO-PHOOOSH!!!

"Oh, Little Dragon," says Mama.

"I love your flame! But look how sooty you are. Time for a bath!"

Like most youngsters, Little Dragon also hates a bath--until he's in it. Then he loves it. He brings along his little Viking boat and begins to see what he can do to pester its imaginary crew. He tries out a little flame, and then a bigger one, and then a final Phoooosh scorches his ship to a fiery crisp. Luckily, Little Dragon knows what it takes to cope with his overheated pyrotechnics--and he's sitting in a full tub of it!

CANNONBAAALL!

Little Dragon's dive generates a mini-tsunami in the tub, one that not only sinks his boat, but inundates him as well. GLUG! Oh, no!

The fire on board ship is quenched, but unfortunately, so is his own internal flame. A phooosh! produces nothing but a tiny puff of smoke! Little Dragon tries all the "draconian" home remedies--dressing warmly, rubbing his tummy till it's pink, and finally gobbling hot chili peppers. That one is counterproductive, producing only watery eyes! Who can help Little Dragon re-kindle the spark in his heart?

Jim Averbeck's jolly latest, Oh No, Little Dragon! (Atheneum, 2012) knows that mamas have the remedy for 'most everything when it comes to their youngsters. Averbeck's simple comic illustrations of a dragon family and their appropriately furnished castle are fine chuckle-bait for a preschool storytime, with its well-paced text and refrain of "Oh, NO!" as Little Dragon's incendiary powers blow hot and cold.  While Publishers Weekly dutifully points out that this theme is a bit,  well, warmed over, its reviewer adds "this endearingly impish hero should find fans."

Fireworks! Goodnight, Dragons by Judith L. Roth

Everyone needs a cuddle. Maybe dragons more than most.

If there were such things as dragons, there might be reason to fear them.

But in Judith Roth's latest, Goodnight, Dragons (Hyperion, 2012), no one could be intimidated by her pudgy, cuddly green guys, even if they do manage to spout a little fire to warm up a cauldron of hot chocolate to share with a clever little bedtime boy, who's obviously the man with a plan:

They drop from the sky like huge, grouchy bats.

But I wrap them in blankets, soft as modern mist.

I settle them in clover gentle as springtime.

Before you know it, this bedtime boy has them busy warming his cocoa, and with full tummies and warm blankies, you know where this one is going! Pascal Lemaitre's cutesy dragons bank their fires and fold their wings for the night and it's off to dreamland in the proverbial trice.

Taming the bedtime meanies is child's play in this simple little sleepytime saga. Unless, of course,--if you'd never heard of scary dragons before--would you now be wide awake worrying about them? Keep the cocoa mix handy!

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."

Beach Beast: When A Dragon Moves In by Jodi Moore

IF YOU BUILD A PERFECT SANDCASTLE, A DRAGON WILL MOVE IN.

This kid is all set for fun in the sun, something grand in the sand, being brave in the waves.

But Mom has her nose in her book, and she's not even halfway through it. Dad is stretched out on his beach towel, pursuing nothing but the perfect tan and perhaps an undisturbed little nap in the sun. And his big sister? Don't even ask.

What this beach trip needs is a a little pick-me-up, a little excitement, a touch of some genuine boy-type imagination. What he needs is a dragon in his sandcastle! And, hey, there he is!

HE'LL SETTLE IN COZY AND PEEP AT YOU FROM INSIDE,
AND YOU'LL WONDER HOW YOU EVER GOT SO LUCKY!

And for a while the boy and his dragon have a real beach ball! The dragon toasts up an instant batch of roasted marshmallows, and the two fly his kite the highest yet, blow bubbles that float out to sea on the ocean breeze, and toss the Frisbee back and forth. But then, the boy gets the urge to tell the family all about his beach dragon.

"UMM-HMMMN!"says Mom, turning the page in her page-turner.

He tries to get Dad to admire a feather from his dragon's wing.

"NICE SEAGULL FEATHER...." says Dad. "AND YOU KNOW WHAT FEATHERS ARE GOOD FOR?"

Dad gets off his towel long enough to grab that feather and give him a good tickling. No respect!

Sis spurns his collected dragon's teeth, declaring them nothing but pieces of shell.

What does a guy have to do to get appreciation for his dragon friend? It's time to ratchet up the mischief and see if he can get some admiration out of these dragon doubters.

He eats up all the peanut butter sandwiches Mom made for everyone's lunch, and leaves dragon clawprints on all the brownies! How about kicking a little sand on his sister? That should get his dragon some respect! But Dad has another point of view.

"WE'VE HAD ENOUGH OF THIS DRAGON BUSINESS!!!"

And in Jodi Moore's When a Dragon Moves In(Flashlight, 2011), our imaginative little boy reluctantly swears off dragon tenants--for now, but we know that that dragon will only vacate the sandcastle temporarily. Howard McWilliam's pencil and computer assisted illustrations get into the spirit of the pretense and underscore the humor of a sandcastle situation in a way youngsters will easily get into. A good way to kick off the summer beach season!

Beware! Fledging Dragon! The Dragon in the Library by Kate Klimo

Daisy opened the garage door and Jesse made a dramatic entrance. "Ta-da!" he said, holding the tall frosted glass of Brussels sprouts smoothie up high. He had garnished it with a sprig of mint and had even stuck two straws in it. He carried it over to Emmy and held it to her lips. The cousins watched as their pet dragon opened her bright pink mouth, fastened her lips around the st4raw and nearly emptied the glass in one long, noisy slurp.

"Patooooie!" Emmy spat out the smoothie--and both straws, too--all over the garage floor.

The adolescent Emmy, short for Emerald, is in an uncharacteristic funk, and ten-year-old dragon keepers Daisy and Jesse are unable to diagnose the cause of her cranky mood. All Emmy wants to do is curl up in her nest in the garage and speed read E. Nesbitt's Dragon Tales in solitude. Aside from an occasional trip to the library with the kids, masked in her usual magical disguise as a large sheepdog, Emmy is just not herself. Sure, when she had just hatched in Jesse's sock drawer, she sometimes spit out foods she didn't like, but it was cute then. Now that Emmy is half-grown and as big as an elephant, it's just plain messy--and worrisome. The kids decide it's time for a consultation with their on-line dragon guru, Professor Anderson.

But as soon as the Professor appears on screen, he announces "There's a matter of grave importance I need to discuss with you," and warns that the evil St. George, known as "Skinner" for his habit of slaying and flaying dragons for their magical skins, is on the loose. "Red alert, Dragon Keepers!" the Professor warns.

And he's right. Soon the kids learn that the evil Sadie Huffington, television's diva of doggy behavior classes, has kidnapped the Professor and is holding him prisoner in her nearby faux medieval castle--and his ransom is that the young dragon keepers turn over their Emmy to her.

Provisioned with Mrs. Alodie's potent valerian tea and some apparently magical dog biscuits, the two set off, with the still grumpy Emmy masked as their pet for the library's annual Pets Allowed Sleepover Party. But Jesse and Daisy are not planning to do much sleeping; their objective is to stay awake until all is quiet and to sneak into the off-limits adult nonfiction section to locate a book on local historic buildings, hoping to find a floor plan of Sadie's castle that will enable them to elude her vicious man-dog guards and rescue the Professor.

But the kids soon run into much more than an illicit escapade in the stacks--in fact, their encounter with William Wink, a strangely garrulous "shelf elf," leads them to an extreme library experience, a trip down below to the magical Scriptorium, the redoubt where slain dragons live within their own magical books.

"Think of it as heaven, with visiting privileges. Traveling privileges as well. These volumes contain the sum total of the lives of the dragons that lived them: their thoughts, ideas, sermons, lectures, homilies, theories, spells, poetry, philosophy, psychology, recipes, helpful hints, pithy sayings...hopes and dreams for those who follow." William Wink sucked in a a deep breath, exhaled, and then smiled.

Shelf Elf Wink summons the deceased dragon Balthazaar of Belvedere from his own book and as the ghostly dragon tells his story, Jesse and Daisy realize with horror that Sadie Huffington is more than an opportunistic cable-channel sensation seeker: she is the evil Sadra Uffington of legend, who plans to capture Emmy and reinstate the rule of her betrothed George the Dragon Slayer. It's all up to Jesse, Daisy, and Emmy to infiltrate her castle and save the Professor and all dragondom from destruction.

In this third installment in her popular Dragon Keepers series, Kate Klimo picks up the action right where Dragon Keepers #2: The Dragon in the Driveway left off. Dragon Keepers #3: The Dragon in the Library (Random House, 2010) broadens the adventure as Emerald the baby dragon grows into her magical powers and unfurls her newly fledged dragon wings to fly them into further adventures. Middle readers who are not quite ready to, er, scale up to Christopher Paolini's extensive Eragon books or Chris D'Lacey's exciting Last Dragon Chronicles will find Klimo's witty young dragon keepers good guides into the world of world of draconology. And readers who can't wait for the next dragon fantasy in this series should dig into Chris D'Lacey's charming The Dragons of Wayward Crescent books.

Measure for Measure: Gauge (The Dragons of Wayward Crescent) by Chris D'Lacey

Lucy Pennykettle could definitely smell burning. This was not unusual in her house at Number 42 Wayward Crescent. Lucy's mother, Liz, made clay dragons for living, and as everyone knows, dragons breathe fire--well, some of Liz's special dragons did, anyway.

Lucy's mom is more than a gifted potter with a talent for one-of-a-kind dragon sculptures. She is also a secret keeper of the ancient magical "flame" that is capable of preserving the ancient race of dragons in her little figures.

In the second of Chris D'Lacey's beginning chapter series of The Dragons of Wayward Crescent, Lucy Pennykettle falls in love with her mom's latest creation, Gauge, an earnest little dragon bearing an arcane device which enables him to calibrate measuring devices with perfect accuracy.

And it isn't long before Gauge's special abilities are needed. Lucy learns that the the town's historic library clock tower is to be demolished and replaced with a digital timepiece quite out of character with her small English town. Quickly, Liz and Lucy organize a demonstration of preservationists to confront their pigheaded councilman, Roger Trustable, in front of a hastily assembled collection of regional television cameras and townspeople. Councilman Trustable staunchly insists that the clock's ancient works are hopelessly beyond repair. While her mom and teacher Mrs. Baxter divert attention by chaining themselves to the library carts downstairs, Lucy tries to sneak Gauge into the tower so that he and his magical measuring device can diagnose the old clock's malady and find a way to get it running properly again.

Trustable and his henchman Mr. Higson discover Lucy's plan and, just as Gauge gets to work diagnosing the problem, they literally attempt to clog up the clock works. But their malefactions summon an unsuspected ally for Lucy and Gauge--the tower's resident ghost Sir Rufus Trenchcombe, who alone knows the historic way to restart the clock.

Lucy Pennykettle and her tiny dragon cohorts are novel and engaging characters in the latest in this series, Gauge (The Dragons Of Wayward Crescent) (Scholastic, 2010). For the youngest fans of dragon lore and the fantasy-loving followers of Mary Pope Osborne's Magic Tree House series, these beginning chapter books, with their lively illustrations and their close-to-home adventures in cozy settings, are a good fit.

For older readers, who like their dragons a bit more hot-tempered, see D'Lacey's middle reader adventure series, The Last Dragon Chronicles, beginning with his best-selling adventure tale, The Fire Within.

Tit for Tat: No Hugs Till Saturday by Julie Downing

Little dragon Felix's mom loves his repertoire of hugs: there's his soft snuggle, and his super squeeze, and then there's his specialty, the monster mash.

But one Sunday morning, when Felix makes a super dragon throw with his favorite ball and brings down a vase, Mom is NOT in a snuggling mood!

"No more ball till TOMORROW!" she decrees.

Well! Two can play this game, Felix figures.

"No more hugs till SATURDAY!" he declares.

"Dragons don't give hugs. Dragons don't NEED hugs!"

But soon Felix finds out that Saturday is a long time coming. Mom shows him the days of the week on her calendar and Felix begins to mark off all the days between Sunday and Saturday.

"I meant Friday. I really meant no more hugs until Thursday!" he amends.

Then Mom turns to the baby for a few hugs and kisses, and Felix hurriedly adjusts his schedule again.

"Mom, there are no more hugs till Tuesday. No hugs at all."

"What happened to Wednesday?" asked Mom.

"I'm afraid you'll drown in all those slobbery baby hugs!"

Of course, a wise Mom can see where this one is going, and sure enough, by bedtime Felix is asking an important question:

"Is it TOMORROW yet?"

Julie Downing's soft, rounded watercolor characters make it through a shortened drought of dragon hugs as Mom collects a super-special, gigantic monster mash by bedtime. Reminiscent of Russell Hoban's evergreen Frances stories, No Hugs Till Saturday both reinforces the days of the week while also teaching a gentle lesson about forgiveness and family affection in the kind of insightful story which makes us hope to see more of this appealing preschooler's family.

Leapin' Lizards: The Dragon in the Sock Drawer by Kate Klimo

"Let me out!"

Jesse's eyes snapped open. The voice sounded close and far away at the same time, like the music leaking out of somebody else's earphones.

Jesse looked around. Daisy and Uncle Joe were he only other people on the mountaintop. Uncle Joe was bending over, tapping a boulder with a small pickax. Daisy was flipping back and forth through her handbook. Then Jesse saw a man standing not far away. The man was poking around with a stick, the tail of his long black coat trailing in the snow. He was a bit strange-looking, but he clearly wasn't calling to Jesse.

"Jesse!"

Jesse looked down. Either he was going crazy or the voice was coming from the rock in his hand. He held it up to his ear.

"Let! Me! Out! Of! Here!" said the rock.

And there is definitely something inside the curiously heavy rock which Daisy tells him is a "thunder egg" or geode, as cousins Jesse and Daisy soon find out. Going to fetch the geode from Jesse's sock drawer the next day, the two find instead a young green dragon, no bigger than a newborn kitten. At last their dream of doing something magical together has come true. They are, by default, now dragonkeepers!

The little hatchling, whom they name Emerald, or Emmy for short, lets them know in no uncertain terms in dragon baby talk that she needs food and right away. Visiting the library to try to find out about the care and feeding of dragons leads them to a website (foundadragon.org), a strangely interactive site through which they are able to speak to the bushy-bearded Professor L.B. Andersson, who advises them on the proper calcium-rich diet for a fast-growing dragon and ends the connection with the brusque warning "BEWARE OF THE DRAGONSLAYER".

And the evil Dragonslayer soon presents himself, one Dr. St. George, who claims to be the owner of Emmy, cages her, and makes off with her to his lab at the university. Jesse and Daisy learn from Prof. Andersson that the strange St. George no doubt plans to augment his evil powers by drinking her blood, that is, as soon as she reaches her full size and blood volume. Jesse and Daisy retaliate by tracking down Emmy by her hot chili pepper scent and stealing her back from the evil dragonslayer, but St. George has his own ways of tracing Emmy's whereabouts and soon is hard on their trail.

But Emmy is a precocious little dragon, with powers unusual even at her tender age. Already possessed of such dragon behaviors as hoarding and scrying (seeing the future), she comes into a new potentiality just as St. George closes in--masking. Suddenly transforming into a large, affectionate sheepdog, Emmy escapes the dragonslayer--for the moment--and book one of this new series comes to an end with Jesse and Daisy in possession of a magical, and shaggy, new pet.

Author Kate Klimo leaves plenty of loose ends a-dangle for subsequent sequels in her Dragon Keepers #1: The Dragon in the Sock Drawer, a light and fast-moving little novel with just enough humor and close shaves for young dragon fans. The further adventures of the dragon-keeping cousins can be followed in Klimo's recent sequel, Dragon Keepers #2: The Dragon in the Driveway.

For kids who like Bruce Coville's Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher: A Magic Shop Book, which leads off his Magic Shop Books series, will find no problem stepping easily into the first installments in Klimo's Dragon Keeper series.

From the Valley of the Dragons: Dragon Rider by Cornelia Funke

In a misty Scottish valley a remnant of the once mighty dragons has sought refuge, but human sprawl has begun its relentless encroachment even there. Filled with legends of a mountain haven to the east, a young dragon named Firedrake sets forth, with his brownie friend Sorrel, to find the mythical sanctuary of dragons, the Rim of Heaven.

Firedrake flies first toward London to obtain a promised map devised by the famous rat cartographer, Gilbert Graytail, and there makes a friend of a homeless boy named Ben who agrees to join the quest. On the first leg of their journey to the far Himalayas, Firedrake and his two riders acquire a homunculus, a tiny manikin named Twigleg, and have their first brush with the ultimate evil, Nettlebrand, to whom Twigleg was formerly enslaved. Nettlebrand, a Frankensteinian monster created by an alchemist's experiment gone horribly wrong, is driven by his nature to destroy dragons, whose visible shape he wears like a misshapen veneer. It is Nettlebrand, whose golden scales are invincible to dragon fire, who had in eons past driven the dragons out of their mountain redoubt in Asia.

Firedrake and his companions meet many fabulous beasts on their flight--a basilisk who threatens, a djinn who offers prophecy, a sea serpent who carries them over the Indian Ocean--and human helpers who also give physical and metaphysical aid--Professor Greenbloom, an archaeologist with a penchant for finding mythic beasts, and Zubaida Ghalib, a dracologist who creates an elixir which enables Firedrake to fly without the nourishment of moonshine.

Eventually the dragon and his riders reach the Himalayas, where they meet Professor Greenbloom and family, Lola Graytail, ace pilot and niece of Gilbert Graytail, and the lama of a monastery which reveres dragons and names Ben the reincarnation of the Dragon Rider of legend. Just as the quest seems to have its goal within grasp, the allies find that Nettlebrand and his dwarf armor polisher have tracked them to the Rim of Heaven and lie waiting within its sacred lake, the Eye of the Moon.

As the final battle looms, the dragon-riding allies come up with a plan in which they slyly trick Nettlebrand's dwarf into substituting a flagon of brownie spit with magical dulling qualities for the polish which keeps his scales brilliant enough to repel dragon fire. When Nettlebrand is lured into the dragons' vast cavern beneath the Himalayas, his defenses fail and he is melted into a mass of molten gold. Ben and Twigleg find a home with the Greenblooms, and Firedrake and his dragon kin are now free to retake their sanctuary and live free in their ancestral home.

Cornelia Funke, better known in North America for her more mature fantasies The Thief Lord, Inkheart, and Inkspell, has in this earlier work created a fantasy of Dickensian detail and near glacial pace. For lovers of dragon lore and adventure, it is a sweeping saga best savored slowly and patiently, for the rewards are not so much in its destination as in the wayside pleasures of the journey toward that end.