Dragon Was Terrible

There's a dragon in the kingdom, and he's a downright brat, pantsing palace guards, spitting on cupcakes, and even scribbling in books. As Dragon's behavior becomes increasing egregious--he burps in church and chases after fuzzy yellow ducklings--nobody can stop him until a clever boy comes along with a powerful tool: a gripping storybook (featuring a brave dragon and a "terrible knight," naturally). In naive, flattened cartons, Pizzoli (Templeton Gets His Wish) mixes modern and medieval with aplomb as Dragon TP's a castle and spray paints "Dragon was here" on a wall underneath a posted notice from the king promising a reward to whomever stops Dragon ("It shall be a nice gift. Ye shall like it"). These pictures, combined with DiPucchio's (Everyone Loves Bacon) clearly disapproving narrator ("Honestly, that's terrible and rude," she sniffs during the church burp scene) make Dragon's transgressions all the funnier. The only downside may be the ending, which--though happy in a fairy tale sense--makes the taming of the wonderfully incorrigible antagonist feel a little, well, tame. Ages 4-7. Agent: Steven Malk, Writers House. (Aug.)

PreS-Gr 2--An unruly dragon with a bad attitude stomps on flowers, scribbles in books, and snatches candy away from baby unicorns. The king recruits knights to deal with the problem, but they all fail miserably. In response, the dragon ramps up his nastiness and toilet papers the castle and pops birthday balloons. A clever boy, with superb fairy tale-writing skills, saves the day by luring the dragon with a trail of marshmallows and then captivating him with a story he can't resist. Funny details abound in Pizzoli's cartoon illustrations, from royal posters tagged with "Dragon Was Here" graffiti to the not so scary dragon trying to feign readerly disinterest by shuffling a deck of cards and surreptitiously peeking around a tree. The witty, conversational-style narration interjects timely comments ("HEY, WAIT...What about the reward?"). VERDICT In this laugh-out-loud picture book, the powers of storytelling triumphantly tame the beast.--Linda Ludke, London Public Library, Ontario, Canada