Review by Booklist Review
PreS-Gr. 2. Moore, who has illustrated several Grahame stories from The Wind in the Willows0 , offers an abridged edition of this perennially favorite tale about a pacifist dragon who, with the help of a young boy, strikes a bargain with St. George and dispels a few stereotypes. Moore's editing is skillful; her version stays relatively faithful to Grahame's original, with the exception of a few omissions, shortened paragraphs, and slightly retooled phrasing. The result is a lovely, accessible offering that retains the humor and rich language of the original, and Moore's lavish, full-spread illustrations delightfully extend the action. You may already have a few versions of this on your shelves, but consider this for the impressive, handsome full-color art, particularly the irresistible images of the poetry-loving dragon, "ramping" about gleefully in a faux duel and reading aloud to the wise child who befriends him. --Gillian Engberg Copyright 2004 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Warm colors and visual details portray a lively medieval village and complement Grahame's expressive prose. Ages 8-11. (March) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
ea. vol: unpaged. CIP. Troll. 1987. PLB 9.79; pap. $1.95. Gr 1-2 These versions of two classics are ephemeral in every way. The Reluctant Dragon is paraphrased and shortened to the point of being a plot summary (``The boy was happy because he got to see a good fight and no one was hurt. And the dragon was happy because he had made a lot of new friends''), accompanied by bland, cute illustrations that sometimes resemble Shepard's in subject or composi tion but never in imagination. The text of The Velveteen Rabbit is more nearly in tact, but once again the illustrations carry little personality, lacking either the energy of Nicholson's (Doubleday, 1958) or the romanticism of Michael Hague's (Holt, 1983). Steer readers to the originals. John Peters, New York Public Library (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review
New illustrations accompany this abridgment of the classic tale of an unlikely friendship between a boy and a prim, poetry-loving dragon, who fakes a fight with knight St. George to placate the thrill-hungry villagers. The colored-pencil and ink illustrations, primarily in greens and browns, nicely play up the story's realistic elements--the boy's humility, the modest village--instead of the blustery bits. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
