Being Friends with Dragons

PreS-K--Friendship with dragons serves as a stand-in for friendship between children in this concept book, whose text can be divided roughly into three sections. First, readers explore the upsides of dragon camaraderie, both intuitive (they can toast marshmallows on camping trips) and charmingly unexpected (they love collecting seashells). Next, the pitfalls of dragons' bad behavior (like human children, they get angry, yell, and refuse to share). Finally, the ending contains advice for children on resolving disputes with their dragon companions and promoting harmony going forward. In bright, cartoonish digital spot drawings, vignettes, and full-page illustrations, Ewen employs an assortment of patterns and textures to visualize the imaginative informational text. She takes care to depict characters of varying ability: a child using a wheelchair and one wearing leg braces feature among the humans engaged in joyful, active play, and the most frequently appearing dragon sports purple wingtip eyeglasses. Moments of outlandish humor will elicit chuckles, particularly the recurring visual of the dragons' preferred delicacy, spaghetti with eyeballs. However, the book's conclusion is not substantial, and, as they accumulate, Locke's drily delivered precepts ("Dragons remind each other to share, to take turns, and to say please and thank you.") begin to grow preachy. VERDICT Straightforward text and zany illustrations provide a moderately enjoyable experience, but the presentation of social-emotional learning soon grows moralistic.--Jonah Dragan

Relationships with dragons can be fraught, posits this picture book, in which Locke and Ewen explore all the ins and outs. Able to "toast the perfect marshmallows" and "help scratch your back," dragons can be ideal buddies--unless they get mad, in which case they resort to fire-breathing and earthquake-producing stomps. If this happens, Locke's knowing guidebook-like narration acknowledges, "You might sulk and cross your arms!/ You might cry and say mean things!" Fortunately, dragons also know how to make amends, and a series of didactic examples present the multidimensional, fancifully hued creatures managing their emotions, taking turns, and being polite. Ewen's loose textural graphics feature flatly portrayed children of varying skin tones, and capture chaotic but congenial dragon-human camaraderie with a winking hilarity that suits this mock-serious manual, which offers takeaways for any friendship. Ages 4-8. (Feb.)

"The text is at once lighthearted and instructive as a reminder of qualities that are important to find in both ourselves and our loved ones . . . . A 'talon-ted' tightrope walk between character education and entertaining whimsy."