From My Point of View - Book Review

I was at the front desk the other day while the clerk was on her break and it was kind of slow so I started to thumb through some of the children's picture books to see if there was anything I could put onto our Easter display. I got about halfway through the top shelf and I had to stop. My mouth dropped open a little and I took a quick intake of breath as I pulled There's NO Such Thing as a Dragon by Jack Kent off the shelf. I recognized the picture on the cover immediately as one I had loved as a child, but had completely forgotten about since. I checked it out to take home and share with another generation, then I realized that I didn't even know if it really was a good story or not. For all I knew it could have been a really dorky story that I never realized was kind of dumb while I was young.

I decided that I'd better take a look and make sure I still liked it enough to share. Later, when I sat down to read it, I remembered why I'd liked it so much as a child. It is just a very fun, very cute story. It also has a cute dragon that keeps getting bigger, and I always liked the story A Fish Out of Water by Helen Palmer too. Like A Fish Out of Water, There's NO Such Thing as a Dragon is not just a cute story. It teaches its readers about life.

It is the story of a young boy who wakes up one morning to find a dragon in his room. It was a small dragon, but still, it was a dragon. He starts the day by patting the dragon on its head, but soon starts to try to ignore the dragon after his mother tells him that dragons don't exist. Everyone keeps trying to ignore the dragon and so the dragon gets bigger and bigger and bigger, until it is so big the family just cannot ignore the dragon anymore. Obviously dragons DO exist. Even the mother must admit this in the end. Once recognized as being real, the dragon shrinks back down to his original size, no longer needing his enormous size to make his presence known.

I just can't believe that I had forgotten this book. Looking back, I remember reading it many times. I'm so glad I rediscovered this one. (Thank you whoever returned it on the 18th or the 19th.) On reading it again as an adult, I enjoyed it on many different levels. I'd highly recommend this one to anyone who enjoys picture books or is looking for a fun book to share with a child.

Happy Reading!

Elizabeth