Then, a short while ago, my kids and I read the My Father's Dragon series and I knew that my boys would really love another dragon story if we could find one. We'd already read The Reluctant Dragon (linked to thoughts) and so I was looking for something different. I decided to bite the bullet and give Kenny & the Dragon
I should start off (in the third paragraph) by telling you that Kenny & the Dragon
Doom and disaster strike when the citizens of Roundbrook discover that a dragon is lurking about in the area. The king is informed and - much to Kenny's surprise - his old pal, George is called out of retirement as a knight to put to death this terrible scourge! Suddenly Kenny finds himself in a real predicament: his two friends are slated to battle to the death against one another! Well, this will never do and Kenny goes to great pains to bring about a meeting between his friends and to form a plan which will avert disaster. Kenny, his parents, George the Knight, and Graham (the very reluctant dragon) form a plan to trick the townspeople and the king into thinking that they have waged war against one another and reached a compromise. Will their plan work? Well, that's for you to find out. (If you've read the original story, you can make an educated guess as to the ending.)
As I mentioned, the opening paragraph of this book is a bit cheesy and made me anticipate a fluffy, just-publish-another-book-because-you-can read. However, DiTerlizzi won me over with his illustrations and through my children's laughter. My boys (ages 7 and 5) really did enjoy this read (and I didn't feel guilty reading it to them since we've read the original story). DiTerlizzi heavily borrows from the original work and makes no bones about it. I liked that, actually, as it points the reader to this classic children's story - which is a good story!
Kenny & the Dragon
I highly recommend to you that you read The Reluctant Dragon, but I might also suggest Kenny & the Dragon
1 comment:
I don't think I ever told you about our reading of The Reluctant Dragon. We definitely enjoyed it, though M ran away in fear at one point. We had to wait until the next day to finish it; I assured her it had a happy ending without death.
I wonder if Grahame's book is ALSO a retelling. I say that because the story seemed very familiar to me. Granted, I may have read it when teaching, but it seemed to be from my childhood. However, it was published in 1988, which makes me think I did not read it as a 12+ year old.
Kenny and the Dragon's illustrations ARE rather magnificent, aren't they!? Thank you for sharing!
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