A Dragon's Guide to the Care and Feeding of Humans
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
Fans of How to Train Your Dragon will love this whimsical tale, the first in a series, by a Newbery Honor winner, featuring charming illustrations and pet "training tips" in each chapter.
Crusty dragon Miss Drake has a new pet human, precocious Winnie. Oddly enough, Winnie seems to think Miss Drake is her pet—a ridiculous notion!
Unknown to most of its inhabitants, the City by the Bay is home to many mysterious and fantastic creatures, hidden beneath the parks, among the clouds, and even in plain sight. And Winnie wants to draw every new creature she encounters: the good, the bad, and the ugly. But Winnie’s sketchbook is not what it seems. Somehow, her sketchlings have been set loose on the city streets! It will take Winnie and Miss Drake’s combined efforts to put an end to the mayhem . . . before it’s too late.
This refreshing debut collaboration by Laurence Yep, a two-time Newbery Honor winner and a Laura Ingalls Wilder Award winner, and Joanne Ryder features illustrations by Mary GrandPré.
Praise for A Dragon's Guide to the Care and Feeding of Humans
*“Warm humor, magical mishaps, and the main characters’ budding mutual respect and affection combine to give this opener for a planned series a special shine.” –Booklist, Starred
“Aternately comical, suspenseful and sometimes sweetly emotional.” –Kirkus Reviews
“With a black-and-white spot illustration opening most chapters, an engaging narrator, and a consistently fluid writing style, this title makes a fine dragon choice for readers.” –School Library Journal
“In this series launch, Yep and Ryder conjure up a world where dragons and humans interact, and the results are heartwarming and quite funny.” –Publishers Weekly
“A clever and amusing novel that imagines a magical world that nestles right up against our own and sometimes crosses over.” –The Bulleting of the Center for Children’s Books
Praise for A Dragon’s Guide to Making Your Human Smarter
"Yep and Ryder keep the magic coming with their whimsical fantasy, enhanced by Grandpré's sweet drawings. The story positively vibrates with fun." —Kirkus Reviews
" Lighthearted episodes of unusual school lessons and field trips, illustrated by GrandPré’s winsome spot art, are grounded by Miss Drake’s more serious encounters with the goons...a gratifying development as this buoyant, fantastical series continues."—The Horn Book Review
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this series launch, Yep (the Dragon quartet), collaborating for the first time with his wife, Ryder (Won't You Be My Kissaroo?), again conjures up a world where dragons and humans interact, and the results are heartwarming and quite funny. Miss Drake, a shapeshifting dragon, is still mourning the death of her human pet, a woman she called Fluffy, when Fluffy's impetuous great-niece, Winnie, barges into her lair. "I could see she would be rather impossible to train," sniffs Miss Drake, whose scorn shifts to admiration as the two begin to bond with each other. After Winnie fills the pages of a magical sketchbook with drawings of fantastical creatures, the menacing "sketchlings" escape, and Winnie and Miss Drake join forces to track them down and return them to the book. Their mutual grief Winnie's heartache over the death of her father parallels Miss Drake's loss of Fluffy gives a moving underpinning to the magical escapades. Miss Drake's arch narration and the sharp back-and-forth between the characters create an enchanting story, accented by GrandPr 's whimsical b&w spot illustrations. Ages 8 12.
