Review by Booklist Review
Being friends with a dragon may sound like a dream come true, but it's not always as magical as one might think. Just like friendships with humans, those with dragons can be unpredictable. With candy-colored, cartoon illustrations and matter-of-fact writing that mimics the tone of a handbook, these pages outline a variety of pro-and-con scenarios where dragons are involved. For instance, dragons are great at playing hide-and-seek and toasting marshmallows, but they can also create earthquakes by stomping their feet, cause thunderstorms, and forget to share. Locke humorously integrates lessons in friendship, feelings, and manners that, in many cases, apply to both humans and dragons. Advice is also given on apologizing, making amends, and being understanding. Children of different races and abilities appear throughout the illustrations, creating an inclusive vibe amid the entertaining antics. Falling somewhere between Rowboat Watkins' Rude Cakes (2015) and Ame Dyckman's You Don't Want a Unicorn! (2017), this fun and silly offering contains some surprisingly useful advice.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
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.)
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Review by School Library Journal Review
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
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
There are many reasons to be friends with dragons, yet they, just like humans, can make mistakes. While dragons' fire-breathing abilities mean their friends will always have perfectly toasted marshmallows, flames unintentionally come out of their mouths when they get mad, which can be dangerous indeed. Dragons can help you reach items on the highest shelves…alas, they are not always the best at sharing what they find up there. Fortunately, although dragons can sometimes "forget to be good friends," they do know how to apologize and "clean up any mess they have made." These are just some of the many attributes that Locke weighs in this thinly veiled attempt to teach young children good behavior, such as sharing and taking turns, and positive values, such as patience and compromise. A casually diverse cast of children (including a boy using a wheelchair) and endearing, facially expressive, multicolored dragons make this engaging book worthy of readers' time. The bright, colorful cartoony illustrations are rambunctiously fun and include witty subtleties, though some details get swallowed by the gutter. 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. (Picture book. 4-7) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
