How to Draw a Dragon

February 9, 2015
“Drawing dragons isn’t hard./ Drag
a dragon to your yard,” begins Florian, proceeding to offer tongue-in-cheek instructions in verse. Throughout, crayon scrawling and loose washes contribute to the feeling that children themselves have supplied the artwork. The dragons submit obligingly to their work as models, with some help. “Soothe your dragon with a song/ as you draw his teeth so long,” Florian advises, as a girl with black hair and a floral print outfit sits inside her dragon’s mouth, singing, drawing, and keeping an eye out for any unexpected movement. The spreads conjure landscapes that are half fantasy and half real, inhabited by children of all colors. Florian (I Love My Hat) offers pointers on drawing dragons’ spines and spikes, and tames anxieties about their flaming breath (“Dragon fire has reds and yellows,/ and it’s good to toast marshmallows”). A final gatefold imagines a school art exhibition made up of all the children’s sketches, and the endpapers give even more advice. Behind the humor, Florian recognizes that children take drawing seriously and want to learn how to do it better. Ages 4–8. Agent: Rubin Pfeffer, Rubin Pfeffer Content.

February 1, 2015
Florian's rhyming verse carries a group of children through drawing their own dragon, starting with the encouraging couplet, "Drawing dragons isn't hard. / Drag a dragon to your yard."The front endpapers catalog dragon eyes, scales, teeth and so on, while the back endpapers display an entire dragon with parts labeled (forked tongue, sharp back toe, etc.). The children engaged in this artistic enterprise are brown-skinned and black-haired, pink-skinned and red-haired, and the dragons are just as varied, from versions that are pink with catlike faces to vaguely Chinese-style dragons in green and orange. The illustrations, while evoking children's own drawings and collages, are quite sophisticated in their use of texture, photo and fabric, as well as matte and transparent color. The final pages are a foldout of P.S. 117's "dragon art show," where all of the drawings are proudly displayed. The genders of the dragons are indicated by pronouns, so readers (and artists) are not stuck with a passel of only boy dragons. The rhyme flows smoothly with its whimsical advice: "Dragon fire has reds and yellows, / and it's good to toast marshmallows." This rhyming romp will no doubt spur multiple requests for rereading-and redrawing. (Picture book. 4-8)

COPYRIGHT(2015) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

May 1, 2015

K-Gr 3-Award-winning author and poet Florian captures the imagination of children again in this brilliantly simple picture book. Repetitive, rhyming text and childlike crayon drawings offer advice to budding artists on the secrets of capturing the larger-than-life beasts on paper. "Draw your dragons painted spines/using lots of jagged lines." Each spread has a stanza consisting of one or two sentences, along with a picture of a dragon and a proud artist -highlighting the creativity of a group of multicultural children. This oversize package literally turns itself on its side to get the point across and gives helpful tips along the way. "Dragonfire has reds and yellows, /and its good to toast marshmallows." Rhyming text employs similar vowel sounds and alliteration that, along with the pictures, assist readers in sounding out new words. All of the couplets lead to a satisfying conclusion as all of the drawings appear in the Dragon Art Show at P.S. 117 in a huge gatefold display. VERDICT This book will appeal to a wide audience: beginning readers, budding artists, and dragon lovers alike.-Kristine M. Casper, Huntington Public Library, NY

Copyright 2015 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from March 15, 2015
Preschool-G *Starred Review* This how-to book takes a very practical approach to drawing dragons. It begins with a simple instruction: Drawing dragons isn't hard. / Drag a dragon to your yard. Indeed, we see several children using little red wagons to drag home sleeping dragons. The key, you see, is to use actual dragons as models. Florian takes readers through the tongue-in-cheek practicalities associated with doing life drawings of these huge (and often grumpy) beasts. It's pretty good advice: Soothe your dragon with a song / as you draw his teeth so long. Draw your dragon's pointed spines / using lots of jagged lines. And so forth, from drawing legs while your dragon lays eggs to getting a good view of its knobby knees when it happens to sneeze. To get these choice views, the children settle into advantageous spacesatop a dragon's back, inside one's mouth, within one's pawand get to work with their sketch pads and colored pencils. Florian's illustrations are similarly kidlike, rendered in pencil, crayon, paints, and a bit of collage, which subtly bring in the medieval world with inserts of tiny castles and walled cities. Gently comic in tone and with an almost hunt-and-find visual approach, this book might be meta, but it's also just straightforward fun.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)