cover image A Book of Dragons

A Book of Dragons

Leonard Baskin, Hosie Baskin. Alfred A. Knopf Books for Young Readers, $12.95 (47pp) ISBN 978-0-394-86298-9

Assisted by his son Hosie, who collaborated with him on the Caldecott Honor Book Hosie's Alphabet, Baskin has created an enthralling gallery of beastly horrors that have niches in folklore throughout the world. In paintings with starkly contrasting dark and fiery colors, the artist portrays dragons who have captured the imaginations of people young and old, since olden times. Here is maddened Grendel, slain like her son by Beowulf; the monster who dared St. George once too often; the Tarasque, its vicious fires quenched by St. Martha when she sprinkles holy water on its head; Poland's Kraken; Japan's Susano; the awful Hydra et al. Hosie and his dad also introduce a couple of their own: the Fold-Up Dragon, a terrible coward, so retiring it has inspired no legends; and the Ghostly Dragon, ""very rare,'' a shadowy gray cloud glimpsed against a violet twilight sky. (All ages)