cover image The Flying Dragon Room

The Flying Dragon Room

Audrey Wood. Scholastic, $15.95 (32pp) ISBN 978-0-590-48193-9

Wood's (Rude Giants; Weird Parents) intentionally far-fetched yet annoyingly disconnected plot gets a vital boost from Teague's buoyant, whimsical art. His robust, full-page acrylic paintings propel the tale along at a giddy pace as Patrick offers a whirlwind tour of the busy world he has fashioned from some magical tools. They are on loan from white-haired Mrs. Jenkins, whom Patrick's parents hire to help paint their house. After a week's work, the boy proudly invites everyone for a tour of ""his new place,"" a sequence of settings that includes a garden teeming with ""creepy-crawly things,"" a chamber filled with bubble-blowing machines, a Food Room offering limitless edible treats, a gravity-defying room where the visitors can jump up and down and ""scream all you want,"" a pirate ship, and a field roamed by wild animals and a Tyrannosaurus rex. There's no real story here, just a catalogue of hackneyed but kid-obliging scenarios. Ages 4-9. (Mar.)