How to Light Your Dragon

In this amusing addition to the exotic pet care shelf, Lévy (Jojo and the Food Fight!) and Benaglia (Hug This Book!) address a serious issue in dragon raising: what do you do when your beloved dragon has lost its spark? Using two characters—a tenacious child in a pink feathered hat and a very large, very out-of-sorts green dragon with bright red wings—to demonstrate, the creators offer up several strategies. For example: cheat at cards, making the dragon so angry it breathes fire—or bake a birthday cake, because “a dragon can’t resist lighting candles” (the uncredited translation from the French is faultlessly colloquial). And if none of that works (for the characters, none of it actually does), maybe it’s time to stop forcing a return to the dragon’s previous iteration. Instead, “tell him he’s still your dragon, and that you’ll always love him even if he never breathes fire again.” This articulation of unconditional love is served up with an almost uncontainable visual élan: each posterlike spread bursts with bright colors, ink splats, and exuberant hand-drawn typography that sprawls across the page, and almost has a spark of its own. Ages 4–up. [em](June) [/em]