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.
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