Customer Reviews

Book of Dragons

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This review refers to the 1987 Watermill Classic edition of "The Book Of Dragons" by E. Nesbit...

A young King, lets loose a Dragon from a storybook, and he must figure a way to get it back, before the dragon eats the entire town!A kind young man explores a cave and comes across a Cockatrice, a big yellow dragon and it's baby, a Drakling. A princess waits years in a tower to be rescued by her true love. Edith Nesbit has written a collection of fabulous and adventurous tales of brave and daring young heroes facing up to the big bad dragon and saving the day.She gives fun names, teriffic descriptions and adventures kids will love.They are short stories that have stood the test of time over 100 years later.

There are tales of upside lands where elephants are the size of guinea pigs, and rabbits are as big as dinosaurs,where fantastic animals come alive right from the pages of books, of magical lands, young Kings and princesses, and of inquisitive, and sometimes mischievous children who travel far and wide to face their fears.

There are 8 short stories in all, and they include, "The Book of Beasts","Uncle James, or the Purple Stranger", "The Deliverers of Their Country","The Ice Dragon, or Do as You are Told", "The Island Of the Nine Whirlpools", "The Dragon Tamers","The Fiery Dragon, or the Heart of Stone and the Heart of Gold", "Kind Little Edmund, or the Caves and the Cockatrice".

I feel these stories and the reading level, are geared towards a little bit older child, maybe 8-12, as some of the stories are quite fantastic and may be even be a little scary for the young child. I think these stories would be great to read aloud together, and passed down from generation to generation. My only reason for going 4 stars for this 1987 Watermill Classic edition, is that although it is Complete and Unabridged, it does not include the illustrations that the editor's review talks about. They are probably referring the the re-issues of 1992 and 1997 by Troll Communications, which are both sold here.. So you may want to check with the outside sellers to see if the illustrations are included in the edition they are selling.

These are magical stories that would be enjoyed by a boy or girl, and with 8 separate stories, may be more motivational and enjoyable for those that aren't too keen on reading.

Enter the fantastic world of Edith Nesbit with your kids and enjoy.....Laurie

young readers may also enjoy:

The Big Book of Dinosaurs: A Natural History of the Prehistoric World

GHOSTBUSTERS II (Yearling)

Side By Side: poems to read together(very young readers or read together)

Frankenstein (Great Illustrated Classics)

see my reviews for details of these books

Be warned that the $5.99 paperback edition with the purple and black moonlit dragon cover is NOT illustrated, despite the Amazon description. Since the enchanting illustrations are a major reason I loved this book as a child this was extremely disappointing and I'm now going to have to find an illustrated edition. Otherwise the book is fine and the cover picture is quite attractive.

Amazon should have separate webpages for various editions when they differ in important respects. I feel this was misleading advertising, but returning the book would cost more in postage than it's worth.

E. Nesbit's books have a well-deserved place on my shelf next to C. S. Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia and Lloyd Alexander's Prydain Chronicles, and more recently, Harry Potter. I discovered her books through those of Edward Eager; if you have read and enjoyed any of E. Nesbit's books before, I recommend you take the opposite journey and check out Eager's books now (start with Half Magic.) A real treat.

The editorial reviews portion of the description for the kindle edition state's "with H.R. Millar's original b&w illustrations". There are no illustrations at all in the kindle edition that I received. I paid $2.99 for what is available for free from Project Gutenberg. It even has a reference to the Project Gutenber License terms at the beginning of the book!

It's a fact: every fantasy geek loves dragons, and even though E. Nesbit's time was prior to the modern fantasy lore era, these stories still pack an awesome punch of good dragon stories.

Through her nostalgic style of writing, she gives us a variety of dragons, good and evil, a variety of wondrous settings, and all types of personalities of the fabled beasts.

This is a fairy-tale necessity for all dragon lovers.

I read Edward Eager's fantasy books forty years ago. The characters in his books read books by E. Nesbit. So I'm enchanted to find that these are real books and I can read them on my Kindle.

However, my Kindle version has no illustrations. Ouch! The Project Gutenberg edition has beautiful line-drawings. It would be lovely to integrate these.

Aside from the missing illustrations, the book was wonderful. Literally, full of wonder: lots of twists that I've never encountered before or since. Dragons both good and evil; princes likewise; unexpected weaknesses and resolutions. Plus a few jokes slipped in for adults (at least, I think they would have gone over my head when I was eight.)

The standard edition of this book appears to have illustrations, but the economy publication dispenses with that expense. (Maybe I missed that fact in the description....) In a book that's designed for children, seems like it was a poor choice to 1) publish it in the economy version and 2) buy this version. So, buyer beware: there are no illustrations in this version.

To whoever looks, they will notice that there is nothing about the book. That made me mad because I want to know what I'm buying. Don't you?

This is for my 7 yr. old son, who at some point came to love anything with Dragons.

I am looking forward to spending our story time reading this book. It is beautiful & very well written.

So if you have a Dragon lover this is the book for you.

I picked this up on a whim-- and was astounded. The imagination and whimsy here is far too good to be so little known.

I'd remembered hearing that Nesbit was an influence on J.K. Rowling. Reading this made that evident. This reads like it may have fallen out of the library at Hogwarts. A wizarding classic available now to muggles as well.

Especially fun (and modern) is the Last Dragon story which turns story tropes on their head with wisdom and heart. No one will boss that princess around.

Highly recommended!