Customer Reviews

Eric Carle's Dragons, Dragons

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

In a world where Teletubbies rule and purple dinosaurs cavort under hot studio lights, it is refreshing to find a children's entertainment devoid of pretension, which combines a bold design sense with quotes from genre stalwarts (Anne McCaffrey and John Gardner, among others) to form what amounts to a kid's first mythological primer. It's also a great way for adults to revisit the subject, as it delves not only into classical Greek and Roman lore, but also into the oft-ignored realms of African and Asian mythology.

We just bought this book for our seven year old son. The collection of poems, combined with Eric Carle's magical drawings has taken our son to a new world filled with dragons, unicorns, and all kinds of fantastic creatures. This is the world of a child's imagination and there is no one like Eric Carle to bring it to life...Read to your child, stare at the beauty of the art work and you will travel together to a magical land.

This book provides a good start to teaching children to love poems. It contains the one element necessary to every successful poetic verse: transformation and magic.

The book opens with a William Blake epigraph: "O! How I dreamt of things impossible."

Inside are 32 poems, from a range of sources, including the Book of Job, Sir Richard Burton, William Shakespeare--and every poet's demi-god, Ranier Maria Rilke.

Each verse is wonderful in its own right. The words alone make this book alive for kids: Reading several of these poems to a class of second graders elicited cries for more. I ran over time, and ended up reading half the poems.

The brilliant illustrations add their own glory. Alyssa A. Lappen

I hate to contradict the lower ratings in this review, but I had to write and say that my 3 year old LOVED this book, definitely one of his very favorites, of all of his large library. He loves the pictures, he loves the idea of the mythical creatures (the stereotype of boys being fascinated by monsters has been true for him), he is intrigued by the poetry. I don't understand how the review writers can't see the value of little people being exposed to great writers of poetry! He is neither depressed or put off, but intrigued. He laughs at the appropriate places, and we discuss the creatures, and as a mom I am thrilled. So, I do not think Eric Carle has failed us in any way. In fact, I am grateful someone gives our young people credit and believes in their potential!

An excellent selection of poems about common and as well as lesser known fantastic and mythical creatures from a range of cultures, beautifully and creatively illustrated.

Hi, I'm StoryMaker. I recently checked out Dragons, Dragons and Other Creatures that Never Were by Eric Carle from the library because I do have a facination of the mystical animals, and it's already a reread after a reread after another reread. It has vibrant illustrations in Eric Carle's famous style along with poems and pharses from throughout. It includes everything from false gods to unicorns and from dragons to chimeras and from gryphons to bunyips. It also has a glossary filled with fact about these fictions. (Without it I probably never would of dared to assume that the first description of a unicorn was fericious with elephant feet!) Dragons, Dragons captures some of the wonderous works of the imaginations of man. Reccomeneded, though not for young children because the poems are no picnic to understand for the small youth. However, if you just showed them the pictures, they might be happy. Well, let's just leave it at This book is good in my opinion, because of the mystic illustrations that capture the feel and the poetry that does that as well, and I would be happy if you agree but I won't force you into loving it. Signed, StoryMaker. "Gotta trust the kid's review!"

I was looking for a book of poetry, for my sons to use to do their copywork. Most were boring to them. This is not. They love it, and since they are doing their copywork without complaint, I love it too.

Eric Carle's gorgeous watercolor collage images are a perfect companion to the mythical poems in this book. Poetry from classic writers such as E.B. Browning, Sato, and Shakespeare comes together with more contemporary work from X.J. Kennedy, Arnold Sundgaard, and others. These are great for reading aloud, though very young children might find the pictures and words just a bit creepy!

In our low-media home, our 4.5 year old son liked this book. Each page features one mythical creature along with a poem about it that gives hints as to some of it's personality traits. After seeing so many videos or books about farm animals this is refreshing and it piqued his interest. Right up there with dinosaurs around the time he turned 5 years old. But, I think the mythical creatures are most interesting because they're just... well, not real. They are so fantastical. His favorite was the phoenix, which he imbues to his cars or other toys as they get killed but come back to life, or other scenarios in which he or someone escapes death--everyone's primal ultimate fantasy. I'd like to buy it in order to have it around as my children grow up so they have yet another cultural reference to our common literary history. The pictures will continue to engage their imagination, I'm sure. I don't have any high hopes for them to love the poetry, but who knows. You won't know if you don't try. At least I can offer them something rather than edit it out before they even get a chance to see it.

This book was sent promptly even during the Christmas season and was wrapped and decorated for my little one. I even recieved a thank you note for my purchase...how nice...would definatley recommend and use again