Customer Reviews

Herb, the Vegetarian Dragon (Barefoot Books)

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I adore this book, and my five year old delights in it as well. The message is excellent -- some people (and dragons) like to eat meat, some people (and dragons) like to eat veggies, and no one should eat people. I like that it isn't the least bit preachy. I happen to be a vegetarian, and my husband and child are not, and it isn't about one kind of eating being better than another, just different. If you have a "mixed" eating family like mine, or if your meat eating child has vegetarian friends, or your vegetarian child has meat eating friends, or if you enjoy any well-written, well-illustrated children's book, then this book belongs on your shelf.

...is just beautiful--the art throughout the book is the same colorful, vivid style as on the cover. However--there's a lot of text which makes it somewhat tedious for beginning readers, and I was rather shocked by both the text and pictures--even though the protagonist is veg, the book's message is more about tolerance for others' choices then portraying any one dietary choice as better than any other. ... This book leaves out the "why" of vegetarianism, which is for many parents the main thing they are trying to make clear to their children when buying a pro-veg book such as this. My personal qualms with the foggy message and the violence depicted are such that if it wasn't for the AWESOME artwork I would consider actually getting rid of it....

I was amazed when a fellow friend and I stumbled onto this book. The details in the pictures are great and the book has an excellent message for children. At the time, I hesitated buying it, but after thinking about it for awhile, I have to get this book. Being a vegetarian myself and having numerous friends who are raising vegetarian children, this is a great book to give them. It shows that it is ok to be different. Thank you both for writing such a great book.

I went out in search of a few good books on vegetarianism to read to my four-year-old son. This story is great; it is so real! (Despite the main characters being dragons, of course.) The message at the end is wonderful: "I won't ask you to change your habits/ideas/principles if you don't ask me to change mine".

Just FYI: the story was written by Jules Bass of Rankin/Bass fame (Frosty the Snowman, The Last Unicorn, Rudolph the Rednosed Reindeer).

We received this book as a gift and it has become one of my 4-year-old daughter's favorites. Rarely do we agree so enthusiastically about a bedtime story! She goes for Disney, I go for Robert McClosky. Further, it has stood the test of time (18 months). This is an eternity for a 4 year old. No other book has been such a perennial favorite. I think I have read this book to her about 250 times over the past 18 months. The crazy thing is I enjoy it every time. Because the pictures are so detailed, you often see something you missed on previous reads. It is a fairy tale, so I say to those who are quick to attack it as not having enough meaning for Vegetarians or being gruesome, they are missing the point. It is harmless and entertaining. Kids really enjoy it. And I teaches acceptance of others for what they are, which in my humble opinion is more important than preaching a particular view point on Vegetarianism.

A side note, the book has helped my daughter recently with school where they have been studying Dinosaurs and their eating habits. She now loves to identify people and animals as Herbivores, Carnivores or Omnivores.

I love this book so much I have bought 2 additional copies as gifts now myself. And, by the way, everyone in our family is an omnivore.

I was appalled when I opened this book to read to my children, ages three and four. The gory details of an execution, pictures of dragons eating people, name-calling using the word "idiot", a picture of a wild boar leg with blood dripping from it, the vegetarian protagonist being chained , tied , and shackled on nearly half the pages - I couldn't believe this was supposed to be a children's book! I was definitely expecting something more gentle and peaceful. For a book which has been touted as promoting acceptance and tolerance, I found the actual violence portrayed to be unacceptable.

I'll start off by saying I like this book for many reason. But I will also say it was NOT what I expected. As my child grew I began searching for vegetrian themed books with a positive simple message. This book is much aclaimed and I bought this with the intention of reading together with my 5 year old. When I got it and flipped through it I saw how nicely eye catching that art was. The colors are vivid and the art work is still some of my favorite. And overall this book does TRY to protray a good message about excepting others, getting along, and being yourself (not just being vegetarian), which is nice. However it is a rather odd story, where the dragons eat people, and the people want "death" for any dragon they can find. Which is what happens, they set out in search of the dragons to capture and kill one to set an example to the other dragons...but they only end up finding the peace loving, vegetarian dragon named herb.

I suppose what supprised me so much was the amount of anger in the book..all be it just a book there is a lot of fighting and mean dragons and mean people and insults/name calling thrown in there.
The lead dragons name is Meathook (eeeew..good thing most 5 year olds don't know what those are), they show herb tied up with a big ax about to chop off his head (not very pleasant mental image let alone something I would like to read to a child.) and I was most suprised at the part in the book where meathook comes to free herb but only if he eats some boar meat and "becomes one of us". This part really portrayed non-vegitarians as shallow and I think that the underlying tone through the book of the people and dragons portrays anyone who eats meat as "bad" throughout the book, which the quick ending of everyone getting along cannot undo. (another example of this is the meat eatting dragons are all pretty much mindless in the book, just doing whatever their leader says, and the meat eating people were going to cut herb the dragons head off, stuff it, and put it at their castles gate to teach others a "lesson".) and the little girl who saved herb had no problem condeming the other dragons "thats one of the meateaters shouted the little girl."

I think this book had good intentions but the writter could not write it from a fair standpoint, while yes its good to show kids to stand up for what you believe in even under peer preassure, I really couldn't believe that they even threw that in there the way they did,..let alone the image of dripping blood from the boar leg.

I am not writting all of this to say the book is good or bad, thats your choice to decide. While I will most likely give this book to my child eventually there are many vegetarian kids books I have encountered for younger and older children which far surpass this book.

I agree with others on here that the recommended age level is off. I think it should be ages 8 and up (though it may be a bit of a simple read for them.) I will give this to my child and he will probably enjoy it (especially since he likes dragons already) but I will be waiting until he's older. Generally I perfer to purchase non-violent books.

It would have been easier to write a children's book about a vegetarian among carnivores as a parable of good and evil. The vegetarian would live in harmony with nature. The carnivores would be constantly at war. In Herb, The Vegetarian Dragon, author Jules Bass instead presents a tale of acceptance, difference and compromise. Herb, as the title foretells, is a vegetarian dragon. The other dragons in the forest of Nogard are meat-eaters. The King and his brave knights at Castle Dark are also meat eaters. In fact, one major complaint the human carnivores have about the dragon carnivores (in addition to the dragon leader's penchant for "the sweet taste of royal princesses") is that they eat the finest wild boar meat. Through the intervention of a little girl who has befriended Herb, the story is resolved with all parties free to eat what they choose, as long as they stop eating each other. So, despite the characterization of meat eaters as violent warmongers, the resolution is not strictly pro-vegetarian but rather pro-choice. Debbie Harter's illustrations are exquisite. Rich and colorful, full of small detail as well as huge characters, the pictures allow the book to reach that perfect combination of engrossing story and mesmerizing visuals. For the vegetarian child, Herb, The Vegetarian Dragon has the added benefit of presenting a happy character who is different because of what he eats. Herb is a wonderful role model. --Reviewed by Jake Aryeh Marcus

Don't buy this book if you believe it's wrong to hurt and kill animals. The message of this book is it's not OK to kill people and eat them (the knights) but it's just fine to kill animals and eat them. The artwork is lovely. But as a vegan, I'm sad I spent my money on this.

This is a wonderful book for teachers to use with either a dragon or friendship unit. Besides exploring the dietary habits of dragons, it also delves into the character traits of acceptance and loyalty. The colorful pages keep a child's full attention. It is a welcome addition to my third grade library.