Age Level: 8 and up | Grade Level: 3 and up | Series: Playaway Children
Now in paperback, the New York Times bestselling tale of chivalry and showmanship from Tony DiTerlizzi.Kenny is a little rabbit with a very big problem. His two best friends are heading into a battle of legendary proportions—with each other! In one corner there’s Graeme, a well-read and cultured dragon with sophisticated tastes. In the other there’s George, a retired knight and dragon slayer who would be content to spend the rest of his days in his bookshop. Neither really wants to fight, but the village townsfolk are set on removing Graeme from their midst and calling George out of retirement. Can Kenny avert disaster?
Tony DiTerlizzi puts a fun-filled, thoroughly theatrical spin on Kenneth Graeme’s classic tale of subterfuge and showmanship with this lighthearted romp of a retelling.
Tony DiTerlizzi is the author of the New York Times bestselling The Search for WondLa and the co-creator of the New York Times bestselling series The Spiderwick Chronicles. He also illustrated the Caldecott Honor Book The Spider and the Fly. He lives with his family in western Massachusetts. Visit him at DiTerlizzi.com.
--This text refers to the
Paperback
edition.
Dragons, space monsters, goblins and insects: the characters that inhabit storyteller Tony DiTerlizzi's world haven't changed since he was a kid growing up in South Florida.
Born in Los Angeles, California in 1969, DiTerlizzi is the oldest of three siblings raised in an artistically rich household. He started drawing at a very young age including a crayon mural of Winnie-the-Pooh on his freshly painted bedroom walls.
One of his first hand-made books was on his favorite subject; dinosaurs, and was done for a Boy Scout merit badge. Fascinated by nature's endless designs, Tony made another book, this time on insects, carefully drawn from his own collection.
In 1981, after seeing Jim Henson's "The Dark Crystal" and playing Dungeons & Dragons, the 12 year-old Tony spent the summer writing and illustrating an entire field guide on fantastic creatures. He would return to this premise many years later as the genesis for "The Spiderwick Chronicles".
By the time he graduated high school, DiTerlizzi had dreams of becoming a children's book creator. He attended several art schools including, Florida School of the Arts and the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale, receiving his degree in graphic design in 1992.
After graduating, the 23 year-old DiTerlizzi began working freelance for TSR, publisher of Dungeons & Dragons - the game that had inspired him so much as a child. He illustrated many fantastical images of warriors, wizards and monsters over the next 6 years, and also contributed to the collectible card game Magic the Gathering.
A move to New York City in 1996 brought Tony to the center of the publishing world. At last, his dream of writing and illustrating outstanding imaginative books for children could be realized. And he did it at Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers.
In 2000, his first picture book, "Jimmy Zangwow's Out-of-this-World Moon Pie Adventure" debuted. Inspired by Windsor McKay's "Little Nemo in Slumberland" and Norman Rockwell, the story of a young space adventurer in search of his favorite snack garnered positive reviews. Kirkus compared Tony's work to that of David Wiesner and William Joyce. More importantly, children loved the book.
The next year, he followed up with "Ted", the story of a workaholic single parent trying to find time for his son and his mischievous imaginary friend. Once again, the book was well received, and it won several state awards including the University of Chicago's Zena Sutherland Book Award.
His third picture book, "The Spider and The Fly", was based on Mary Howitt's famous 1829 poem. Here, DiTerlizzi exhibited his love of insects and arachnids as he rendered Chaz Addams-esque paintings of the intrepid spider and the guileless fly. The result was a critically acclaimed, New York Times bestseller. It won a Caldecott Honor, an award for high artistic achievement in children's publishing, in 2003. Tony's career as a creator of children's books was on its way.
During a magazine interview on his work for Dungeons & Dragons, DiTerlizzi met up-and-coming writer Holly Black. A fellow fantasy and folklore lover, the two became fast friends and Tony showed her sketches he was working on for a field guide to fantastic creatures. Black began helping him, and the two created the chapter book series "The Spiderwick Chronicles".
Spiderwick followed the adventures of three New England children who unearth an old John James Audubon-styled field guide to fairies, trolls and goblins. No sooner do they find the tome, they then discover that all of its subjects are real and want the guide. "The Spiderwick Chronicles" were loved by children and adults alike, and was published in over 30 countries, selling over 7 million copies in the US alone.
Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon Movies released a live action adaptation of "The Spiderwick Chronicles" in 2008 starring Freddie Highmore, Mary Louise-Parker and Nick Nolte. The film was well received by critics and the public, remaining in the top 3 at the box office for a number of weeks.
In 2006, Tony took a break from Spiderwick, returning to the picture book format with his nonsense alphabet book, "G is For One Gzonk!" Next, he and Holly continued the Spiderwick saga in the new series, "Beyond the Spiderwick Chronicles". The latest Spiderwick story arc followed a new set of kids dealing with giants, mermaids and nixies in the hot, humid tropics of South Florida.
DiTerlizzi's passion for crafting more chapter books for young imaginations continued with 2008's "Kenny and The Dragon". Inspired by "The Reluctant Dragon", it tells the story of a young, bookish rabbit who becomes friends with a happy-go-lucky drake. As the two become best friends, the king orders the town dragon-slayer to execute the beast - and it is up to the rabbit, Kenny, to stop him. The book became a New York Times bestseller the week of its release and was nominated for several state book awards.
He followed Kenny by teaming up with his wife, Angela, on a silly series of young picture books, "Adventure of Meno". Meno, the space elf, and his best friend (a jellyfish named Yamagoo) do not speak in correct grammar and go on ridiculous adventures where they are visited by a variety of guests such as David Hasselhoff and Eddie Vedder.
"Ang and I wanted to create a very young book that made you laugh." Tony explained. "There are plenty of soft and cute books for toddlers, but we wanted one that caused laughter with both the parent and the child, forging a love of fun books from the onset."
2010 marks a decade of creating books for children for Tony. "This is what I have always dreamed of doing," he says. "I keep waiting for my mom to wake me up and it has all just been one middle school-aged escapist dream."
DiTerlizzi celebrated his ten-years in children's publishing by returning to aliens and spaceships with his futuristic fairy tale, "The Search for WondLa". The story follows a 12-year old girl, Eva Nine, who is raised underground by a robot. Eva discovers that she is the only human alive on an alien planet and begins searching for others like her.
Tony works with his wife, Angela, and lives in Amherst, Massachusetts with their daughter.
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program(What's this?)
I enjoyed reading "Kenny & The Dragon" to my students (k-5th grade) almost as much as they enjoyed listening to the story. I am slightly biased as one of my most favorite books/cartoons as a child was "the Reluctant Dragon." The book opens in a unique way that pulls you into the story - "Many years ago ...Hold on, I know what you are thinking. You're thinking a book about a dragon should start with 'Once upon a time.' " begins the opening line. My students started laughing out loud as I read through the introduction titled "Before I Forget."
In the story, the little bunny named Kenneth (Or Kenny as he likes to be called) is very imaginative, creative and intelligent. He learns that a lot of research must go into something before it can be stated as fact when he meets Grahame ("like the cracker but with an E") the dragon and sees he is nothing like what the bestiary book describes. The book follows the same story-line of "The Reluctant Dragon" with a few changes here and there to embellish it. Boy meets dragon - dragon is a lover of nature & literature - boy introduces dragon to knight - Dragon and Knight put on a grand show of a fight - everyone loves the dragon in the end. My students' attention was held from the beginning to the end. The bonus: Thanks to DiTerlizzi's clever mentions of a few other subjects and book titles throughout the story, my students have now requested I read "Wind in the Willows" as our next book among a few other titles and subjects.
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Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program(What's this?)
What an adorable story. This book is written by Tony DiTerlizzi, who also wrote "The Spiderwick Chronicles", so you know that this author can write. It is a story of a rabbit named Kenny who befriends a peace-loving dragon. Seems simple enough, except that the other villagers have some misconceptions of what a dragon is and decide to dispatch the dragon. My 8-year-old dragon loving son found the story very enjoyable. He could have read the story himself, but since his 6-year-old sister also wanted to hear the story, I read it to them. My daughter also throughly enjoyed the story. Her only complaint was "there should have been more girls in the book" :) The chapters are short so that makes it nice when reading outloud. (Personally, I could not stop at just 1 chapter, I think I enjoyed reading this story as much as my kids enjoyed hearing it)
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Author/illustrator DiTerlizzi should be patted on the back for his latest work. This book, based on the story of the Reluctant Dragon, offers the adventure of a young rabbit who loves to read and finds a friend in a similarly-minded drake. The story is full of whimsy and clever jokes that, coupled with the beautiful interior sketches, will make both child and parent adore reading the book aloud. Perhaps the best thing about this is that is shows how imagination can save the day. Highly recommended.
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