Take Care, Good Knight (Hardcover)

by Shelley Moore Thomas (Author), Paul Meisel (Illustrator)
Key Phrases: old wizard, little dragons, Good Knight

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist
Three lovable little dragons from the Dutton Easy Readers series that began with Good Night, Good Knight (2000) now appear in a large-format picture book. When a friendly old wizard asks them to watch his cats while he is gone, they readily agree. Later, unable to read his instructions, the preliterate dragons are baffled but still game. They pore over his illustrated message, guess at the words, and use clues from the pictures he has drawn, but they wildly mistake his meanings. In one case, they imagine that a pool of water means "take the cats swimming" rather than "give the cats fresh water." Well suited to reading aloud, the story is written with a keen ear for language and a good understanding of what makes young children laugh. Meisel's ink-and-watercolor illustrations, full of lively details, are as entertaining as the story. Sure to please the not-reading-quite-yet set as well as the many fans of the previous books. Carolyn Phelan
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Product Description
At last, here is a picture book about the Good Knight and his three little dragon friends, the stars of Dutton’s best-loved Easy Readers. The old wizard has asked the dragons to take care of his cats for a few days. There’s just one problem: they can’t read the wizard’s instructions! The dragons make their best guesses. They take the cats swimming and camping, with hilarious results. Of course, it’s up to the Good Knight to come to the rescue in his funniest outing yet.

Good Night, Good Knight was an ALA Notable Book and a Booklist Top 10 Easy Reader, among other honors.

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 4-8
  
• Hardcover: 32 pages
• Publisher: Dutton Juvenile (September 21, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0525476954
• ISBN-13: 978-0525479277
• Product Dimensions: 11 x 9.3 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #549,874 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars great story, September 23, 2007

By	Kerry S. "gen x'er" (Cleveland, Ohio United States) - See all my reviews

My 3 almost turning 4 year old loves this story. It tells the adventures of 3 little dragons that agree to babysit the wizard's cats. Hilariously, the dragons do the best they can with the cats getting the worst of it (great for dog lovers!) Teaches right from wrong and reinforces how important it is to learn to read. My kids like to pretend "meow" when the cats are in the cupboard. We will read the author's other books because we liked this one so much.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars We just love this series!!!, September 19, 2008

By	Jen B (VA) - See all my reviews

My four year old girl has been enamored with dragons for a couple of years, and has lately gotten very interested in knights, castles, etc. I quickly found that there is very little out there that is appropriate for smaller children, on the subject of knights. Either the information is too complex, or more likely, too gruesome for my taste. When I discovered this sweet series, I immediately wanted all of them.
I really like the way the verses flow and how the author repeats the action over and over. So many rhyming books for kids sound awkward and forced, but not these. They are just wonderful!
These are just fun books. I'm glad my library has them, but we are buying them too, so we can read them whenever we want! It is a refreshing angle to the knight and dragon relationship. Nearly everything else I found was adversarial, and since we love dragons, I was sorry about that.
If you have a child who loves knights and dragons, also check out Tomie Paola's The Knight and the Dragon, about a knight reading up on how to fight dragons and a dragon reading up on how to fight knights. The "fight" is hilarious and the end has a clever twist that delighted my child and me too!
The Reluctant dragon, by Kenneth Grahame, is either for an older child who can read, or a great read aloud that my four year old enjoyed, and there is a neat old Disney movie based on this book. We loved this too.

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Silly Fun, September 15, 2008

By	Lolagranola "lolagranola91" (Rural Wisconsin) - See all my reviews

My five year old son want's this book every night. The dragon's do such silly things with the wizards cats - and Jacob loves to repeat the phrase, "Cats Swimming, that did not seam right" or "Cats camping, that did not seem right". The repetitive nature of that phrasing is great for early readers.