After I fell in love with The Hallo-Wiener I started to check out more and more books by Dav Pilkey. When I saw the cover for Dragon’s Merry Christmas I knew that it was one that Annabelle would really like. She loves dragons and unicorns and the story would be easy enough for her to read and understand, little did I know she’d turn into a hard core Pilkey fan and request all the Dragon books. For the longest time she wanted me to read books to her, I never had a problem with this but it was hard to try to get her to sit there and read by herself. She will still ask me to read books with her but now she’s motivated to read most of it and have me there for “support” or to help her out with new words. Out of all the Pilkey books she has, this one is her favorite, it doesn’t have to be Christmas time for her to pull it out and start reading it either. In her words, “If everyone was like Dragon, no one would be sad”.
Dragons Merry Christmas
If you have read any of Pilkey’s other books from this series you will know what to expect, if you haven’t then please, do yourself a favor and get this one first. It’s a very cute collection of four short stories that revolve around an adorable blue dragon named, well, Dragon. I hate to read too much into kid’s books but there are some great lessons to be learned from this little guy; sharing being the biggest one. The four stories show how Dragon is getting ready to celebrate Christmas, from decorating his little house to hunting for the perfect tree – everything you are reading leads up to the last story. In “The Perfect Christmas Tree” Dragon sets out to find the ultimate tree; not one too big or too small, that perfect one. When he finally finds it he realizes that it’s so beautiful that he simply can’t cut it down so he drags everything out to the tree and decorates it. Story number two is about his candy wreath; he decides to make a wreath out of chocolates and resisted the temptation to pick the bits off of it. He said “I will only eat the pieces that fall off” then proceeds to bump it a few times until some others fall off. The lesson he learns from this is that if you eat too much chocolate you’ll end up with a tummy ache like Dragon.
Irony plays the biggest part in the third story. Dragon is always losing his mittens so he decides to buy a pair of clip on ones so they will never get lost again. You guessed it, instead of losing his mittens he ends up losing his jacket! The last story ties everything together, the previous three stories all sort of come together in the last one – not that there are any loose ends to begin with, but once you read the last one you see where Pilkey is going. “Merry Christmas, Dragon” shows him getting ready to go shopping and like everyone else, he’s made a list –“Lots of food, a new coat, a big birdhouse”. I didn’t know what he put the birdhouse on his list because birds weren’t really mentioned anywhere else in the book. He sets out on his adventure and buys all the things on his list but when he leaves the shop he sees three raccoons with nothing to eat. Being the nice dragon that he is, he reaches in to his sack and pulls out a huge basket of food. When he passes a rhino shoveling her sidewalk he sees she doesn’t have a coat so he gives her the one he just bought. This continues until he arrives home …
Poor Dragon, he gave away all the things that he bought for himself but he wasn’t sad. The first time I read this .. I swear … I got a big old lump in my throat. “He went upstairs to his quiet room and crawled beneath his soft warm quilt. And later, as he slept, Dragon dreamed he heard angels singing in he starry night” You turn the page to see the raccoons, the rhino and the birds all singing by candlelight outside Dragon’s little house. Like I said, I hate to read a lot into kid’s books but this one really shows that giving is better than receiving. Dragon didn’t feel bad that he gave away all the gifts that he bought for himself, that’s something that we could all carry over to our everyday life. Like Annabelle said, if everyone were like Dragon, there’d be no sad people.
My Take
This would be a great book for younger kids that are having a little problem with the concept of sharing. Even though this is a Christmas themed book it is something that they can read anytime and learn something from it. The illustrations are extremely cute and most of the time Dragon is smiling, well, until he goes crazy with the chocolate or loses his coat. One of the cutest illustrations is on the first page, the little blue dragon making a snow angel with big footprints leading up to it. Even dragons can make snow angels thanks to their tails …
The Bottom Line
This is a great quick read and perfect for kids that like dragons, need a little help understanding sharing or just want to get that warm fuzzy feeling from reading something that’s cute and spreads the Christmas spirit. This is a hard covered book so even if it gets a lot of use it will still be around your home library for a long, long time. If you liked any of Pilkey’s other books then this series is definitely one to check out. It’s cute, has a little lesson tucked into it and I can almost guarantee that the first time you read it, you’ll get a little choked up at the ending.
Dragon tries to make Christmas special each year. He picks the perfect tree and buys the perfect presents. But Dragon just can t bring himself to cut ...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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