Sky Dragon

I fear to report that this work, which was published in 1982 is now long out of print and is becoming more difficult to find...such a pity! Three young children spend the afternoon won a small hill in mid winter, watching the clouds. As children of all ages will, they begin seeing and identifying different animals in the clouds; cats, mice, dogs, elephants and suddenly dragons! As the day wears on, the clouds become darker; swirling dark clouds and the dragons more fearsome! At this point the children head home to warm up; cold noses, ears and faces sort of force the issue, and enjoy hot chocolate served my their mom as it begins to snow. The next morning the children begin to make a snowman...but wait...why not something different? Have you ever made a "snow dragon?" This work has several things going for it. First is the art work by the author. He does some rather amazing things with clouds, swirling clouds, shaded clouds and I must say, rather magical clouds. As a child or as a grown up, which ever the case may be, and you have never indulged in the habit of cloud watching, then you are missing a treat. The author has tapped into this, one of my all time favorite pastimes by the way, perfectly. If this one does not stir the imagination of the wee ones, then there is little hope I would say. The text of this work is at an entry reading level which makes it idea for the little ones and also makes in a great read along. (The reading level designation is 4-8 which I would say is about right. The parent or reader can "help" the child find the different images the children in the story see and perhaps, if they look very close, they will find their own cloud animals, ones the story may have "missed." The art is this short work is great and the text is nice, crisp and simple without being condescending as so many beginning readers have a tendency to be. Any thing that helps encourage a child's imagination is a good thing and this small work will certainly do that. This is another of those works that we should not lose and we need to drag it out of the library storage room, used book store and yard sale table and get it back on the bookshelf in the children's rooms. And by the way... if you are an adult reading this, and you have not been out cloud watching and dreaming for years and years now, get off your duff and relearn this wonderful child's pastime. You will be happier if you do! Of course it is much better and a bunch more fun if you take your kid or grand kid with you...they will actually see more than you will and they quite likely will teach you something! Don Blankenship The Ozarks