The Dragon Machine

This book has the most magical illustrations (and a pretty font, too). The story is very simple, told in simple language, about a lonely boy who makes his own friends with the ignored (imaginary?) dragons around him. Of course, he has to give them up, and save them, but that leads to him being more noticed - either because his absence causes his parents to realize what they're missing (the literal reading), or because he simply grows up (a more metaphorical one). Seriously, check this book out from the library and then go buy it.

A little boy sees dragons everywhere he goes. We should be jealous that we can't see them too! I think this book is a very sly, very cute book. This is a great story and I highly recommend it!

This book is beautifully illustrated. I can't even begin to understand why it would be out of print. I ordered a used copy, and was beyond happy with what I got. It's a cute story about a boy who starts to see dragons. He begins to feed them, and brings them into his home, which later he finds out is the last thing you should ever do. The little dragons make foot prints and brake things that the little boy has to take the blame for. He then builds a mechanical dragon. He plans on flying the mechanical dragon in hopes of leading all the dragons to a safe desert home. The story is written simple so that even young kids can enjoy it, and the beautiful artwork will captivate the older kids as well. The art alone puts the book in my top ten most beautifully illustrated books.

I have read literally hundreds of books to my son over the last three years and this is one of the very best. The art is beautiful and the text is very rich without being wordy. Don't miss this one.

I'm sure that the folks who hand out the Caldacott didn't see or read this book since it wasn't even a Caldacott Honor book for last year. As a former employee of a national book store chain who worked in the children's area, I've seen a lot of not so good picture books that get published anyway. I can say that this is one of the best picture books I've seen in a long time. Not only are the illustations done beautifully, but the story is well written. It is not so wordy that you don't want to read it at night and not too short that you have to have a back up book. This book should be a classic.