Once Upon a Dragon: Stranger Safety for Kids (and Dragons)
Kindergarten-Grade 3–In this breezy rhyming text, a little girl and her dragon friend enter a fairy-tale world and meet up with villains such as the big bad wolf, the queen from Snow White, and the fox from The Gingerbread Boy. In each instance, the stranger attempts to entice the girl and her friend to go somewhere with them, or to eat something. While the dragon sometimes wants to give in, the child is always adamant, such as when the queen attempts to give it an apple. Dragon!…/You don't know it's safe; it could make you quite sick./Don't fall for that evil Queen's horrible trick. The book also shows children how seemingly helpful strangers, like the footmen from Cinderella, shouldn't be trusted if they don't know them. The illustrations depicting the different fairy-tale characters help move the text along and allow younger readers to identify the stories. This is a solid addition to most collections, and a wonderful title to include in a safety kit or bibliography.–Lisa Gangemi Kropp, Middle Country Public Library, Centereach, NYCopyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.