Jane and the Dragon
Kindergarten-Grade 3—Everyone laughs at Jane for wanting to be a knight, except the court jester, who loans her his small suit of armor, and she spends her days practicing knightly duties. When a dragon steals the prince, Jane sets out to rescue him. After a long, wearisome battle, they sit down and talk about what's expected of dragons (stealing the prince) and knights (being men). In the end, she turns an enemy into a friend, returns the prince to his parents, becomes a proper knight with Saturdays off to visit a friend, and dances with the jester at the royal ball. Bathed in a golden light, the whimsical illustrations for this original fairy tale cast a golden glow on Jane's aspirations and adventures. The watery blues and lavenders in the second book are equally fitting and as amusing, as the child and the dragon search for the king's magician, banished from the court because he cannot do a rain spell. Unfortunately, the magician discovers that the missing ingredient is anger, nearly destroying a farming community and Jane's dragon. When the creature is struck by blue lightning and falls into the water below, the youngster saves him and shows the repentant sorcerer that being sorry is only the beginning. Baynton reverses the traditional role of girls in fairy tales and redeems their adversaries. These kindly stories, also an animated TV series, are solid choices.—Mary Jean Smith, Southside Elementary School, Lebanon, TNCopyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.