Title: Dragon's Dinner
Author: Susannah Corbett
Illustrator: Lynne Chapman
Publisher: Hodder Children's Books
Year: 2009
Word count: approx. 581
Top 10 Element(s): Plot
This action-packed story starts out with the lines "Deep in the woods in a cave inky black, a dragon was snoring away on his back. His yellow eyes opened the tiniest crack, and he said to himself, "I fancy a snack." So the dragon sets out to find something tasty to eat. Not far from his lair he comes across a bear. The bear, not wanting to become a dragon's dinner, runs off into the forest, through the trees, past bushes, over rocks, until he meets a fox. The dragon wouldn't mind eating a fox as well so they run off together. They run and run until they meet a cat. "Hello Mr. Kitty, you may have nine lives, but you'll need to have TEN if you want to survive..." So the cat, fox, and bear all run away from the dragon and up to the tree where the owl lives. Owl joins the flock of fur and feathers runnings from the dragon.
The plot up until this point is a series of chances meetings (rising action) and a growing group of animals trying to escape the sad fate of becoming dragon dinner. But now is where things start to change. Enter...the mouse!
Though the dragon has top billing in this book, the mouse is the top cheese. This tiny mouse has a house at the edge of the forest and is busy going about his work of painting that lovely little house blue. When all these animals suddenly come bursting out of a huge fireball followed by a fire-breathing dragon (climax) he has this well-how-about-THAT kind of attitude. And when the dragon threatens to make mouse part of a tasty meal, mouse is not intimidated at all. He springs into action and soon it is the dragon running from the mouse. (falling action and resolution wrapped up quickly) How does he do it? I'm not going to reveal his clever plan. You'll have to read the book to find out.
This story is written in rhyme with the most wonderful, colorful illustrations that make this book a real treat. Here's an example.
I think I am going to search out more books illustrated by Lynne Chapman.
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6 comments:
Sounds like a fun book! I love these add-on stories. It reminds me of the mitten by Jan Brett.
Linda...how did I not know you were participating in Christie's PB 14:14...or maybe I did and this is just a senior moment.
Regardless...yay! And I LOVE this book..I'm going to try to get a copy...I've been making a list of the books everyone has reviewed and we'll see how many my library can get for me. :)
I'm a fan already. This is the kind of mounting and escalating plot line that I am trying to learn to write. This looks hilariously fun. And I love that a brave mouse is the hero. Thanks for showing us plot in this book, Lindy.
This looks amazing! I'm going to request a copy immediately!
This does sound like a fun book. I love books written in rhyme.
This sounds like a great mentor text for me. Writing in rhyme is a trick and a half!
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