A Dragon's Guide to the Care and Feeding of Humans

January 19, 2015
In this series launch, Yep (the Dragon quartet), collaborating for the first time with his wife, Ryder (Won’t You Be My Kissaroo?), again conjures up a world where dragons and humans interact, and the results are heartwarming and quite funny. Miss Drake, a shapeshifting dragon, is still mourning the death of her human pet, a woman she called Fluffy, when Fluffy’s impetuous great-niece, Winnie, barges into her lair. “I could see she would be rather impossible to train,” sniffs Miss Drake, whose scorn shifts to admiration as the two begin to bond with each other. After Winnie fills the pages of a magical sketchbook with drawings of fantastical creatures, the menacing “sketchlings” escape, and Winnie and Miss Drake join forces to track them down and return them to the book. Their mutual grief—Winnie’s heartache over the death of her father parallels Miss Drake’s loss of Fluffy—gives a moving underpinning to the magical escapades. Miss Drake’s arch narration and the sharp back-and-forth between the characters create an enchanting story, accented by GrandPré’s whimsical b&w spot illustrations. Ages 8–12.

December 1, 2014
This comedy starring a 3,000-year-old dragon and a scrappy little girl takes young readers into a fantasy world situated right next to ours.Miss Drake enjoys humans but sees them as pets. Sadly, her most recent pet, a lady she called "Fluffy" but whom her family knew as "Great-Aunt Amelia," recently passed away. Now, Amelia's niece, 10-year-old Winnie, has come to live in Miss Drake's mansion in San Francisco. Right from the start, Winnie just won't follow Miss Drake's rules for pets. When the girl draws some fanciful creatures in a magical sketchbook, the creatures become real and escape, causing Miss Drake to frantically work to contain the damage. When one of Winnie's sketches turns out to be a truly dangerous creature, even the best of the magical participants at the Enchanter's Fair can't defeat it. Creating a magical world that lies alongside but is concealed from ours, Yep and Ryder write the story from Miss Drake's prissy perspective, using the framework of a pet-care book. The tale is alternately comical, suspenseful and sometimes sweetly emotional, as when it touches on the deaths of Great-Aunt Amelia and Winnie's father and as Miss Drake becomes increasingly fond of Winnie. The playful pen-and-ink illustrations by GrandPre at the beginning of each chapter add yet more charm. Delightful whimsy. (Fantasy. 8-12)

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January 1, 2015

Gr 4-7-When a dragon loses her longtime "pet" human, she is surprised to find herself now paired with the woman's great-niece, Winnie, a curious and capable 10-year-old. Though Miss Drake is a curmudgeonly dragon, she gradually warms to her new companion and introduces her to the magical creatures that live secretly in their city of San Francisco. Miss Drake narrates the tale with an engaging, whimsical tone. She is proud, snobbish, and modern; her human disguises reflect the latest fashions, and she keeps in touch with magical friends via cell phone. Her impatience with Winnie develops into respect and affection as she observes the girl in action, and their relationship is convincing and enjoyable. Introductions to the characters and the hidden magical world proceed rather slowly, and repeated hints at dangers to come are too obvious to generate much drama. Action finally begins when Winnie's sketches of magical creatures come to life and the two companions try to recapture them all. This task takes on a surprising twist when the identity of the final creature is revealed. Though even the climactic battle scenes are not terrifically suspenseful, the resolution is convincing and satisfying. With a black-and-white spot illustration opening most chapters, an engaging narrator, and a consistently fluid writing style, this title makes a fine dragon choice for readers not yet ready for more weighty fantasy novels.-Steven Engelfried, Wilsonville Public Library, OR

Copyright 2015 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from February 15, 2015
Grades 3-5 *Starred Review* In droll counterpoint to the How to Train Your Dragon franchise, Yep and Ryder offer a similar interspecies matchup from the dragon's point of view. Miss Drake, a 3,000-year-old dragon, is initially annoyed when Winifred, 10, barges into her hidden lair beneath a San Francisco mansion. It seems that Winnie's widowed mom has inherited the house from Miss Drake's most recent and still sharply missed human pet, Fluffy (aka Great-Aunt Amelia). The irritating child has been left a key and a charge to take care of the lonely dragon. Being a responsible sort (as well as a shapechanger and a thoroughly modern dragon with a smartphone and a debit card), Miss Drake reluctantly takes Winnie under her wingor tries to, as the strong-willed child has ideas of her own. Despite their differences, the two make a good team, as they prove in narrowly averting major disaster to the city and its magical community, after a flock of creatures Winnie has drawn in a special sketchbook come to life. In vignettes that open each chapter, illustrator GrandPre depicts the diverse creatures, along with glimpses of dragon, child, and various significant items with her customary flair and expertise. Warm humor, magical mishaps, and the main characters' budding mutual respect and affection combine to give this opener for a planned series a special shine that will draw readers and leave them impatient for sequels.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)

March 1, 2015
When Miss Drake's beloved pet Fluffy dies, she has no intention of taking on another, but then Winnie shows up at her door, scrawny, willful, and unimpressed, and Miss Drake finds herself starting training anew. Miss Drake, by the way, is a dragon; Winnie, a human, is the grandniece of Fluffy (a.k.a. Great-aunt Amelia), and Winnie seems to have the notion that she is the owner and Miss Drake, the pet. In chapters headed with advice reminiscent of dog-training manuals ("Train your pet how to behave when meeting strangers and their pets. No fighting, no biting, please!"), Winnie and Miss Drake begin the pas de deux of getting to know each other. A dragon-flight to San Francisco and an enchanted sketchbook lead to adventure when all the magical creatures Winnie draws come to life -- including a pemburu, a magic-eating lobster-like animal that could blow up San Francisco unless Winnie and Miss Drake recapture it. Miss Drake narrates in a tart, self-assured voice, relating events from her own point of view but with enough detail for readers to perceive the disjunction between what Miss Drake wants and what Winnie insists upon, a refreshing dual perspective. Miss Drake's old-money refinement and Winnie's hardscrabble make-do set each other off with a sort of vinegar-and-sweet piquancy shared by GrandPre's whimsical spot art. The promise of Winnie's enrollment in spell-casting Spriggs Academy hints at sequels to come. anita l. burkam

(Copyright 2015 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)