There's a Dragon in My Sleeping Bag

by James Howe, David S. Rose (Illustrator)

This wry tale of two brothers who amiably try to outdo each other by creating jumbo-size imaginary friends makes a great read-aloud and is a follow-up to There’s a Monster Under My Bed .

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens, Friendship, Dragons

40 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1994

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

James Howe has written more than eighty books in the thirty-plus years he's been writing for young readers. It sometimes confuses people that the author of the humorous Bunnicula series also wrote the dark young adult novel, The Watcher, or such beginning reader series as Pinky and Rex and the E.B. White Read Aloud Award-winning Houndsley and Catina and its sequels. But from the beginning of his career (which came about somewhat by accident after asking himself what kind of vampire a rabbit might make), he has been most interested in letting his imagination take him in whatever direction it cared to. So far, his imagination has led him to picture books, such as I Wish I Were a Butterfly and Brontorina (about a dinosaur who dreams of being a ballerina), mysteries, poetry (in the upcoming Addie on the Inside), and fiction that deals with issues that matter deeply to him. He is especially proud of The Misfits, which inspired national No Name-Calling Week (www.nonamecallingweek.org) and its sequel Totally Joe. He does not know where his imagination will take him in the next thirty-plus years, but he is looking forward to finding out.

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

Reviews

[Lisa Carroll]

This was a charming story about two brothers and their imaginary friends. I thought it was cute, but my son didn't understand that the dragon and camel were imaginary friends. He thought they were real characters in the story. Sometimes these types of concepts are lost on children. Nonetheless, it was a nice story and the colorful illustrations went great with the comical story.

[Josiah]

This is a nice book about two brothers who care for each other, but try not to show it in traditional ways. James Howe's storytelling is faultless as always. There's a Dragon in My Sleeping Bag is a good book for the young, old, and anyone in between.

[Rosa Cline]

Fun Fun book about two brothers and their relationship between themselves AND their imagination friends. One brother starts out having a dragon but the other brother can't see him; the little brother can't do anything because the dragon is already doing it. So he finds him a camel and his camel likes everything he does. But is it fun to always have imaginary friends? The boys figure out that being friends is nice but being brothers is a special thing

[Kid's Picture Book Review]

This story of two brothers who try to outdo each other by creating jumbo-size imaginary friends so they don’t have to hang out with each other. I really like the illustrations in this. It’s more of a classic 90’s look, which it is from. I can totally relate to something like this when I was younger with my brothers and sometimes not wanting to play with them. It’s a nice story that ends with the brothers getting rid of their imaginary friends so that they can play together again.

[Diana]

Clever take on the imaginary friends theme. I love how there is understanding from the parents in this matter and a willingness to allow the kids to work things out on their own and in their own way. Makes me wonder what conversations occurred behind closed doors between mom and dad while all this was going down! I appreciated the message here about the benefits of family over friends.

[Megan]

First one brother has an imaginary friend show up, then the other one does too.

[Suzanne Lorraine Kunz Williams]

Fun book about brothers.

[Laura]

Picture Book

[The Brothers]

A little brother feels displaced and neglected when his older brother's imaginary dragon begins to infringe on his friendship with his brother. To counteract his hurt feelings, he comes up with his own imaginary friend (a camel) and the older brother soon learns what it's like when the shoe is on the other foot.

Really fun illustrations.

[Kathy]

2 brothers play with their imaginary friends instead of each other until they realize they miss each other.