Do Not Disturb the Dragon

by David Guy

Hiding out in a dark cave in an old forest, a dragon hopes for peace and quiet. But townspeople find the dragon's home and destroy it. What will the dragon do? This book explores the harmful effects people can have on their environment through a fantastical lens. It provides a perfect introduction to environmentalism for children through an entertaining story.

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens

32 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 2014

Reviews

[S · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book "Do Not Disturb the Dragon" is really good and it talks about taking care of the planet. It also informs the reader that we should not disturb it too much. However, I am not fond of all the extra pages with little text and a lack of illustrations. I am not sure if it was a formatting issue on my end or if it is how the book is.

The storyline was nice and the illustrations are nicely done.

[Theediscerning · Rating 5 out of 5]

From the evidence of a whole four examples and one brief afternoon, it seems Windmill Books have a business model of bringing out ten year old board books and young readers, and giving them new editions. Well give their finder a raise, for none of the gems so far should have gone out of print anyway (in fact all come from an old house I’ve never heard of, either, so the picture really isn’t that clear).

This wonderful piece concerns a dragon, living very happily and very sleepily, in the middle of a lake in the middle of a huge cavern in the middle of a mountain in the middle of a forest (or somewhere like that, anyway). But those pesky humans keep getting to be an annoyance – clunking over her in armour, jumping off her back into the lake, pumping the lake out for mineral water. It’s a good thing she’s so placid, then. Or is she…? This is a lovely way of hiding an environmental message, and while the disguise may be the most slender – just a sentence per page, or so – it’s one of the finer ways to smuggle it into our consciousness. It’s a great little drama of revenge, as well, and young readers will know from very early on that their sympathies will not be with the humans. I struggled to find a flaw with this, and am really glad that – nine years or so from its original copyright – it came to my attention.

[Susan Underbrink · Rating 2 out of 5]

A big thank you to NetGalley and Rosen Publishing/Windmill Books for the ARC. I am voluntarily reviewing this book. This is a children's book. I liked the graphics in the book. My ARC had some paging issues, but the story itself was for me not great. So we disturbed the dragon-and she retaliates with violence. Is that supposed to be okay? I am not sure if the author has some hidden vision or not but for me-violence should never be the answer. Right now in our world we have to much violence that is already being condoned for whatever reason. I don't need to read about it in children's books. I get the dragon was upset-why didn't she just fly away like she did in the end? Anyway, this is not a book for me. 2 stars

[Karen · Rating 1 out of 5]

My second book from a new bundle from Scholastic billed as social emotional. Like the previous book Boris the Boastful Frog, this suffered from false advertising. There is no social emotional lesson to be learned here. After the humans in the book do everything to disturb the dragon, the dragon retaliates by burning the village, blowing up the mountain and leaving for the moon. I'm not even sure I want this on my library's shelves. Even if it hadn't been billed as social/emotional, I don't think I would have enjoyed this book. It is a children's book, it shouldn't have violence being the resolution. If I need a dragon story, I'll stick with Dragons Eat Noodles on Tuesdays or Dragons Love Tacos

[Syntha Green · Rating 4 out of 5]

A funny sequence of events shows that the dragon just wants to be left alone.