Is it a knight, is it a warrior, no its George the mouse... (George And The Dragon - Chris Wormell)

Member Name: Emmamac1

Product:	George And The Dragon - Chris Wormell
Date:	21/09/09 (106 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: A fun story book, introducing fears

Disadvantages: none

George and the Dragon is a tale which most of us are familiar with. The mighty knight George defeats (or even slays) the brutal dragon, earning honor amongst his men and the kingdom. The story has been written again, this time with a new twist. It is still along the same lines of 'little' defeating 'big', but now the accidental hero has a tail!

There is a huge, mighty red dragon dominating the lands. It lives in a dark cave in a far off place, and comes to terrorise the people. It can fly higher than the clouds, burn down forests with its fiery breath and knock down castles with a flick of its tail. This is one mean dragon. But this dragon has a secret. He is scared of mice.

The story then focuses on the dragon's new neighbour. Meet George, a little mouse that has moved house, and has bought the cave right next door to the dragon. Unfortunately, some bats lived there before, so all the furniture was hanging from the ceiling. The nearest cheese shop was far away, and to top it of there was no sugar for his tea! So, following tradition, George pays his neighbour a visit to borrow some sugar.

George is an extremely polite mouse, and asks for some sugar, ignoring the fact that the dragon has a princess in his dirty claws. As soon as the dragon spots George he lets out an almighty scream, lets the princess go and scarpers! All's well in the end, and George does get his cup of tea, but this time from a brand new home in the castle. The dragon is deterred, the castle is protected.

George and the Dragon is a really lovely children's picture book, for ages 3 up. It is written by Chris Wormell in a very simplistic but humorous way. It starts with the words "Far, far away in the high, high mountains in a deep, deep valley in a dark, dark cave......". This beginning really sets a great scene and gets all young listener's full attention. The book describes the dragon using plenty of wonderful adjectives like, monstrous wing, mighty tail and fiery breath. Worell includes much humour in the book which many adults will appreciate. This makes reading much more fun.

On the last page, George is being rewarded by the princess with a table full of food. Here the written text does go out of sync with the rest of the tale. There is a huge list of foods and too many 'ands'. But, this is not an issue to my little listeners, as they are far too busy concentrating more on the actual picture, and deciding which food they would like, than worrying about the text!

The book is very short and only takes five to ten minutes to read the actual text. Most time will be spent looking at the fantastic illustrations and discussing the story, this will extend the story time. The pictures take up three quarters of the page, with the writing in large font on the bottom quarter. The dragon is scary, mean and huge. George is a cute little mouse. The drawings are not comical, but quite realistic (if a dragon can be realistic), and intense. Just outside the dragons cave there are a load of skulls from his previous meals. Most children seem to accept this and are not bothered by the scene.

George and the Dragon is a tale of good overcoming bad, little defeating big, and evil being conquered. The great thing about this version of the tale is that George, the mouse was not even aware of what he had achieved. He was just having a really bad day and had asked his neighbour for some sugar.

My boys laugh at a dragon being so scared of a tiny mouse. In this way, the book tackles fears and phobias. It good for children to know that most people have a fear. A fear can be anything and any size.

In our house, George and the Dragon has been a favourite for many years. The illustrations are colourful and full of detail. The text is easy to read, but full of great meaning. This book is a real hit. With knights, a dragon, a mouse and a princess (yuk! from my sons) it is bound to be a super tale.

Summary: A really enjoyable tale of George and the Dragon!