Lexile Measure: AD650L (What's this?)
Hardcover: 32 pages
Publisher: G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers (April 25, 1980)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0399207074
ISBN-13: 978-0399207075
Product Dimensions: 10.9 x 0.4 x 9 inches
Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (286 customer reviews)
Best Sellers Rank: #38,655 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #23 in Books > Children's Books > Literature & Fiction > Historical Fiction > Medieval #2099 in Books > Children's Books > Action & Adventure
Age Range: 4 - 8 years
Grade Level: Preschool - 3
This is one of my favorite children's books. A knight and a dragon, both perfectly content on their own, realize that they are not living up to society's expectations of them and begin preparing for THE FIGHT. They're terrible at it, though, and fare much better as restauranteurs. What a great lesson, and what a great way to tell it. The book itself contains very few words, but lots of diPaola's detailed, engaging pictures, making it appropriate for a variety of ages. We've read this to our two-year old, discussing how fighting isn't very helpful. I imagine we'll be reading it to her when she's four or six, discussing how you shouldn't do things you don't like just because others say you should. An added bonus is that the princess, who is never mentioned in the text, provides the solution for "the boys", who initially appear to be the main characters in the story. It's a neat twist on a classic theme.
My almost-4-year-old son loves this book. He's interested in knights and fighting, like many little boys. We laugh and laugh at the silly things that happen to the knight and dragon as they try to fight and fail. As a parent I appreciate a book that doesn't glorify fighting, but still acknowledges that children are facinated by the knights of old who fought with swords and lances, and plays with that interest. Don't look for lectures on fighting, or serious displays of sword technique. This one is just for giggles.
This funny lighthearted book encourages kids to discard traditional rivalries and consider creative opportunities for cooperation. Let your child interpret the amusing illustrations and open the door to two-way discussions of these issues.
I am a speech-language pathologist and I like to use wordless (or almost wordless) books with my preschoolers sometimes to practice their speech sounds in a conversational context, as well as informally assess their sentence structure and story telling skills.I first want to say that I love Tomie dePaola's books. His illustrations have a uniqueness about them where they show the story with a couple of extra details, but not so many details that the page is overwhelming and difficult for preschoolers to understand. His books use great vocabulary and story structure to them, with and without words.This book is an almost wordless picture book. It is about a knight and a dragon. Each character has never fought the other before and decide that it's time to do so. However, before they fight, they must learn how to fight. Each finds a book and reads about how to do their respective parts. The knight reads about making armor and gets all of his gear ready. The dragon reads about swishing his tail and practicing looking fierce. Then they practice on dummies. When they are ready to fight, the line up, charge, and miss! In the end, they don't fight at all, but read new books about making and cooking a bar-b-q.My students love this book! They love that it has a dragon and a fight! (except there isn't a fight in the end). I love that it introduces them to vocabulary like knight, shield, armor, helmet, lance, sword, castle, cave, and more! Great preschool book!
I found this book as an insert in a book on how to compete effectively in business. It offers, in an easy to follow and very enjoyable way, some original thinking on how to turn traditional competition into cooperative endeavors. A must for parents who want to teach children ways to consider alternatives to fighting. The drawings are also charming.
In the Knight and the Dragon, the knight practices with a wooden dragon and the dragon practices with dummies. At first they're not good at it. The knight misses the wooden dragon and runs into a tree, and the dragon misses the dummies. But the next time the knight kills the wooden dragon and the dragon gets a hundred of the dummies. They give each other invitations and set a time for the fight...I liked this book. I'm six years old. I know you don't know why I like it, but I'll tell you. I like it because at the end the librarian gives them books to make a barbecue!
Great illustrations, but very little text, the last 10 pages of the book have no story. You're left to make up the rest of the story with a strange idea for the restaurant. I would NOT have bought this if I had known I was going to be left to finish the story myself. I thought I had gotten a misprint since the text stopped so suddenly.
This isn't a read-to, but is sort of a read-with, and actually is a look-at-it-and-make-it-up-as-you-go-along.The author helps us get started by establishing a knight who has never fought a dragon and a dragon who has never fought a knight. He tells us that they plan to have a joust, and sends them both to the library to read up on knight-dragon fighting. From there on, for the remaining 24 pages, apart from a few "meanwhiles" we have to supply all of the words and figure out and decide what's happening. And that works great.There are a number of books coming out recently that consist of illustrations that are open to interpretation, on pages that are formatted for a kid to actually write in his own story. This book doesn't go that far. But, there's lots of room to create different versions of the story every time you go through this book, and it presents a wonderful opportunity for a creative reading and imagining session. There are lots of little jokes and bits around the edges of the illustrations, so you could also have fun just pointing out those to each other.You know, after a long day I don't know if I'd pick this as the bed-time book. But, if your little reader is in the mood and if you're in the mood, and if there's just a bit of silliness in the air, this book could be a lot of fun.
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