Illustrations – Paddy Donnelly
Our arrogant pompous self assured knight is on a mission: to find a dragon. He’s determined, he has a map and a trusty steed who is, quite frankly, the brains of the operation.
The knight trusts his own judgement and buries his head in the map, oblivious to the signs he passes. Even the literal ones.
This is one of those picture books where the words and the pictures tell vastly different stories. If we trust the knight, we’ll believe there’s nothing to see here, but we know better.
Paddy Donnelly’s illustrations tell us the other story. It’s not only the dragon the knight fails to see. He misses practically the entire story. Just some of what he misses are a unicorn, treasure and the real heroes of this story.
If I’d read this as a kid, I would have loved pointing out all of the times I found the dragon. Adult me may have also enjoyed doing this but also loved seeing the expressions on the animals’ faces.
My favourite expression happened early in the book, when the knight is in Ye Olde Shoppe. He may have purchased that map and bargain bin sword or he may have appropriated them when the shopkeeper’s back was turned. What’s not in doubt is how bored his horse is; without a word you can see they’re well acquainted with the knight’s self-aggrandising behaviour.
I read a lot of picture books. Not all of them make a lasting impression. This one has. I borrowed it from the library in 2021 and as soon as I saw it again I knew I had to reread it. It was just as much fun as I remembered.
I got even more out of the illustrations this time around. There’s so much to see. It’s taken me four reads to pick up on the fact that the bunny flying through the air is still visible when you turn to the next page.
I’m definitely going to be reading this again.
Thank you so much to NetGalley and Frances Lincoln Children’s Books, an imprint of The Quarto Group, for the opportunity to read this picture book.
Once Upon a Blurb
Children will love this hilarious book about a silly knight who goes in search of a dragon to battle!
The other knights have told him that there’s no such thing as dragons, but he says, ‘Forsooth! There is TOO such a thing!’ You just need to know where to look!
And luckily, this knight has something very special that no one else has – a map that says: ‘HERE BE DRAGONS’!
So, he sets off armed with the map, his sword, and his trusty steed. He travels straight to the spot marked ‘X’, past shiny treasure, some suspicious bones and many signs telling him to TURN BACK!
But alas, he’s too busy looking at his map to notice. He wanders up and down a spiky hill (the dragon’s back), shouts into a burrow (the dragon’s nose), and eventually walks into a very dark cave (the dragon’s mouth).
In this laugh-out-loud story, young readers will love seeing the hapless knight search for the dragon, all the while not seeing how close he truly is to the beast!
Will he see the dragon before it’s too late?!
With expert storytelling from the author of This Book Can Read Your Mind, Susannah Lloyd, and whimsical illustrations from the CILIP Kate Greenaway Medal nominee, Paddy Donnelly, this is a book that will delight time after time. Kids will love coming back to the bookshelf and seeing if they can spot the fearsome dragon in the background. Comedic illustrations with hidden clues hinting at the dragon’s whereabouts accompany funny and lively text which kids and parents alike will love to read aloud!
Schizanthus Nerd 