Tom ElleryReseñas

Sweet book that it allows the young boy to fantasize wildly, but eventually teaches the message that what we have is what we need and must appreciate.

This book would be best to teach youngsters the value of another language and to teach them some words of that language.

This is a lovely fanasty book about a little boy who wishes instead of playing with his little brother that he could play with a dragon instead, but the more he tries to do with a dragon, the more he realizes dragons don't make very good playmates. This would be great for a classroom library or during a discussion about siblings.

Easily made into an interactive book for young children, this book teaches about sibling rivalry in a simple and easily understood way.

If I Had a Dragon is a book about a young boy who really does not want to play with his little brother. In fact, he would pretty much rather do anything but play with his little brother. He begins to think about all of the cool things he could do if only he had a dragon. However, as he continues to think about all of the things he would do with this dragon (which happen to be all of the things he would do with his little brother) he realizes how the dragon would run things because of his size, or his fire breath, or other reasons. In the end, playing with your little brother doesn't sound so bad now, does it?

I really enjoyed this book about what if you had a dragon as a pet. The art in this book is also really interesting, as the pictures use black and white, but color for the characters.

Read the story of Morton and his baby brother who he thinks is boring and wish he would turn into something fun like a dragon! Then he imagines all the things that he could do with the dragon and then the bitter failures of all the scenarios, and in the end, he decided that his baby brother is not bad, but pretty fun to play with in the end! A classic story of a imaginative kid who doesn't appreciate what he has.

Genre: I would say this is modern fantasy because in real life dragons do not appear to little boys for them to play with all around town. There are some realistic aspects of it, with the main character Morton not wanting to play with his younger brother at first and then discovering it is more fun than playing alone or with an imaginary/real life dragon. The imagination might happen in real life but dragons do not exist like this in real life. The other thing about it is that each page has the translation in Spanish, which is nice for ESL learners and it makes it easier to take into the classroom.

The media used in this book is stated to be charcoal, ink, and watercolor. I think it is neat that the main characters and some smaller details are painted in watercolor and the rest of the details are in charcoal and ink and shading. This makes the plotline stand out as the words are being read on the page and helps direct the eye to the main point.

The little boy in the story is told that he has to play with this baby brother. He does not want to so he thinks it would be fun to have a dragon to play with. The different activites he wants to do are not good for a dragon. This is a cute book that children should enjoy.

This book is fictional, but it is also fantasy because there are no such things as dragons. The art in the book is hand-drawn and colored with water-colors. It is about a boy who does not like his brother because he is too small to do anything with, so he wishes his brother were a dragon. Then the little boy realizes the dragon is way to big to do anything with so he wishes for his brother back. The reading level of this book is kindergarten or maybe first grade. There are not many words per page and the word level is moderately easy. The curricular connections are: dragons, brothers, and appreciation.

Text is sparse, but it's there in both English and Spanish. Boy wishes he had a dragon but when he thinks about it, realizes that a dragon would make a pretty inconvenient playmate.

gives an appreciation for sibling love

"Tired of playing with his little brother, a boy imagines having a dragon for a playmate instead."

This book is a side by side English/Spanish story in which a little boy imagines life with a pet dragon rather than a little brother. The dragon sounds like a good idea- until he thinks about all the ways the dragon would be in the way... The little brother, it seems, is more fun after all.

These illustrations are cartoonish in a good way -- fun! :) It's a nice take on the pain-in-the-butt younger sibling genre.