Age Appropriateness (Primary, Intermediate, Middle School):
Primary
Review/Critique:
This book is about a lonely dragon and a lonely girl becoming friends. Although they are different in appearance, they still love each other deeply. This book is fantasy because it requires imagination, and would never happen in real life although it does deal with a probable issue; being lonely.
Comments on Use:
I would use this book with little kids who either are fighting with their friends or who are having trouble finding friends. This book does a good job of illustrating a unusual type of friendship. ( )

7. I liked the book “Lovabye Dragon” by Barbara Joosse, but I would only choose to read it to younger children. The book takes place at night and includes dreamy illustrations of a castle and starry night sky. I liked how the illustrations cover the full page on some pages and the text is included in the pictures. The plot is clear and organized with some dialogue as the child develops a friendly relationship with the dragon. The story is written in third person and some of the text is in a larger font or bolded to place emphasis on certain words, such as “roar” and “I am here!” The main message of the story is that anyone can be friends, regardless of their shape or size. “But they’re just the same size exactly the same size in the middle.” This shows to young children that appearance does not matter and it is what people are like on the inside that counts.

This book is a great fantasy book! It is also a good resource for introducing a student with rhyming. The book is full of rhymes on almost every page. For example, the author wrote, "...past a boat in the most, past a frog in the bog." The author uses creative words to make the rhymes fun while also comprehendible. The central message in this book is that you can have friends of all kinds. Many times, students believe that they can't have friends that "don't look like them". But in reality, they can become best friends with someone who is completely different than them. This is an important lesson for children to learn at a young age.

Summary: The book starts with a lonely girl who wishes she had a dragon friend, and a dragon who wishes he had a girl friend. The girl, who is laying in her bed, starts to cry. Her tears travel from her room all the way to the dragon. The dragon decided to follow the tears to find out who they were coming from. He eventually came across the crying girl. The two of them began to talk and became best friends. She would then sing lovabye songs as the dragon would wrap his tail around her as they fell asleep. ( )