Ellie's Dragon

by Bob Graham, Bob Graham (Illustrator)

Overview

From master storyteller Bob Graham comes an adorable and affecting tale about imaginary friends and the bittersweet nature of growing up.

When Ellie is very small, she finds a lovable newborn dragon on a carton of eggs in the grocery store. Ellie calls him Scratch, takes him home, and moves him into her dollhouse. Her mother can’t see Scratch, and her teacher doesn’t notice when Ellie brings Scratch to preschool, yet her friends are amazed. Ellie is lucky to have an affectionate, house-trained dragon like Scratch! But dragons get quite large as they grow. And Ellie is growing, too, moving from dollhouses to dance parties, not noticing that Scratch’s brilliant green scales are beginning to fade a little. . . . Beloved picture-book creator Bob Graham illustrates the joys of imagination and friendship in this touching story. With his signature gentle wit and warm, whimsically detailed illustrations, he captures the bond between girl and dragon, as well as the changes that come with time’s passage. A wistful, quietly thought-provoking tribute to the friends who appear when we need them most, even if it’s just for a little while.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781536211139
Publisher:	Candlewick Press
Publication date:	11/10/2020
Pages:	40
Product dimensions:	10.25(w) x 11.69(h) x 0.50(d)
Age Range:	3 - 7 Years

About the Author

Bob Graham is the author-illustrator of many extraordinary and critically acclaimed books for children, including How to Heal a Broken Wing; The Silver Button; Home in the Rain; April and Esme, Tooth Fairies; and The Underhills: A Tooth Fairy Story. Bob Graham lives in Australia.

Editorial Reviews

In Graham’s (The Underhills: A Tooth Fairy Story) tender portrait of childhood, when young Ellie finds a rainbow-colored dragon hatchling in the supermarket’s egg case, she names the tiny critter Scratch and sets him up cozily in her dollhouse at home...Graham’s elegant watercolor-and-ink illustrations capture snapshots of a child maturing in scenes of curly-headed, pale-skinned Ellie dancing with her sleepover guests, who also cuddle up with Scratch in their bed. Though the message is more likely to resonate with adults than with children, Graham elegantly conveys the way that Scratch, like childhood, slips “quietly away into the night.”
—Publishers Weekly

As usual with Graham, it’s his gently puffy, diverse, and rumpled illustrative cast that really makes the story; Scratch is very much a Graham dragon in his cuddly bumpy scaliness, and it’s a hoot to watch all the kids pointing at him in wonder as the adults pass by oblivious. There’s an adult perspective to the trajectory and audiences may understand the story different ways depending on their own relationships with Scratch-like companions, but they’ll be reassured by the notion that even the most evanescent of good friends can go on to find welcome elsewhere.
—Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

From the Publisher

2020-10-27
As a girl gets bigger and older, her imaginary friend…well, gets bigger.

Spotting Scratch—“pale and luminous, with shifting rainbow colors, like oil on water”—crawling from an egg carton at the store, little Ellie makes a home for him in her bedroom dollhouse. When she’s old enough for preschool, she brings him along to be admired by her classmates (grown-ups can’t see him), and he comes along to the movies when her dad visits on weekends too. But when she turns 5 and goes to kindergarten, Scratch stays home, and as years go by he gets harder and harder to see. Finally, when Ellie turns 13, Scratch slips away…to be found wandering the streets by little Sam. In Graham’s typically restrained, softly hued cartoon scenes, Scratch grows from mouse- to bus-size but always somehow fits, even in Ellie’s cozy bedroom, without crowding. Along with Graham’s calm, abstracted expressions and the occasional piercing, tattoo, or punk hairdo, the dot-eyed human figures in street and classroom settings display subtle but visible differences in racial presentation: Ellie and her parents are White; Sam and his family are people of color. Though the story bears obvious similarities to “Puff, the Magic Dragon,” its emotions are more nuanced and contemplative than that hoary classic’s. (This book was reviewed digitally with 11.5-by-20-inch double-page spreads viewed at 75% of actual size.)

A low-key love story about growing and outgrowing. (Picture book. 3-7)

Kirkus Reviews