How to Catch a Dragon (How to Catch... Series)

by Adam Wallace, Andy Elkerton (Illustrator)

Overview

From the #1 New York Times and USA Today bestselling How to Catch series comes an all-new dragon story, a great Chinese New Year book for kids!

Do you have what it takes to snag a dragon? The How to Catch kids are off again, this time trying to catch a dragon as they chase him through Chinese New Year celebrations! Set in China during the Spring Festival, otherwise known as Chinese New Year, the wily dragon will have to avoid trap after trap as the kids run through paper lanterns, red lunar envelopes, fireworks, and more!

With bonus educational content and Mandarin translations in the back to enhance your reading experience, How to Catch a Dragon is the perfect dragon book for kids ages 3-8!

Dragons are a clever bunch,
They're difficult to catch.
You'll have to set the ultimate trap-
But have you met your match?

Also in the How to Catch Series:
• How to Catch a Unicorn
• How to Catch a Mermaid
• How to Catch a Dragon
• How to Catch a Monster
• How to Catch an Elf and more!

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781492693697
Publisher:	Sourcebooks
Publication date:	11/05/2019
Series:	How to Catch...
Pages:	40
Sales rank:	1,185
Product dimensions:	8.10(w) x 8.10(h) x 0.40(d)
Lexile:	520L (what's this?)
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Adam Wallace is a children's writer and cartoonist living in Australia. He is the author of the New York Times bestselling How to Catch series and The Holiday Heroes Save Christmas.

Editorial Reviews

12/16/2019

In unevenly metered rhyme, the team behind the How to Catch series presents their latest installment, in which a Chinese boy attempts to catch a dragon in his village for Chinese New Year with the help of his multicultural friends. Certain English words presented in red, gold, and white are translated into correspondingly colored simplified Chinese characters within the illustrations (“grandma” appears translated in a framed wall hanging, for example). Bafflingly, however, pronunciations don’t appear until the very end, where the entire picture book text is provided in English, pinyin, and simplified Chinese. Digital illustrations, while vibrant, are just as muddled; the setting seems to be an ancient, pre-technological Chinese village, though the boy and his friends all sport modern attire. Chinese dishes, such as sticky rice, are drawn like their Western counterparts and retain none of their cultural nuance. A fun concept with a less-than-stellar execution. Ages 4–10. (Nov.)

Publishers Weekly

"A joyful...celebration of Chinese New Year culture." - Kirkus Reviews

"A fun concept." - Publishers Weekly

From the Publisher

2019-10-09
A kid tries to catch a good-luck dragon hiding around town as the family prepares for Chinese New Year following the formula established in How To Catch an Elf (2016) and other series installments.

After hearing Mom wish for a dragon to bring health and fortune for the new year, a boy (presumably Chinese) and several friends (of varying racial presentations) discover a dragon lurking about town. Among the Chinese-style architecture of the town buildings, they employ various fantastical lures related to Chinese culture to catch it, including a web of noodles and sticky rice, a giant red lantern, gold coins, and a dragon dance. The simple and often awkward rhyming quatrains leave no room for deeper insights into Chinese culture, but each stanza does include one or two highlighted words whose Chinese translation can then be found within the illustration. The entire text is translated into Simplified Chinese with Pinyin in the backmatter for cross-referencing. Elkerton's digitally painted, colorful cartoon illustrations depict a diverse cast of modern-looking children against a backdrop of a traditional Chinese village. Ultimately, despite the protagonist's failure to catch the dragon, it is being within the embrace of a loving family (depicted as a mother and a grandmother) that is the luckiest of all.

A joyful if simplistic celebration of Chinese New Year culture. (Picture book. 3-7)

Kirkus Reviews

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