You Don't Want a Dragon!

by Ame Dyckman, Liz Climo (Illustrator)

Overview

Be careful what you wish for — again! This follow-up to You Don't Want a Unicorn! by New York Times bestselling author Ame Dyckman and beloved illustrator Liz Climo points out the hilarious mishaps that come with adopting a dragon.
 
Our protagonist wishes (much to the narrator's continued chagrin) for a pet dragon. Though initially thrilled, the kid quickly discovers that dragons aren't quite as awesome as they originally thought. From the scooting to the digging to the fire-breathing, our Kid is dismayed that they still haven't found their perfect pet. Little do they know, that pet might just be right around the corner . . .

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780316535809
Publisher:	Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Publication date:	06/09/2020
Pages:	40
Sales rank:	709,742
Product dimensions:	10.20(w) x 10.20(h) x 0.50(d)
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Ame Dyckman is the award-winning author of That's Life!, Dandy, Read the Book, Lemmings!, You Don't Want a Unicorn!, Horrible Bear!, the New York Times Bestselling Wolfie the Bunny, and more. Ame lives in New Jersey with the most difficult beast of all: her cat (as well as her family and other book characters). You can visit Ame on Twitter (@AmeDyckman).




Liz Climo grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and moved to Los Angeles after college to work as a character artist on The Simpsons. She is the illustrator of You Don't Want a Unicorn! and Can Somebody Please Scratch My Back?, as well as the author and illustrator of the Rory the Dinosaur series, Please Don't Eat Me, The Little World of Liz Climo, Lobster is the Best Medicine, and Best Bear Ever! Liz currently lives with her husband, their daughter, and their dog Shooby. You can see more of her work at thelittleworldofliz.com or on Instagram (@LizClimo).

Editorial Reviews

Praise for You Don't Want a Unicorn!:
"Climo's rainbow-bright illustrations take Dyckman's silly premise to a whole new level of absurdity.... This is a crowd-pleaser, complete with cupcake poops and rainbow burps, and...a welcoming and unobtrusive gender-nonconforming vibe."—Horn Book

"Climo creates gleeful unicorn havoc ... there's a lot of mischievous fun to be had."—Publishers Weekly

"The tone of the wry, bemused narrator is perfect...and the target audience will likely be eager for a repeat listen."
—Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

"Imaginative fun throughout."—Booklist

Praise for You Don't Want a Dragon!:


"Bite-sized bits of second-person narrative share space on roomy pages with bright, simply drawn...cartoon scenes."—Booklist

"[T]he chaos of dragon ownership is comically clear. The tidy minimalism of the digital art makes the mess and destruction all the more alarming, and the unicorn/hamster mutants of the close are utterly irresistible."—BCCB

"[S]illy and bright with slapstick humor [...] this book's subject matter has perennial—and enaging—interest."—School Library Journal

From the Publisher

06/01/2020

K-Gr 2—Trust the narrator who warns the boy pictured with the small dragon that he does not, not, not want it for a pet. Dragons drool, grow, and burn things (not to mention another bodily function). With a coin in the wishing well, the boy makes another wish and magically resolves his dragon problem. Right around the corner is the perfect pet for the boy: a guinea pig. But while the boy is cleaning up for his small friend, the rodent eats a unicorn dropping—a cupcake—that gives him a unicorn horn. Similar to You Don't Want a Unicorn (2017) by this same duo, the digitally created art is silly and bright with slapstick humor. VERDICT While not an essential purchase for school or public libraries, this book's subject matter has perennial—and enaging—interest.—Maria B. Salvadore, formerly at District of Columbia P.L.

School Library Journal

2020-02-26
If you thought having a unicorn as a pet was hard, you haven’t seen anything until you’ve tried owning a dragon.

The young protagonist of You Don’t Want a Unicorn! (2017) is back, and they clearly haven’t learned their lesson. Now they’ve wished for a pet dragon. As the intrusive narrator is quick to point out, everything about it seems fun at the beginning. However, it’s not long before the doglike dragon starts chasing squirrels, drooling, pooping (ever wondered where charcoal comes from?), scooting its butt across the floor (leaving fire and flames behind), and more. By now, the dragon has grown too huge to keep, so the child (who appears white and also to live alone) wishes it away and settles for a cute little hamster instead. A perfect pet…until it finds a stray magical cupcake. Simple cartoon art and a surfeit of jokes about defecation suggest this book will find an appreciative audience. The dragon/dog equivalences are cute on an initial read, but they may not be strong enough to convince anyone to return. Moreover, a surprising amount of the plot hinges on having read the previous book in this series (it’s the only way readers will know that cupcakes are unicorn poop).

Feels like a retread—it may be time to put this series to bed. (Picture book. 4-7)

Kirkus Reviews