Jack Kent (1920–1985)

When Billy Bixbee tells his mother there's a dragon the size of a kitten in his room, she respond, "There's no such thing as a dragon!" and proceeds to ignore it -- even though the dragon eats most of the pancakes she makes for Billy and starts growing at an alarming rate, the more she ignores it, until it's head is hanging out of the front door and its tail out of the back. That's okay until the dragon wakes up hungry and decides to follow a bread truck down the street -- because the show more Bixbee's house, with Billy and his mother in it, go along, too -- "like the shell on a snail". When Mr. Bixbee comes home for lunch and eventually finds the house, he asks how such a thing could happen. Billy explains it was the dragon -- and even though Mother makes an attempt to continue her denial, Billy insists and pats the dragon on the head. Magically the dragon starts getting smaller until it is kitten-size again. When Mother asks why it had to grow so big, Billy wisely replies, "I think it just wanted to be noticed." show less

There's No Such Thing as a Dragon was my favorite picture book as a child. Not only does it have a dragon in it, which absolutely thrilled me, that dragon is hilarious: it tries on pajamas, eats Billy's pancakes, chases after the bread truck, and grows so big that Billy's mother has to lift its tail to mop the floor properly. Jack Kent's illustrations are vivid and friendly, their cartoonish lines conveying just the right shades of emotion, and the text is short enough for a bedtime read, show more yet still long enough to allow for a meaningful story. The story itself is amusing and insightful, just as enjoyable now as when I read it as a child. show less

Wonderful. I'm not terribly fond of the theme 'be content with who you are' as it's usually shared - the lesson to easily devolves to 'don't try to improve your lot; don't have adventures; let those who are better or stronger or smarter than you do whatever they want to you.' But Jack Kent is a good author. He avoids that implication; Sam the dragon does have adventures and does learn more about exactly what he wants.

And of course the very first page is perfect. There was once a dragon show more named Sam, who was very fond of bedtime stories. He liked them so much that he went to bed 87 times a day, so it was almost always time for another story."" show less

Good concept. That comes across as "damning with faint praise" but for a lot of picture books, that's really all there's time for. Oh, sure Elizabeth Bird can write a long, insightful interview speaking knowledgeably of artistic influences, and literary predecessors and so forth, but when we come home from the library with a tall stack of picture books, I'm really perfectly happy if it amuses the kid and me for a few minutes. I'd so much rather read a good picture book than a mediocre early show more reader, and to my mind, they pretty much all are barren joyless wastelands with inadequate jokes. So, Yay! for a good picture book. Hell, I'll give it another star for not having fairies in it! show less