There's No Such Thing as a Dragon

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 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 show more 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, 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.

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 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!

Oh dear.  When you don't believe the evidence right in front of you, you'll find yourself in quite a mess!  Another delightfully sly and funny fable from Kent.  I don't know why his works are becoming so hard to find, when clearly they've influenced the creators of modern picture-books.  This one reminds me of Bob Graham....

This book about a little red dragon that gets bigger and bigger until Billy's mother has to finally admit the dragon exists is priceless. The writing is wry, the story is funny, and the dragon itself is completely charming. This is one of those stories that looks simple but works on several levels.

This little story has relevance on so many levels. Quantum mechanics tells us that nothing exists - except as possibility - until it is acknowledged by consciousness; until, that is, we 'pay it mind'. All the little dragon wants is a pat on the head, that is, to be recognized. We decide what's real and what is not - we have that much creative power.

I have read this book over and over and over, minny minny minny times since 1978 when my daughter was a baby. My boys were 7 and 9, but they liked it too. The pictures, the story - they never get old. And now my grandchildren love this book too. Dragons and kids. All they need is a little love. And maybe a good story like this one before bed. Many thanks to the late Jack Kent. This story will live on - and on and on and on. TEN stars.

- Tim Bazzett, author of the memoir, BOOKLOVER