Lovabye Dragon (review)

Once upon a time, in this liltingly rhyming story, there was "an all-alone girl . . . who didn't have a dragon for a friend" and "an all-alone dragon . . . who dreamed of a girl for a friend." The little girl cries a river of dragon-yearning tears that trickles through the countryside ("past a frog in the bog/ round a bend in the glen") and into the dragon's cave; the dragon follows the trail, and girl and dragon are finally united ("Now they're friends/ best friends/ forever friends"). Joosse is a skilled versifier for the picture-book set, and her creative poetic form is tightly crafted for bouncy reading aloud. The plot is minimal, but the emotions are strong and the celebration of girl-dragon friendship is immense and joyous. Cecil's signature style, delicate, measured brushstrokes in oil, render the scenes soft and smoky and the figures touchable, a texture that gives surprising depths to the exaggerated, cartoonily drafted figures of girl and dragon. The cloudy gray-blues with little warm contrast risk overchilling the palette at times, but the bulbous-eyed dragon and his little charge are a visually endearing pair. A friend, a pet, a protector, a means of transport—who wouldn't want a loyal dragon?