You Don’t Want a Dragon!; by Ame Dyckman (review)

Having previously warned audiences away from unicorns (You Don’t Want a Unicorn, BCCB 10/17), the author/illustrator team now sets out the disastrous truth about a pet dragon. Sure, it seems like fun (“All right, super fun”), but dragons are worse than dogs when it comes to chasing and drooling, and as for cleaning up dragon poo—well, that’s “where charcoal comes from.” A much better choice is a nice friendly hamster, at least until the hamster chows down on a unicorn-poop cupcake and undergoes a surprising transformation. Audiences familiar with the first book will be in the best position to get many of the jokes here, but there’s enough backstory to fill novices in on the important points, and the 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. Use this as a comic contrast to more serious dragon fare or to amp up a pet-themed storytime.