Available:*
Library | Call Number | Status |
---|---|---|
Searching... Hardwood Creek Library (Forest Lake) | J FICTION YEP | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Park Grove Library (Cottage Grove) | J FICTION YEP | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... R.H. Stafford Library (Woodbury) | J FICTION YEP | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... R.H. Stafford Library (Woodbury) | J FICTION YEP | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... R.H. Stafford Library (Woodbury) | J FICTION YEP | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Stillwater Public Library | J FICTION YEP | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Wildwood Library (Mahtomedi) | J FICTION YEP | Searching... Unknown |
Bound With These Titles
On Order
Summary
Summary
Fans of How to Train Your Dragon will love this whimsical tale, the first in a series, by a Newbery Honor winner, featuring charming illustrations and pet "training tips" in each chapter.
Crusty dragon Miss Drake has a new pet human, precocious Winnie. Oddly enough, Winnie seems to think Miss Drake is her pet-a ridiculous notion!
Unknown to most of its inhabitants, the City by the Bay is home to many mysterious and fantastic creatures, hidden beneath the parks, among the clouds, and even in plain sight. And Winnie wants to draw every new creature she encounters- the good, the bad, and the ugly. But Winnie's sketchbook is not what it seems. Somehow, her sketchlings have been set loose on the city streets! It will take Winnie and Miss Drake's combined efforts to put an end to the mayhem . . . before it's too late.
This refreshing debut collaboration by Laurence Yep, a two-time Newbery Honor winner and a Laura Ingalls Wilder Award winner, and Joanne Ryder features illustrations by Mary GrandPre.
Author Notes
Laurence Yep was born in San Francisco, California on June 14, 1948. He graduated from the University of California at Santa Cruz in 1970 and received a Ph.D. in English from the State University of New York at Buffalo.
He primarily writes fiction for young adults, but has also written and edited several works for adults. His first novel, Sweetwater, was published in 1973. His other books include Dragonwings, Dragon's Gate, Shadow Lord, Child of the Owl, The Earth Dragon Awakes: The San Francisco Earthquake of 1906, and The Dragon's Child: A Story of Angel Island. He has won numerous awards for his work including the Newbery Medal Honor Book, the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award, Jane Addams Children's Book Award, and the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (5)
Publisher's Weekly Review
In this series launch, Yep (the Dragon quartet), collaborating for the first time with his wife, Ryder (Won't You Be My Kissaroo?), again conjures up a world where dragons and humans interact, and the results are heartwarming and quite funny. Miss Drake, a shapeshifting dragon, is still mourning the death of her human pet, a woman she called Fluffy, when Fluffy's impetuous great-niece, Winnie, barges into her lair. "I could see she would be rather impossible to train," sniffs Miss Drake, whose scorn shifts to admiration as the two begin to bond with each other. After Winnie fills the pages of a magical sketchbook with drawings of fantastical creatures, the menacing "sketchlings" escape, and Winnie and Miss Drake join forces to track them down and return them to the book. Their mutual grief-Winnie's heartache over the death of her father parallels Miss Drake's loss of Fluffy-gives a moving underpinning to the magical escapades. Miss Drake's arch narration and the sharp back-and-forth between the characters create an enchanting story, accented by GrandPré's whimsical b&w spot illustrations. Ages 8-12. (Mar.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Horn Book Review
When Miss Drake's beloved pet Fluffy dies, she has no intention of taking on another, but then Winnie shows up at her door, scrawny, willful, and unimpressed, and Miss Drake finds herself starting training anew. Miss Drake, by the way, is a dragon; Winnie, a human, is the grandniece of Fluffy (a.k.a. Great-aunt Amelia), and Winnie seems to have the notion that she is the owner and Miss Drake, the pet. In chapters headed with advice reminiscent of dog-training manuals ("Train your pet how to behave when meeting strangers and their pets. No fighting, no biting, please!"), Winnie and Miss Drake begin the pas de deux of getting to know each other. A dragon-flight to San Francisco and an enchanted sketchbook lead to adventure when all the magical creatures Winnie draws come to life -- including a pemburu, a magic-eating lobster-like animal that could blow up San Francisco unless Winnie and Miss Drake recapture it. Miss Drake narrates in a tart, self-assured voice, relating events from her own point of view but with enough detail for readers to perceive the disjunction between what Miss Drake wants and what Winnie insists upon, a refreshing dual perspective. Miss Drake's old-money refinement and Winnie's hardscrabble make-do set each other off with a sort of vinegar-and-sweet piquancy shared by GrandPre's whimsical spot art. The promise of Winnie's enrollment in spell-casting Spriggs Academy hints at sequels to come. anita l. burkam (c) Copyright 2015. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Booklist Review
*Starred Review* In droll counterpoint to the How to Train Your Dragon franchise, Yep and Ryder offer a similar interspecies matchup from the dragon's point of view. Miss Drake, a 3,000-year-old dragon, is initially annoyed when Winifred, 10, barges into her hidden lair beneath a San Francisco mansion. It seems that Winnie's widowed mom has inherited the house from Miss Drake's most recent and still sharply missed human pet, Fluffy (aka Great-Aunt Amelia). The irritating child has been left a key and a charge to take care of the lonely dragon. Being a responsible sort (as well as a shapechanger and a thoroughly modern dragon with a smartphone and a debit card), Miss Drake reluctantly takes Winnie under her wing or tries to, as the strong-willed child has ideas of her own. Despite their differences, the two make a good team, as they prove in narrowly averting major disaster to the city and its magical community, after a flock of creatures Winnie has drawn in a special sketchbook come to life. In vignettes that open each chapter, illustrator GrandPré depicts the diverse creatures, along with glimpses of dragon, child, and various significant items with her customary flair and expertise. Warm humor, magical mishaps, and the main characters' budding mutual respect and affection combine to give this opener for a planned series a special shine that will draw readers and leave them impatient for sequels.--Peters, John Copyright 2015 Booklist
School Library Journal Review
Gr 4-7-Miss Drake is a curmudgeonly dragon. When her last pet, Fluffy, died, Miss Drake had planned on waiting 30 years before taking on another pet. Fluffy, however, had other ideas. In her will, she leaves her grandniece, Winnie, the key to Miss Drake's lair. Things only heat up when Winnie draws some beautiful magical creatures she meets and accidentally brings them to life. Forced to work together, the two unlikely companions must wrangle them back into the book. There's just one problem: one creature eats magic and doesn't know how to stop. Can the duo put aside their difference and catch all the creatures before it's too late? Narrator Susan Denaker's unique voices make it easy to distinguish the fun, well-developed characters and help listeners fully engage with Winnie's world. Her pleasant and entertaining tone added depth and believability to the story while smoothly transitioning between the well-written inner dialogue, humor, and conflict. Although the book starts off a little slow, the action quickly picks up and never loses a step. VERDICT A fun, engaging listen for fans of fantasy adventure and books where magical creatures walk amongst humans.-Kira Moody, Whitmore Library, Salt Lake City, UT © Copyright 2015. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
This comedy starring a 3,000-year-old dragon and a scrappy little girl takes young readers into a fantasy world situated right next to ours.Miss Drake enjoys humans but sees them as pets. Sadly, her most recent pet, a lady she called "Fluffy" but whom her family knew as "Great-Aunt Amelia," recently passed away. Now, Amelia's niece, 10-year-old Winnie, has come to live in Miss Drake's mansion in San Francisco. Right from the start, Winnie just won't follow Miss Drake's rules for pets. When the girl draws some fanciful creatures in a magical sketchbook, the creatures become real and escape, causing Miss Drake to frantically work to contain the damage. When one of Winnie's sketches turns out to be a truly dangerous creature, even the best of the magical participants at the Enchanter's Fair can't defeat it. Creating a magical world that lies alongside but is concealed from ours, Yep and Ryder write the story from Miss Drake's prissy perspective, using the framework of a pet-care book. The tale is alternately comical, suspenseful and sometimes sweetly emotional, as when it touches on the deaths of Great-Aunt Amelia and Winnie's father and as Miss Drake becomes increasingly fond of Winnie. The playful pen-and-ink illustrations by GrandPr at the beginning of each chapter add yet more charm. Delightful whimsy. (Fantasy. 8-12) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Excerpts
Excerpts
If you value your happiness and sanity, take your time and choose your pet wisely. It was a lovely funeral for Fluffy, the best pet I ever had. I was pleased by the turnout at the mansion. Mourners filled the large backyard and mingled as the sun finally broke through the San Francisco fog. Everyone had loved Fluffy. She had such a gentle temperament--quite the nicest of all my pets. Even when she was feeling out of sorts, she never bit anyone--partly because I had trained her well and partly because she wouldn't hurt a fly. She was such a special pet that I knew I could never find another one like her. I intended to bide my time, perhaps sleep for twenty or thirty years, until the ache in my heart had eased a little. Even then, I wasn't sure when I would get another pet. But Winnie didn't give me any choice. Just two days after the funeral, she stomped into my lair. Without any warning, I heard a key scraping against the lock; then the door jerked open. The little creature stepped inside. She was the scrawniest of specimens, dressed all in black. Her very curly, every-which-way hair was light brown. Putting a fist on her hip, she studied me, her glance flicking from the tip of my tail to my glorious head. "Are you really a dragon?" She sounded disappointed. "Don't be rude," I snapped. "And how did you get the key?" "Great-Aunt Amelia put it in her last letter to me," she said as she strolled farther inside my living room. Amelia was the ridiculous nickname that the other humans used for my Fluffy. "It had directions to the hidden door in the basement." She stared at me bold as brass. "She was afraid you'd be lonely." "Well, I'm not." I held out my paw to the obnoxious creature. "So give me the key and go away." Instead, she circled round my lair, stopping by the Regina and the metal song discs. She looked curiously at the large box, which was some two feet on each side. Delicate wooden inlays created lovely pictures of coral and shells on its lid, front, and sides. "What's this?" "A music box," I said. It had been a gift from Fluffy's grandfather Sebastian, who had been fun when he was young but had become terribly boring when he grew older. Still, he had never been stingy, and the music box had been only one of many expensive presents. She pivoted slowly. "I thought a dragon's den would be different." "I dare you to show me a nicer one," I sniffed. She waved her hand at the floor in disappointment. "I figured you'd have gold and jewels lying around in piles, not a carpet and a sofa." "Have you ever tried sleeping on gold?" I asked. Then I answered my own question because I knew she didn't know. "Gold is hard and cold, and as for jewels . . . well . . . the diamonds leave scratches on my scales that take forever to buff out." If this fussy little thing had had any manners, she would have stifled her curiosity, but she was obviously quite feral. She motioned to the red velvet drapes with the tassels of gold wire. "Okay, then why do you need curtains? You're underground." Crossing the room quickly--her shoes tracking dirt all over the best Bokhara wool, woven by a master weaver--she jerked a drape back to reveal the painting before I could stop her. "Huh," she said, surprised, and then leaned forward to examine it closer. "What's this doing here?" Perhaps she had been expecting some oil painting by a celebrated artist instead of a child's crude watercolor, but I wouldn't have traded it for ten Rembrandts. A dragon with shining crimson scales soared into dark, dark clouds from which lightning bolts shot like jagged swords. A few years ago, Fluffy claimed she had found it at a holiday sale run by the parents of the Spriggs Academy students. She said that it had reminded her of me, so she had put it into a lovely gilded frame--Fluffy always had hd exquisite taste--and presented it to me. And I'd been just as enchanted. The young artist had painted the red dragon with fiery eyes and a determined jut of her jaw as her powerful wings fought the winds. It was just the way every dragon should be. "Get away from there," I said as firmly as any dragon could. But she wasn't listening. She rubbed at the little spot of steam her breath had left. "The glass protects it. But even if I smudged it, I could always paint you another." I gazed scornfully at this preposterous creature with the unruly hair. "Don't be absurd." She rounded on her heel. "I sent it to Great-Aunt Amelia four years ago." "It came from a school sale," I insisted, but I was less sure now. I had never been able to break Fluffy's habit of telling little white lies. "Turn it around." The creature jabbed her finger at the painting. "I wrote my letter to her on the back." I decided to call her bluff. "If your writing isn't there, will you leave?" She folded her arms confidently. "Sure, but I get to stay if it is." The painting hung from the picture molding that ran parallel to the floor and high up on the wall. I lifted the frame upward, unhooked the wires from the molding, and tore the brown paper from the back. There, written with a pencil, were a child's crude block letters: DER ANT AMELEEA, I LIKE YUR STOREES. MAMA REEDS THEM 2 ME LOTS. It was signed: W. A bony finger pointed at the signature. "The 'W' stands for Winifred. That's me." "Fl--" I caught myself. "Amelia told you about me?" To her credit, Winnie traced Amelia's name sadly. "I thought the dragons in her letters were imaginary. But I loved hearing them, and later, when I could, reading them myself. It was great when I found a letter in our mailbox." She lifted her head to look at me. "Then her last one was sad but wonderful too. She told me you were real and where to find you." Fluffy, Fluffy, what have you done? She had told me that she was leaving the house to a niece and her daughter and had taken care of everything. I assumed that Fluffy had drawn up a will. I had no idea she had gone so much further. Excerpted from A Dragon's Guide to the Care and Feeding of Humans by Laurence Yep, Joanne Ryder All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.