The Book of Dragons

All the stories are enjoyable and they generally contain off-kilter and somewhat sardonic morals.

Fun. I remembered nearly every story from decades ago.

These stories are adorable and simply fantastical in the way all fantasy stories should be. I'm pretty sure this was written for children, but I read it just a little while ago and there were plenty of jokes I never would have picked up on if I'd read this book when I'd originally bought it: I think I was between 6 and 8. Maybe it was just that I would have accepted them as fact and obvious when I was younger, but now it all seems novelty. Well, it doesn't really matter, does it?

In the midst of this. I read 5 Children and It as a child, but had no idea of the range of E. Nesbit's writing, and had never heard of this one till I picked it up at the library. So sorry I missed it until now! It's so delightful: beautiful imagery, concisely written, and very true to the fairy-tale ethos; but funny, too. And a strange combination of modern (including asides to the reader) and ancient in feel.I looked E. Nesbit up on Wikipedia and was fascinated to find that, at the turn of the century, she married at 7 months pregnant, had an open marriage, raised the children her husband had with his lover as her own, and co-founded a precursor to the modern Labour Party. She was clearly fairly radical, socially and politically speaking, and this makes reading her work all the more interesting. She mentions class-based signifiers (public and private schools, in the English sense; servants and royalty, of course, in the fairy-tale mode; Eton jackets, accepted and poor behavior) quite frequently, and I often can't tell whether she intends irony or subtle instruction to come of this.But aside from her personal life, I would totally recommend this book simply because they're wonderful tales, wonderfully told.

This charming collection of children’s tales all center around dragons of one ilk or another. Each story can be read as a stand alone. I’ve had the pleasure of listening to and reviewing two of these stories previously and when I saw that he narrator had 8 stories in one collection, I couldn’t resist. I know it would be good stuff and I wasn’t disappointed. These stories are great for kids and fun for adults too.The Book of Beasts – This is one of the stories I have previously listened to and reviewed. It was just as good the second time around. The child king Lionel finds a book once owned by one of his distant grandsires. Like all good kids, he plays with it and sets a giant butterfly free. He’s warned not to do so again, but he releases yet another fantastical critter (a bird of paradise), and then another (the dragon!), which threatens his kingdom and he must make it right again. A hippogriff and manticore come into play too! 5/5Uncle James – This story was so cute and it was mostly because there are cute little dog-sized elephants! Who doesn’t want a pet elephant that can snuggle on your lap and eat popcorn while you watch Flight of the Dragons? This tale takes place in Rotundia where all the sizes are backwards and a dragon has shown up that wants a princess as a present. Now this isn’t your typical ‘save the princess from the dragon’ story, as young Tom found out. By the way, keep your eye on Uncle James. He may not be trustworthy! 5/5The Deliverers of Their Country – This was my favorite out of all the stories. It starts with young Effie getting something in her eye and that something is a teensy tiny dragon! Go ahead, squeal in love and excitement. I know I did. Who doesn’t want to adopt such a little dragon? However, these small dragons keep popping up throughout the land and they are starting to wreak havoc. Now Effie and her friend Harry have to find a way to reduce the number of dragons. It’s a clever solution to an over-population problem. 6/5The Ice Dragon – Imagine North Pole dwarves dressed in seal skin. Now toss in an ice dragon. Lastly, make room for two adventurous kids, George and Jane, who just wanted to see the Northern Lights. things go ever so wrong. This story was actually a little gruesome because it has a bit of a body count. It’s not gory but I was a little surprised at little bit of darkness that crept into this story. Still, it was clever and the kids survive, so all’s well. 5/5The Island of the Nine Whirlpools – This was an interesting one. A childless Queen goes to an old witch begging for a child and the witch takes her jewels and uses them to whip up a baby girl. The Queen is totally satisfied but the King wanted a boy. So obviously, that makes a wedge between the couple. When the daughter reaches a certain age, he banishes her to an island that is protected by big beasties, like a dragon. Her mother, the Queen, and the witch both make sacrifices to make it possible for her to one day be rescued. I liked that the story hinged upon the love for an old crone. However, the princess to be rescued seemed rather daft to me, which I didn’t really care for. 4/5The Fiery Dragon – This is the second story in this collection that gives a nod to St. George, a famous dragon slayer. Granddaughter Sabrinetta has got some skills on her which is a good thing because her unscrupulous cousin, Prince Tiresome, tosses her out of the dragon-proof tower to deal with the fiery dragon. Luckily she has a great friend, Elfin the pigkeeper, who can help her. That’s another thing I really like about these stories – so often there’s a ‘commoner’ that is essential to solving whatever dragon issue there is. 5/5The Dragon Tamers – This had a little steampunky feel to it. John is a blacksmith and he and his wife have a new baby that cries often and loudly. Yet even with that intermittent noise, John has noticed an odd sound coming from the basement. He finally has to go down there for coal and he meets this dragon that needs rivets to repair his wing. The dragon isn’t shy about telling John what he plans to do once his wing is repaired: eat all the people including John and his family. Now John has to outsmart this dragon and that loud baby gets to play a key role in the subterfuge. It was clever and fun. 5/5Kind Little Edmond – This is the second story I had the privilege to enjoy previously. This is the tale of young Edmond, who was filled to the brim with curiosity, so much so that he often irritated his elders. But not his loving and doting grandmother. Edmond decides to explore the nearby mountains and hears some very odd sounds. He meets and helps a mythical beast, a manticore, who rewards him by telling him magnificent tales. This was a great little tale and I really enjoyed it. I especially enjoyed this one as the tale has this underlying current about the value of learning things for oneself. 5/5The Last of the Dragons – This great little story turns the typical princess + dragon + prince story on it’s head. Tradition requires the princess to be rescued from the dragon by a prince. However, this princess would much rather rely on her own fencing skills. The dragon isn’t too thrilled about the idea of coming out, threatening a nice young lady, and then being slain for the sake of tradition. This prince is up for doing something different. Why should he have to do all the hard work? It’s a great story to finish out the book. 5/5I received a free copy of this book via The Audiobook Worm.The Narration: Karen Krause does such a lovely job with this classic. Her little kid voices are so believable yet she is also great at doing grumpy elderly characters as well. Her voices for the various beasts are also fun. You can tell that she enjoyed narrating these tales as much as I enjoyed listening to them. Great performance all around!

A set of short stories having nothing in common except that they are about dragons. Some are rather minor Nesbit, but Nesbit is always worth reading. A line that stuck in my mind as a child was "Fair play is a jewel" --the idea that being fair even to enemies is just.

Long ago, sometime around elementary school, I found a shelf of dragon-story collections in the local public library. At least, that’s my memory—a whole bunch of books that all had bunches of stories of dragons, and I worked my way through all of them, some of them more than once. I have often tried to find some of those books as an adult, but not having authors or titles or anything to go on, kept not-finding them. But I’m pretty sure this book was one of the ones I read back then and loved. Some of the tales seemed familiar, and the overall feeling of reading them was definitely familiar. Just wonderful—really lovely fairy-tale-style dragon stories in a charming little collection.

Nesbit's tone is often preachy, and the narrative voice is a little patronising and didactic, but if you can ignore that, I think these stories are delightful. I liked Prince Tiresome's pack of hippos, and also, perhaps especially, all the reversals in the land of Rotundia: the buns growing on trees, the tiny elephants... Fido the tiny elephant is completely adorable.

Lovely, and bitesize.

Probably not for the very youngest children. One of Nesbit's very best works, and one of my favorites. The sly and ironic attitude helps it hold up well over the generations.