In a dark cave in a dense forest in a faraway kingdom, three little dragons are in their beds, not feeling well. “Methinks I heard a sneeze,” declares the Good Knight, out on his daily ride, and gallops through the forest to attend to their fevered sniffling, coughing, and sneezing. “Fear not, good dragons. I will help you get well,” declares the armor-clad knight, and off he rides to seek a cure from the old wizard. Alas, neither of the wizard’s awful concoctions—the smelly scaly snail-y soup or the slimy grimy soup—appeals to the little dragons, and they turn up their little green noses. Luckily, the Good Knight’s own mother boils up her own yummy chicken soup recipe, and that does the trick.
This easy reader, one of the charming “Good Knight” series, with its cheerful pen and ink and watercolor illustrations on every page and its melodramatic dialogue is a lively candidate for acting out or writing up into a Reader's Theater script for children to perform. Moms especially will love the “Mothers know best” message and the curative powers of chicken soup. Make chicken soup from scratch with your kids. Delicious.
THEMES: DRAGONS. KNIGHTS AND KNIGHTHOOD. MOTHERS AND SONS. READER'S THEATER. SICK. SOUP. STORIES TO TELL.
- This is a royal treat to soothe any beginning reader's blues and will inspire repeated readings.
- School Library Journal
- A plot summary does little justice to a book that goes beyond good narrative structure and simple words to create a tale that is always winning and frequently funny. The subject and the appealing ink-and-watercolor illustrations will attract young readers, but a great deal of the book's charm lies in the telling. Excellent for young readers and for reading aloud to younger children who are intrigued by knights and dragons.
- Booklist