Behold...the Dragons!

Rating:
Summary: Plagiaristic rubbish.
Review: How did this peice of plagiaristic rubbish ever get into print? Don't waste your money or time on it, get the books it's ripped off from instead!

The illustrations have been awkwardly copied by a truly artless hand from two books. Those books are "Dragons: A Natural History," and "Dragons: Truth, Myth, and Legend." It would have been fine and normal if they simply reproduced the antique woodcuts in "Dragons: A Natural History," like everyone does- but when they sloppily redrew them, they colored them exactly the same way as the books they're copied from! (The colorized woodcuts in that book were memorably silly-looking, with splashes of technicolor which weren't mentioned in any texts, so it's obvious they were copied from that book and that book alone, and in vastly inferior quality.) And the illustrations in "Dragons: Truth, Myth, and Legend" are modern illustrations- hardly in the public domain- with no mention of having asked that still-living artist for permission.

Like the two books it is ripped off from, this book attempts to cover all sorts of dragon myths from all around the world. The text is also based upon those two books, except it's been oversimplified for even younger readers (4-8) than those, and even more mistakes have been made. "Maybe it was" has been paraphrased as "it was."

Bad illustrations, bad text, plagiarism, mistakes, no bibliography. There is no redeeming value in this book whatsoever.

Rating:
Summary: disappointing
Review: I love dragons, and so does everyone else in my family. I hoped for a book that would feed my love of dragons with information and new dragons to love. Instead, I found this book constantly de-mystifying, taking all the wonder out of dragons. There were a couple of new dragons in the book, and some bits of new information, but overall, I felt a real letdown because I felt the author, instead of wondering with me about where all these dragons came from, explained them away, explained them out of existence so that they became silly stories ignorant people used to believe. Very sad, especially for children. Though there were token entries on Aztec and Chinese dragons, overall the book was very Eurocentric. It was also quite simplistic. It is possible to write a book for this age group that simplifies without being simplistic. The best thing about the book was the illustrations which were very colorful, cheeful and eye-catching. I would recommend this book for the child who doesn't read but likes looking at pictures of dragons, and tell the adults not to read anything but the names of dragons.

Rating:
Summary: DON*T EVEN THINK ABOUT BUYING THIS BOOK!!!
Review: If you believe, love, or at least like dragons dont read this book.It destroys your beliefs and wonders.Gail Gibbons certainly did not have any imagination when he was a child.My friends and I LOVE dragons.We really did not like this book.Gibbons is trying to explain every thing about dragons,making dragon believers look like jerks.THE ONLY REASON I PUT A STAR IN THE RATING IS FOR THE A+ ART WORK.

Rating:
Summary: Son Loves It
Review: My 5-year-old son loves this book. He likes to pretend he is a knight and dress up in a knight costume and fight his imaginary dragons. I like that the book explains that they are not real, because he sometimes has problems going to bed at night because he's afraid of imagined dangers. The book has very nice pictures, the writing on each page is not too long or complicated, and it explores a wide variety of dragons from different cultures. I think this book is also good in the way it introduces symbolism and encourages logical thinking.