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They lived in a dark cave." And so starts Get Well, Good Knight (Puffin Easy-to-Read). If your child likes dragons and knights they will love this book.The three little dragons are ill and the Good Knight says "Methinks my little dragon friends are not well." He feels their heads which are hot with fever and observes their runny noises and sniffles.
The story also has a little surprise in the ending which may have your kids chuckling. He goes back to the wizard and gets another soup that is truly awful too.
The Good Knight runs to the wizard for a cure and gets some truly awful soup. The story has some repetitiveness that kids like, some rhyming and some suspense.
"Once there were three little dragons. For the beginning reader, the story is interesting, the illustrations are adorable, and the words are at their level.
Finally the Good Knight goes to see his mother who tells him "Mothers know best" and she makes a delicious soup for the little dragons.
He dictated his version of the sick Good Knight and illustrated his story. When we're done reading the book, he actually wanted to "finish" writing the story, which was a nice surprise. I was impressed that it sparked such creativity.The repetitive words are great for early readers. My 4 1/2 year old son loves the "Good Knight" series of stories. He especially loves this one. This was the first (and so far, only) time he ever thought of doing something like that, and we read different stories every night.
I'd give these a two thumbs up.These are just fun books. If you have a child who loves knights and dragons, also check out Tomie Paola's The Knight and the Dragon, about a knight reading up on how to fight dragons and a dragon reading up on how to fight knights. So many rhyming books sound forced and awkward, but none of these Good Knight books fall into this category. We loved this too.
Nearly everything else I found was adversarial, and since we love dragons, I was sorry about that. Either the information is too complex, or more likely, too gruesome for my taste. The "fight" is hilarious and the end has a clever twist that delighted my child and me too. The efforts of the magician provided us much laughter as he mixed, "fish scales, old snails, fingernails, and lizard tails", or "frog slime, old grime, a rusty dime, a rotten lime". I quickly found that there is very little out there that is appropriate for smaller children, on the subject of knights. When I discovered this sweet series, I immediately wanted all of them.I really like the way the verses flow and how the author repeats the action over and over. As all of the books, this one has a rhythm that is smooth and pleasant to read and hear. I'm glad my library has them, but we are buying them too, so we can read them whenever we want.
The Reluctant dragon, by Kenneth Grahame, is either for an older child who can read, or a great read aloud that my four year old enjoyed, and there is a neat old Disney movie based on this book. My four year old girl has been enamored with dragons for a couple of years, and has lately gotten very interested in knights, castles, etc. I was amused and pleased that the knight finally turns to his own mother, when the magician was unable to create a concoction to help heal the dragons, and used my favorite remedy-chicken soup. It is a refreshing angle to the knight and dragon relationship.
It will definitely keep children entertained. They are interesting and have many things going on in the backgrounds. This story is very engaging and well-written. Plus the illustrations are worth pouring over.
I highly recommend this book for doing Reader's Theatre in the Classroom. You won't regret it.
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