Dragons Get Colds Too doesn’t catch fire

I love pizza. However, after having eaten pizza for more than a couple of decades I’ve realized that while bad pizza is almost impossible, there certainly are varying degrees of its caliber or preference. Dragons Get Colds Too is a book about being sick, acknowledging that you’re sick and hopefully, respecting the caregiver who is assisting you. If this book were a pizza place then it’d be a pleasant enough place with OK tasting pie that fills you up, but isn’t one that you’d visit unless it wan on the way to where you’re going.

The premise of the Dragons Get Colds Too is certainly one that any parent can relate to. There’s a sick patient who isn’t being the best recipient of care that’s being offered to them. It’s a situation that is ripe for comedy and lessons that can hopefully be learned by younger readers.

The book is told in a step-by-step process where the girl is being instructed by a doctor and their book on what to do for the dragon. The issue for us, and our 7YO reader, is that the book felt stilted and lost its rhythm every time the narrator and their book popped up on the page. In some books the narrator moves the book along nicely, however, in this book it’s more confusing and distracting than an asset to the story.

There are some humorous physical elements that the book brings up about caring for something as large as a dragon. They breathe fire, their neck is impossibly long and their snot is especially gooey. The illustrations are clever enough, everybody loves a dragon right? However, the book moves so slowly that few audiences, except for the dragon die hards and those looking for a children’s illustrated book about being sick will want a repeat reading.

It also has lots of white space on the pages. Granted this is a pet peeve of ours, but I find that pages with more color tend to capture and hold the attention of young readers more effectively. If you’re a fan of dragon books, buying books for a doctor’s waiting room or for the kid’s renaissance fair this book is for you, otherwise, it’s one that you’ll want to get from the library.