DRAGON NIGHT

A boy and a dragon bond over a shared fear—sort of.

Actually, “Georgie is afraid of the night,” and the dragon that crawls out of his copy of St. George and the Dragon is (with some justice!) “afraid of the knight.” The mutual anxiety is close enough, though, to send both winging out through Georgie’s bedroom window in search of safety. The two come at last to rest on a dark hillside, where the dragon points out stars, shooting stars, and the soothing sounds of crickets to the boy in its lap—and next day, back in the bedroom, Georgie returns the favor, concocting a safe haven for the dragon by creating a new story book with a friendlier knight. Cozy interchanges between the two (“ ‘Will the knight want to fight?’ asks the dragon. ‘Instead of fighting, the knight loves to play catch,’ replies Georgie. ‘What if the knight doesn’t like me?’ asks the dragon. ‘Don’t worry,’ says Georgie. ‘I’ll help you’ ”) give the narrative an intimate tone that Krause reinforces with shadowy pictures, done in thick lines and dark hues, pairing a tiny boy who presents Asian and an improbably huge but vulnerable-looking, even at times tearful, dragon.

Well-crafted bedtime reading featuring an unusually captivating monster.