THE DRAGON IN THE SOCK DRAWER

What is it about dragons that so appeals to children and fantasy readers? While visiting his cousin Daisy, Jesse finds a geode that even a geologist’s band saw cannot open. It’s no geode, of course, but a dragon’s egg, which hatches volcanically in his sock drawer. Of the two children, Daisy is the more active and adventurous, while Jesse tends toward thoughtfulness, but they are both determined to hang onto their new pet. Of course, all babies grow larger and Emmy, the dragon, who talks in a staccato English (One. Word. At. A. Time.) becomes a handful to feed, entertain and hide. All would go smoothly if not for a new professor at the college, the very unpleasant and dangerous Professor Saint George, who has terrible breath and who will stop at nothing to have the dragon for his very own. Some tense moments occur as the children rescue Emmy from the evil professor before all ends well. The characterization is black-and-white in this mild adventure story for readers who have not yet graduated to fuller fantasies. (Fantasy. 7-9)