Tuesday Storytime: Dragons!

This is my last free storytime before the Summer Reading Program starts.  I decided last year that I was going to have my storytimes for the little kids match up with the programs for the big kids in the Summer Reading Program, and I don't regret that - I love all the books and crafts that I've chosen - but I do feel a twinge that it will be AUGUST before I get to choose another personal, only at this library storytime theme (and before you ask, yes, I have already chosen them and picked out the books: swimming, going to the beach, and back to school).

So for the last storytime before we get to exult in science: Dragons!

(As a bonus, ALL THREE of the books I read this time got taken home by patrons - I LOVE when that happens!)

Me and My Dragon
David Biedrzycki
ISBN: 9781580892780
Bright red comically-exaggerated non-threatening dragon, and a mundane kid and environment

Some kids want puppies, some goldfish, but this kid - he wants a dragon!  He adopts a nice fire-breathing red variety from the pet store, gives it a place to sleep (a cardboard castle with a drawbridge) and teaches it how to fly (pushing it off a cliff) and takes it to obedience school, settling down to enjoy life together.  This could also very easily go into a Pet Ownership theme with Fancy Nancy and the Posh Puppy and Shirley Hughes' Dogger.

Waking Dragons
Jane Yolen, illustrated by Derek Anderson
ISBN: 9781416990321
Soft-edged pudgy oversized dragons are woken up and taken through their morning routine by a diminutive knight.

So little text to this story, but it's very sweet, and lots of fun.  The only weird issue I have with it is that in my accent, "syrup" and "cheer up" are nowhere close to a rhyme, and that always makes my brain hurt a little bit.  This is like the platonic ideal of a middle of storytime read - interesting pictures, minimal text, short or no plot, and no big drama.

Hiding Hoover
Elise Broach, illustrated by Laura Huliska-Beith
ISBN: 9780803727069
Thin, spiky, exaggeratedly elongated characters in a brightly colored world.

Daddy says "No pets!" so when the duo finds Hoover (a thin, spiky, elongated, green flappy dragon) in the back yard, they know they're going to have to get creative in order to keep him.  Hoover is hidden in bed, in the closet, tries on their clothes, ends up as a coat-rack, a stepladder, a chandelier, a vacuum, an armchair, and an umbrella, each time fooling poor Daddy, who never notices a thing.  Until the end, when there's a fairly big hint that maybe Daddy has noticed Hoover after all.