His "little claws tickled in the palm of her hand. ...
She called him Scratch."
Ellie is shopping at a large supermarket with her mum when she spies something on top of an egg carton. It is a newborn dragon.
"It was pale and luminous with shifting rainbow colours, like oil on water ... It was quite the sweetest thing she had ever seen."
Just pause for a moment and look at those words. Bob Graham is a master of illustration but he is also a wordsmith. These words let us really 'see' this egg and they are perfectly placed. Pale, luminous, like oil on water - when you pick up the book you can see an illustration of the shell on the title page and it does look luminous. Later in the story, when Scratch takes his night flight, the city and the moon also look luminous.
Ellie takes the tiny, newborn creature home and she makes him comfortable in her dolls house. She shows the dragon to her mum but mum cannot see him. Later we read the teacher cannot see him either.
"Her mum saw nothing but an empty matchbox and cotton wool."
The idea of an imaginary creature, like a dragon, that only children can see is a beautiful story device. The child, listening to this story, will smile knowing they have this special ability to see something the adults can't. As Ellie grows so does her dragon. By the time she goes to school he learns to fly but sadly Ellie misses his first flight from the dressing table down to the floor in Ellie's bedroom. He also outgrows his dolls house home which even contained a thoughtfully placed box of dragon litter.
Scratch the dragon comes along to nursery school and he joins in with birthday celebrations. He even eats the candles on her eighth birthday cake while they are still smoking! Then one night while Ellie is asleep, Scratch ventures outside into the night sky.
Ellie lives with her mum but on weekends her dad takes her for outings. Scratch comes along too even though dad cannot see him. Bob Graham tells this very simply by saying: "Ellie's dad came to call for outings on weekends."
Ellie keeps growing and things begin to change between Scratch and Ellie. When she turns eleven begins to fade and on her thirteenth birthday "Scratch's breath barely melted the icing on the cake. He didn't even eat the candles."
Then comes the saddest lines in the book -
"And then he slipped quietly away into the night."
BUT, in a beautiful story moment, we discover that is not the end. You need to grab this book because I promise the ending will give you the biggest possible smile.
There are so many tiny and special details in the illustrations - if you know Bob Graham then you will know he is a master of this. I suggest you grab your copy of the book and I will attempt to share some of the delights I have found inside:
Dedication "For Eleanor seven pounds, one ounce". I am guessing this is Bob's granddaughter?
Opening end paper:
Bob Graham loves to include story details in his end papers. I think my favourites are the ones in Rose Meets Mr Wintergarten and also in Max.
A man is buying a box of dog food - he looks exactly like Bob Graham himself - we know Bob loves dogs (Let's get a pup)
The lady in the pink top - I'm sure she is the mum from Home in the Rain
I spied a man who has just moved over from the checkout. I am sure he is from A bus called Heaven
On the pages:
Egg carton complete with barcode! Look for the egg carton in Dimity Dumpty
Missing the dragon's first flight - In Silver Buttons we see Jonathan take his first step and in Queenie the Bantam the hen is the only one who sees Caitlin's first step.
Pigeons - How to Heal a Broken Wing and the row of birds on the power pole wires in Pete and Roland
Going to the movies with dad. Fans of Bob Graham will laugh to see the movie is Max. Grab your copy of Max and have fun comparing the movie screen scene with the end papers in Max.
Imaginary friends invisible to adults - we have seen these in Jethro Byrde Fairy Child
The inclusion of a sad moment followed by a very special ending - this reminds me of Pete and Roland
On the night Scratch takes his flight outside Rosie has been reading a book - it lies on the floor beside her bed - it's The Poesy Ring. Bob Graham has done this in previous books.One example is Queen the Bantam where we see the family reading Rose Meets Mr Wintergarten.
When I shared with book with Dr Robin Morrow (former President of IBBY Australia) this week she saw another special connection. Ellie asks her mum for some matches because Scratch "wants to eat the tops off." Robin connected this with the famous Margaret Mahy book A Lion in the Meadow.
You might also think about the concept of time in Bob Graham's books. Ellie's Dragon takes place over ten years you could compare this with Silver Buttons, for example, which takes place over just just one minute. Here are a set of teaching notes from Lamont Books for Ellie's Dragon. In a class discussion you might like to talk about the mobile phones we see Ellie and her friend's using and the link between this and the 'disappearance' of Scratch. Also it is fun to imagine the other eggs in that carton - perhaps someone else took a dragon home from the supermarket.
I have one more tiny detail to share - it is a bit of a mystery to me. On the page near the end where we see the huge 'Super Saver' Supermarket you need to look carefully at the cars parked outside. Something very odd has happened to one of the cars.
There can be no doubt this gentle story of imagination, growing up and hope will be listed by the Children's Book Council of Australia in 2021 both as a notable book and as a short listed title for the Picture Book of the Year award.
I would pair this book with:
And with these junior novels:
One more book from me. This one is very old (1962) and I only have a vague memory of the story but it is one that might link with Ellie's Dragon:
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