Benjamin the lonely dragon by Marc Craste

 

"Once there lived a sad little dragon named Benjamin. He was sad because he didn't have any friends. None of the other dragons in his small village would play with him. You see Benjamin had a problem - he was afraid of fire."

The plot line for this book is very familiar.  The dragon has no fire, he leaves home in disgrace, meets a new friend, performs a heroic deed, finds his fire and returns home a hero.

The special feature here is the tender relationship between Benjamin, the dragon and Roger his little hedgehog friend. The best demonstration of this relationship comes when Benjamin calls Roger - Rog and Roger called Benjamin - Ben.  I know this sounds simple but this was a moment in the story which, pardon the pun, warmed my heart.

"Then, just as Benjamin thought he would collapse from cold and tiredness, he noticed a small, dark shape on the ground ahead. Peering through the snow, he saw that it was indeed Roger, but his relief turned to despair. His little friend was covered in ice and snow, and had turned blue with cold."

This book is a treasure found by my friend from Kinderbookswitheverything at a recent charity book sale. The copy she found was only $2 and even though this book was first published in 1994 this copy is in mint condition which means the publisher used good paper and the book has been stored carefully. This book is long out of print but I am happy that this copy will now go into a library where it can be borrowed and enjoyed by a whole new set of readers.  But I need to put on my detective hat. Who is Marc Craste and who are Murray Child and Company - the publisher from Collaroy? I had no idea a publisher had a business in Collaroy in the 1990s. This suburb is very near my home here in Sydney. This is especially odd because Marc Craste lives in the UK.

So now we need to complete the circle. Marc Craste illustrated Varmints which written by Helen Ward the illustrator I featured yesterday! Marc Craste works in the film industry as an animator. His movies include: Varmints, Jo Jo in the Stars, Stuck on a Sunday, Neighbors, Guinness and Seconds From Greatness. If you have time click the link for Varmints - it is an amazing short film reminiscent of The Lost Thing by Shaun Tan. Or you could watch the two minute trailer. Here are some details:

Adapted and directed by Marc Craste, Varmints is a 24-minute film based on the award-winning book of the same name by Helen Ward and illustrated by Craste, that tells the story of one small creature's struggle to preserve a world in danger of being lost forever through recklessness and indifference. A crew of 35 people worked in three countries over a two year period to make the film, and an original score by Icelandic composer Johann Johannsson and sound design by Adrian Rhodes complete the picture.

I had a copy of Varmints in my former library but I will confess I did not read it (you can't read every book). I now need to look for this. I can see this book would be perfect to pair with another Helen Ward book - The Tin Forest.