The Moon Dragons by Dyan Sheldon illustrated by Gary Blythe

A timeless picture book to be returned to time and time again. Love Reading 4Kids

This book has languished on library shelves for ten years and so the Teacher-Librarian is considering 'weeding' it or removing it from her huge book collection. There is a fantastic story hiding inside this book with themes of greed, girl power, bravery and the moral dilemma of truth verses keeping an important secret. I wonder why it has not been borrowed - my guess is the (sorry Gary Blythe) the unappealing cover. 

This is a 'what would you do' story. I will explain this in a minute.

The King declares there are no dragons but then a traveller reveals there are a few left at the top of the mountain. The king now wants a dragon and so he sends his hunters.

"The royal huntsmen went up the mountain. But its slopes were steep and treacherous, its woods filled with frightening beasts. When they returned all they had was a goat."

This enrages the king. He offers a huge reward to anyone who can bring him a dragon. Hunters, trappers, woodsmen, herders and mountaineers all set off but none can find a dragon. Then a young village girl named Alina declares she will try. Everyone scoffs. How can a mere girl, a child, ever succeed? 

Spoiler alert (this book is from 2014 so it is long out of print): Alina finds the dragons but when she returns to the village she tells everyone there were no dragons. I cheered!

I love this final sentence:

"But as she walked along. Alina took a silver scale from her pocket and smiled. A flight of dragons was worth far more than a room full of gold."

"And there, in the dale below, was a dance of dragons, shining pearl and silver in the soft lunar light ... First one, then anther rose into the air, graceful as clouds, 

their voices joined in song. 

Alina stood on the hill top as if in a dream. 

Her heart beat with the singing of the dragons, 

her breath flowed with the rhythm of their wings."

Bookseller blurb: When a king discovers that there are still singing moon dragons high up on the mountainside, he offers a room full of gold to anyone who can bring one to him. The beautiful dancing dragons only reveal themselves to Alina, a young peasant girl, but she preserves the secret of their whereabouts, knowing that there are some things far more precious than a room full of gold.

Blythe’s soft edge, dramatic, yet realistically-seen paintings are peopled with utterly individual characters, while his clever use of scale and cut-off points roots the story in fantasy. Coupled with Sheldon’s lyrical telling of a good story, they together create something magical. Books for Keeps

Take a look at art by Gary Blythe. You should try to find these two books also illustrated by Gary Blythe:

The Whale's Song

In the US this book is called Under the Moon

You can see other books by Dyan Sheldon here. 

Katje the Windmill Cat by Gretchen Woelfle illustrated by Nicola Bayley

Katje lives with Nico, the miller. She has a happy life but then Nico marries Lena. His new wife likes things to be clean and orderly and so there is no place for a cat like Katje. Things get worse when baby Anneke is born and eventually Katje leaves the house and moves into the mill. But one night there is a fierce storm, the river rises and floods the house. Based on a true story it is Katje who is able to rescue baby Anneke. 

I was drawn to this book because I really love illustrations by Nicola Bayley and when I saw this book I thought of this one:

Katje the Windmill Cat has the most delightful page designs with small delft blue tiles at the left of each page, the tiny details of which echo the action in the main illustrations. Kirkus comment on the font choice and I do agree - it is quite a distraction which is a shame because this is a story young readers will enjoy. I know true stories of animal heroes can be a very popular topic.

Bookseller blurb for Katje the Windmill Cat: This heroic tale was inspired by a true story that took place over 500 years ago. It tells of Katje the windmill cat who lives happily with Nico, the miller, in a Dutch village by the sea. By day, Katje chases mice in the windmill; by night, she sleeps on a soft pillow on Nico's bed. Then Nico brings home his bride, Lena, and everything changes. Katje is shooed away by Lena as she sweeps the house or when she finds Katje playing with the new baby. Eventually poor Katje leaves her home and moves into the windmill. But when a storm breaks the dike that holds back the sea, Katje performs a feat of extraordinary courage that makes her forever welcome in the house.

Nicola Bayley illustrated many other books about cats - all now out of print. The Patchwork Cat; Spider Cat; Elephant Cat; Curious Cat; Crab Cat; Polar Bear Cat.

Biography from Walker Books: Nicola Bayley is a gifted illustrator best known for her loving, detailed illustrations of cats. Nicola studied Graphic Design at St Martin’s College and then Illustration at the Royal College of Art. She specialised in cats and has illustrated a wide rand of children’s books including “The Necessary Cat”, “Katje the Windmill Cat”, “The Curious Cat” and an extravagant new edition of Rudyard Kipling’s classic “The Jungle Book”. Her work is both admired and acclaimed. In 2001, Nicola was short listed for the Kate Greenaway Medal for “Katje the Windmill Cat” and “The Mousehole Cat” was the winner of the British Book Award for the Illustrated Children’s Book of the Year and the British Design Production Award (Children’s Books).

Fly Free by Roseanne Thong illustrated by Eujin Kim Neilan

"Fly free, fly free in the sky so blue. When you do a good deed, it will come back to you!"

This is a curious book and I am not sure how I would explain the story especially to younger readers but I was drawn to it because the illustrations are so different. They look as though they were painted on bamboo. 

In my former school the curriculum included a strand of stories with an Asian focus. My Grade Six students explored some interesting picture books such as Sparrow Girl; Ruby's Wish; Ah Kee and the Glass Bottle; Glass Tears and The Red Piano. (Pop these titles into my search bar). 

Here is my Pinterest of Asian focus picture books. As we read each book we discovered so many interesting customs and moments from history. With this book - Fly Free - I had no idea about the idea of paying to set captured birds free, but I do like the way kindness is explained here through a circle story but the actual practice of capturing animals is in fact very cruel. 

Blurb: When you do a good deed, it will come back to you. Mai loves feeding the caged birds near the temple but dreams that one day she'll see them fly free. Then she meets a young girl named Thu, and shares the joy of feeding the birds with her. This sets a chain of good deeds in motion that radiates throughout her village and beyond.

Fly Free was published in 2010 so it is long out of print but you might find a copy in a library.

Here is part of the School Library Journal review:

A Vietnamese girl feeds caged birds outside a Buddhist temple, beginning a cycle of good deeds continued by the townspeople, including a girl who gives away her red-velvet shoes, before circling back to the birds. Although written to illustrate the Buddhist philosophy of karma, the lesson of this simple story, that helping others is helpful to you, is universal. The muted and warm watercolor-on-board illustrations glow with gold, orange, red, and brown tones, although the girls' unnaturally pink cheeks and lips give them a jarringly clownish look. One of the characters is a monk but the only explicit religious message is found in an author's note that explains karma, nirvana, and samsara (the wheel of life). The arresting cover illustration of a child holding her hands in the air as birds fly into the distance foreshadows the story's conclusion. That dramatic image will immediately engage readers in wondering how the birds will be freed.

Celebrating 24th November - Happy Birthday (with fairy bread)

Image Source: Sydney Morning Herald

It is Fairy Bread Day!

Make a plate of Fairy Bread and sit down with the young children in your family and 

READ this book - it is simple perfect right to the last sentence!

This one is long out of print but Bob the Builder by Emily Rodda is so much fun to read aloud 

(I almost know parts of the text off by heart) and the illustrations are fabulous by Craig Smith

Check out this post from Kinderbookswitheverything

The Birthday of Frances Hodgson Burnett is 24th November - she wrote one of my favourite books The Secret Garden. She also wrote A Little Princess (I talk about that in this post).

The Secret Garden

The author of Pinocchio Carlo Carllodi was born on 24th November, 1826.

Author Mordecai Gerstein who wrote the Jacob Two Two series also has a birthday.

Jacob Two Two meets the Hooded Fang was one of the very first book I read aloud to my Grade Three class in my first school back in 1984. I also own a cassette tape of the story! I might reread it over the coming weeks. The Book Wrangler posted an image of a calendar with author birthdays. 

Gail Gibbons (1944) is on 24th November. I had not heard of her, but my friend has several of her nonfiction books in the library - she was an early creator of illustrated nonfiction and has produced hundreds of titles. She even has two books from long ago about Birthdays!

Gail Gibbons’s books are particularly accurate because she goes right to the source when researching a topic. She has been on the seventeenth floor of a skyscraper in progress, has spoken with truck drivers about the workings of their rigs, has dismantled every clock in her home, and would have donned scuba diving gear to research a sunken ship had the sea waters not been too turbulent. Gail says "I had a lot of ‘whys’ when I was a child. I guess I still do."

These are her recent Board Books

I think I need to FIND this one!

I have a Pinterest of Birthday picture books and a Pinterest of birthday card images. Here is a previous post about the topic of Happy Birthday and a few of my favourite Happy Birthday books to share:

Happy Birthday Moon

Billy's Bucket

Where does Thursday go?

Sometimes Cake

Hogbert by Briony May Smith

You might like to begin with my Meet the Illustrator post where I introduce Briony May Smith. Her art is so appealing and surely you cannot resist the sweet image of Hogbert on the cover of this latest book.

When you pick up Hogbert twist and turn the cover. It is scattered with gold. Then, when you begin reading this book with your young reading companion you will encounter a truly delightful word - snufflebugs!

Here is a word list (not for a lesson) just to delight you: guzzled, snuffled, snorts and snuffles, let's hop to it, nattered, rumbling and grumbling, fiddlesticks, drizzle, and aroma.

This story is filled with references to fairy tales (some are very subtle). Hopefully all of these will be very familiar to your child or preschool group - Little Red Riding Hood, Snow White, Hansel and Gretel and The Frog Prince.

Here is a detailed interview with the author filled with art from this story and photographs of her forest adventures.

Publisher blurb: When Mommy Boar sends her little snufflebugs to explore the forest for the first time, she cautions them to stick together. After all, the Big Bad Wolf could be near! But Hogbert’s keen nose has other ideas, and after following a trail too far, he finds himself trembling alone in fear. What’s that rustling in the leaves? Just a little red squirrel on her way to visit her sick granny! What’s that growl coming through the trees? Just a snoring white doe who took a bite of an apple that made her sleepy! With each temporarily scary encounter, Hogbert finds that the world is a less frightening place, and that the same sense of smell that led him into trouble may just lead them all out of it again.

The skilled depiction of the sylvan setting includes lovely flowers, towering trees, and constantly shifting light and shadow. This low-key adventure is a pleasant diversion that effectively capitalizes on the appeal of timeless tales. Kirkus

The Last Egg by Sofie Laguna illustrated by Jess Racklyeft

A mother bird is sitting on her nest. She has three eggs. The father bird is very attentive bringing her fresh worms to eat but then one morning; after hearing distant screeching in the night; the parents wake up to find a fourth egg in their next. The mother bird insists it's okay and that they have a responsibility to hatch this egg too. The problem is the first three eggs hatch on time, the baby chicks are just like the parents, and over time these three grow up and fly away. Meanwhile the fourth egg has not hatched. Should the birds abandon this egg? It is most certainly time they flew away to a warmer climate. In fact the snow is now falling and both are desperately cold.

The plot here will feel familiar, you might think of The Ugly Duckling with a twist - a dragon! The art in this new picture book is very appealing. And when you reach the end of the story, your young reading companion is sure to want to go back to the beginning to find that all important story hint (foreshadowing). 

You can find some teachers notes on the publisher page. 

Jess Racklyeft’s imaginative, evocative, playful illustrations with touches of whimsy, capture the different seasons and passing of time with varied colour palettes to reflect spring, winter and summer. She superbly brings to life the bonds between the characters and the emotions they feel. Jess imaginatively uses colour to create suspense, drama and intrigue.  This is a book for all library collections which offers endless opportunities for discussions about family, acceptance, compassions, the spirt of community and strength in diversity. Reading Opens Doors

The Last Egg is a beautiful story about family and caring, and the sacrifices we make to look after people who don’t look like us, but are still family in many other ways. It is also about community, and coming together to create a loving environment for children, helping people when they need it, and coming together when things get dire to ensure the vulnerable are not left behind. The Book Muse

Companion texts:

This one is very old - I hope you can find it - Fey Mouse by Hazel Edwards

Dragon love penguin

Just plain fancy

And for an art comparison try to find this one:

I talked about the illustrator Jess Racklyeft recently. She has donated this original bird illustration for our IBBY Australia Mini Masterpiece art auction (14th - 28th November 2025).

Jess Racklyeft creates a variety of illustrated things - picture books, paintings, prints, pins and cards - mainly in watercolours. She works from her studio at the beautiful Abbotsford Convent and regularly has picnic lunches watching the neighbouring sheep and horses! Her art often combines collage - either on paper or digitally assembled - experimentation and lots of watercolour. Sometimes she writes the books as well. Jess worked in publishing sales for almost a decade before making the leap to full-time illustration and writing, and since then has won several illustration accolades including CBCA Picture Book of the Year for Iceberg (written by Claire Saxby).

Sofie Laguna is the author of many books including Too Loud Lilly; When You're Older; Our Australian Girl: The Grace stories; The Song of Lewis Carmichael; Stephen's Music; Bird and Sugar Boy; and an Aussie Bite title - The forever house. 

The 113th Assistant Librarian: Lost in a Book by Stuart Wilson

You will jump right into the action at the start of this book as Oliver battles with a giant crab that has escaped from 'The Diving Bell Expeditions of Grace AEthwell'. Page 173 is blank but the caption reads 'mammoth spider crab'. Oliver needs to catch this huge creature and wrangle it back into the book.

"To be fair, being attacked by a giant crab in a library was something he would never have believed before he took up the mantle of librarian. Or rather, assistant librarian, due to the untimely death of the librarian, Hieronymus Finch-Thackeray."

After all this drama things do settle down but only for a short while because a junior lawyer named Phoebe arrives from the firm Wolfsähnlich, Lithic & Lithic. One of their clients has died and left his enormous book collection. 

"A voluminous collection of books, in fact. And now that a grant of probate has been issued to the executor, the time has come to divest the estate and all chattels therein."

I love the word used to describe this type of collecting by the late Phillip Thomas - bibliomania. So Oliver visits the house and he begins to sort and cull the collection with help from his friend Agatha. We met Agatha in the first book but just in case you have forgotten she has a dreadful and potentially fatal illness Garnet Band Fever. To prolong her life she transforms into nine cats but she can only do this within the confines of the library and it is dangerous for her to spend too long in her human form. The cats are named Fennex, Arawn, Grey Reaper, Tailless, Harmony, Sentinel, Clod and two others Oliver has not yet named. 

Agatha is a huge fan of the crime writer Enid B. B. Weathers but when she reads or re-reads a few pages from her book Murder of Masons, she discovers the story has been changed. This sets Oliver and Agatha on a book hunt - and yes they discover other books that seemed to be changed. This might not matter too much, perhaps they are earlier editions, but then they find a very significant book - 'War, A History of the Alpin Conflict' by M.W. Ebberdew.  If this other edition is correct then the border between Hallarum and the Shrouded Alps is in the wrong place - this could lead to anther dreadful war. What can Oliver and Agatha do? And oh no the dreadful Annabel Clowritch, the Member for Upper-Lower Tumbledown Barrows has heard about this book and she is determined to read it and gain control over the remote regions that she is sure now belong to Hallarum. 

Here are some text fragments that will give all Teacher-Librarians and librarians in general a smile moment:

"Oliver glanced at the spies closest to him, quickly surmising that there was little in the way of a system. He spotted fiction next to poetry, plays rubbing shoulders with cookbooks."

"even the patrons couldn't sour his mood when they interrupted him ... to say things like, 'Must be nice to have a job where you can sit around all day and read.'"

"Trying to appear nonchalant, he slid a book onto the shelf (despite the fact it was in the wrong section, doing an injury to his librarian soul)."

"The brilliance of a book was that it was always there, waiting to be read, at a time that was convenient."

"He removed his satchel and jacket before slipping the bandolier on over his shirt. He checked that the two stamps and the bookmark were in their pouches and that they were closed securely. He was, after all, going on official librarian business."

I talked about the inventive book titles created by Stuart Wilson in the first book and also the way his writing employs such a rich vocabulary - this book has these same wonderful qualities. I learnt the word 'lambrequins' for example. Also, I loved the care and concern Oliver shows for his friend Agatha. AND it was wonderful to meet Oliver's sisters once again - a couple of them play very important roles in this latest adventure. 

Publisher blurb: Oliver has settled into his life as the 113th assistant librarian. He loves his job – even though it sometimes includes battling giant crabs or fending off firedrakes – and his new friend, the mostly-human Agatha, is always on hand to help. But when he discovers a rare edition of a history book with unique wording, he realises the slightest misinterpretation could endanger the entire kingdom. Determined to solve this mystery, he and Agatha leave the library – with the help of an unpredictable transporting book – to establish the truth. But can they prevent Annabel Clowritch, the esteemed Member for Upper-Lower Tumbledown Barrows, from using the text to her own advantage . . . and stop a war?

Once again, it’s an adventure like no other and filled with humour, surprises, and the successful victory of the underdogs. AND it’s all to do with libraries and books, and the librarians who take their guardianship with all due seriousness. Just so Stories

This is a mystery adventure full of whimsy and risky moments. ... It does assume a reasonable reading skill and enjoyment of fantasy and references to library organisation and some historical, geographical or scientific detail may stretch some younger readers, but will thrill adept readers. ...  I loved the first book in this series, and the second is equally enthralling. Read Plus

Wilson has lots of fun with book titles, the worlds to be found within books and the power of the written word, all of which makes this a not just another ordinary adventure but a story with some thought provoking themes. He certainly gets very creative and inventive with the magic of books. It is great to see Oliver outside the library but still engaged in serious book business. Storylinks

Lost in a Book is the second title in the series the 113th Assistant Librarian. You do need to read the first book to understand the world of this book and to meet the two main characters - Oliver Wormwood and his best friend Agatha. I don't usually read sequels or continue a series unless I really loved the first installment - and yes I did love it  - five stars from me. 

The 113th Assistant Librarian

I am still wondering why oh why the first book didn't make the 2025 CBCA Younger Readers Book of the Year notables. And sadly I know this second one - Lost in a Book - is not eligible because it does not stand alone (although this rule seems to be quite flexible because seven of the 2025 notables were from a series!).

Readers aged 10+ are sure to enjoy Lost in a Book (you could gift the two books from this series as Christmas presents) but at the end they might feel a little bereft and in need of another similarly adventurous story so I would suggest these:

The Phantom Tollbooth

Escape from Mr Lemoncello's library

The Lost History (second book in a series)

The Strange Worlds Travel Agency

The Lost Library