Book Review: Nervous Dragon
Title: The Nervous Dragon A story about overcoming back to school worries
Author: DK
Illustrator: Clare Victoria Wilson
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What's it about?
It’s Blazes first day of school and he’s nervous. He’s convinced that he’ll be the only dragon that can’t breath fire and he won’t be able to make friends.
Favorites:
Favorite Character: My favorite character was Blaze, for sure!He’s just so adorable! The first time I saw him on the cover, I had to investigate and I fell in love!
Favorite Part: I like the end when Blaze tries and succeeds and breathing fire. When he yells “I did it!” It reminds me of my youngest. My youngest is stubborn and determined so she doesn’t often give up. She’ll try and try and then, when she succeeds in whatever she’s working on, she’ll throw her hands up and triumphantly yell, “I did it!” as she glows with pride.I love those moments.
I also liked when Blaze hid under the table, nervous after Mrs. Claw said they were going to practice breathing fire because it reminds me of my oldest and youngest. They both sought comfort in hiding under the table when they were little. It was their safe haven. While my oldest has grown out of that, my youngest still makes her way under the table sometimes.
Other Thoughts:
I love the aesthetic of this book.The alitical circle on the cover with Blaze’s face on it is adorable, but there’s a level of intentional choices made in the art that I really appreciated. I loved that instead of dolls or toy
soldiers, they play with toy knights complete with swords and shields. There’s something almost poetic about that being their idea of soldiers or humans. I also really liked that their school is a castle. It adds a vibe to the world that I can’t help but come back to. Of course, there’s also Blaze’s adorable little glasses that might just be the cutest thing about this book! But more then that, it’s one of those little details that kiddos with glasses will catch, especially if they’re worried that they’ll be made fun of for having them. I know when I first got glasses, I was sure that everyone was going to laugh at me and I was in middle school at the time!
I like that, when he goes to school,his teacher’s name is Ms. Claw which sounds kind of intimidating but perfect for a dragon. But, as we soon see, Mrs. Claw isn’t scary. She’s nice and empathetic. And when she talks to Blaze
about his fears, she says that school is a place to learn. You’re not supposed to know everything yet, that’s the point of school. Somethings will be hard and that’s ok. That’s exactly the way it should be. Maybe I clung to this because my youngest is in 2nd grade and my middlest is in high school and I have to remind them both of this sometimes still. They don’t take it as well as Blaze does.
And, I appreciated how no one knew how to breath fire even though, according to Blaze, “And everyone knows that dragons are the best fire breathers.” While this wasn’t entirely unpredictable, as someone who struggles with anxiety with three kids who
who also struggle with it, I know that’s usually how things go. We become convinced that something is true, we’ll be the only ones who (fill in the blank) and everyone will notice. Of course that will result in being picked on, made fun of, failing and being friendless. That will continue to spiral down until we hit the absolute worse case scenario. In my house, we call this “ending up in a box by the side of the river” because when I was in college, I’d have panic attacks about tests and when someone would ask me what would happen if I fail (to try to play it out and show me it wasn’t so bad)it would start with failing the test, go to failing the class and eventually I’d end up living in a box with my little boy by the side of the river without anything to eat or blankets to keep us warm. No one could, in those episodes of anxiety, convince me otherwise. But Blaze gets to see that he’s not the only one. He gets to learn with his classmates as they don’t know how to breath fire, either. Better yet, they don’t all find it easy. Some of them really have to work hard at it while others don’t have to work quite as hard. I love that little tidbit as these are lessons that, while we try to teach young, we all could use a good reminder of now and then. We’re not going to be in a box by the river and we won’t be the only ones who have to learn something or who don’t find something easy and that’s okay. That’s exactly as it should be.
Ratings:
I give this book a
8
out of
10 Big Breaths
But that’s just what I thought. What did you think? Did you think Blaze was adorable, too, or did you think he looks just like every other dragon? Let us know in the comments!
