Nov 4, 2011 ARCHIVES | Entertainment | COLUMNS Peter Bently. Illustrated by Helen Oxenbury
Dial
ISBN 978-0803736986
NA pages
$17.99
Reviewed by Kristi Jemtegaard
As pint-size knights go, Zak and Jack — well equipped with wooden swords, cardboard crowns and a castle made of "an old sheet and some sticks, a couple of trash bags, a few broken bricks" — make a daredevil and endearing twosome. But the real star of this dragon-fighting drama is the toddler-size varlet they tow in their wake. Downy-haired, pacifier-plugged and romper-suited, Caspar prefers playing with the dragon's curly tail and tickling the fearsome serpent's tongue to inflicting anything resembling damage. Fabulous feasts, fearsome beasts and backyard battles abound until a giant comes by to collect Zak. "Two can fight dragons, no problem, Jack said ... Then another giant came and took Caspar to bed." As the illustrations make abundantly clear, the giants are a mom and a dad, and equally clear — if unstated — is that the last knight standing, Jack, is about to have his mettle tested ... not by flame-spouting monsters but by the "skitter-scurry" of a mouse, the "BRRUP!" of a frog and the "TOO-WHOO!" of an owl in the oncoming darkness. Peter Bently's perfectly cadenced rhymes skip blithely from page to page, begging to be read aloud, while Helen Oxenbury's illustrations — from sepia-toned sketches to unbordered double-page spreads — are generously detailed and gracefully expressive delights. Giants beware! This one is sure to become a full-on family favorite at bedtime. Prepare for repeated readings.- Kristi Jemtegaard
Copyright 2011 Washington Post Writers Group
Facebook Print Keywords:
blog comments powered by
View the original article here
