Astrid's Dragon by Karen Christian

Review 5 star

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Astrid’s Dragon by Karen Christian is a delightful, humorous fantasy adventure story for about ages 6-8. Younger children can also enjoy it, even if they’re not reading yet, since it has many illustrations and is well-suited to reading aloud. Astrid, an ordinary princess, lives in an ordinary fantasy kingdom—ordinary except that it has no dragons. When a dragon swoops in unexpectedly from another kingdom, burning up half a field, everyone panics. Astrid sneaks out of the castle and finds herself kidnapped by the dragon and taken to his lair. In a series of funny, light-hearted adventures, Astrid learns the dragon is not the menace he seems—and must inform her parents before it’s too late.
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As far as princesses, dragons, children, and fun go, this book was just about perfect. Parents are likely to find their kid is drawn to it repeatedly like a magnet, and the adults might enjoy it too, because it’s spontaneously addictive. It would make a great read-aloud, with a parent doing all the voices, and there’s a lot of room to improvise and entertain kids because the gentle comedy and peaceful-but-faintly-zany world of Astrid’s Dragon have plenty of layers and character development. Astrid has a lot of personality, as do her parents, the dragon Fafnir, and his hilarious, domineering mother. The story flows naturally in a bubbling stream of tension, banter, surprises, let-downs, and all-around charm until the world gains a reality hard to achieve in such a short book. I could easily read a hundred stories about Princess Astrid.