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Everybody loved Ignis. He could run the fastest and fly the highest of all his dragon friends, and "his wings, depending on the weather, opened like silk umbrellas or gossamer parasols." But there was one thing Ignis couldn't do: "Every night, he sat at the back of the cave, huffing and puffing till he thought he would burst, but not a single flame ever appeared, not a flicker." And amon... More

Everybody loved Ignis. He could run the fastest and fly the highest of all his dragon friends, and "his wings, depending on the weather, opened like silk umbrellas or gossamer parasols." But there was one thing Ignis couldn't do: "Every night, he sat at the back of the cave, huffing and puffing till he thought he would burst, but not a single flame ever appeared, not a flicker." And among dragons, who are always playing Fling a Flame and All Blaze Together, not being able to breathe fire can be pretty disappointing indeed.

Ignis tells the story of how this young dragon finds himself--and, he hopes, his flame. Wandering away from the heart of Dragonland, Ignis talks to Poto the hippo and Loquax the parrot, and even meets a young human girl named Cara, with whom he spends afternoons eating strawberry ice cream, making daisy chains, and trying to decide whether it's better to be a human or a dragon. ("sometimes it seemed as if being a human being and a dragon together was the best of all.") But not until Ignis makes his way to a solitary, burned-out volcano does he finally find his fate.

Much of Gina Wilson's text here is lovely ("They sat on the dark shore and watched the almost invisible night gazelles stealing down to drink," "All was soundless, save the faintest shushing of breezes and twittering of jewel birds..."), but it's P.J. Lynch's ethereal illustrations that, were you able to breathe fire, might leave you breathless. With a touch of the Disney (in a good way), these carefully composed, wide watercolor-and-gouache scenes evoke Dragonland's quiet beauty better than any words, from the blue green roll of Poto's belly to the rose light limning Ignis and Cara on a late-night flight over the stars. (Ages 4 to 8) --Paul Hughes

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