There’s No Such Thing as a Dragon

This is the second in a series of posts about Children’s Book Week. You can read about the first book here.

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One of the books I read to the kids tonight during bathtime was “There’s No Such Thing as a Dragon” by Jack Kent. I remember enjoying the book when I was a kid, so when I had an opportunity to buy it for twenty-five cents at a used book sale a couple weeks ago, I didn’t hesitate for a moment.

“There’s No Such Thing as a Dragon” is the story of a little boy, Billy Bixbee, who woke up one morning to find a small dragon in his bedroom.

The dragon was a friendly dragon, but his mother insisted over and over that there’s no such thing as a dragon.

At breakfast, the dragon sat on the table, and I love the logic that follows.

“This sort of thing was not usually permitted, but there wasn’t much Billy’s mother could do about it. She had already said there was no such thing as a dragon. And if there’s no such thing, you can’t tell it to get down off the table.”

Throughout the morning, the dragon got bigger and bigger until it filled the whole house.

But when the dragon smelled a bread truck, it ran off with the house on its back, leaving just the foundation and a confused Mr. Bixbee.

Finally, Mrs. Bixbee had to accept that there really was a big problem known as a dragon, and when they acknowledged this and Billy patted the dragon on the head, the dragon started getting smaller.

When the dragon was the size of a kitten again, the mother wondered why it had to grow so BIG.

“I’m not sure,” said Billy, “but I think it just wanted to be noticed.”

Of course, not all problems will go away when you pat them on the head, but it’s true that big problems can sometimes be avoided by dealing with them while they’re still small problems. Pretending that the problem doesn’t exist usually doesn’t make the problem go away.

If only all problems could be accompanied by such charming illustrations…