Winnie's Midnight Dragon

I have long been a fan of Valerie Thomas's delightful tales of Winnie the Witch and her beloved cat Wilbur, as well as Korky Paul's hilarious illustrations. On a recent visit to the library, I was surprised to find Winnie's Midnight Dragon, which had up until then escaped my attention.

The story begins with Winnie going to bed as the clock strikes midnight; Wilbur is of course curled up in his basket at the foot of the bed. His slumbers are, however, soon disturbed by a strange noise in the garden and he goes to the cat flap to investigate. Poor Wilbur is terrified to see a baby dragon's nose poking through and puffing out smoke. As the dragon makes his way in, Wilbur turns backward somersaults and runs away. Unfortunately, the baby dragon sees this as a game and chases Wilbur, causing the grandfather clock to wobble and a suit of armour to crash down the stairs.

Wilbur wakes Winnie up and she is horrified to find her broomstick on fire. She has to use her magic fast, but the first spell goes wrong and the little dragon breathes out butterflies instead of smoke. More chasing ensues, and Winnie's belongings are smashing and crashing. Winnie, at the end of her tether, goes up onto the roof to call for the dragon's mother, but first she must magic an enormous moon to provide enough light for the baby to be seen. All ends well, and Winnie and Wilbur are eventually able to get back to bed as the day dawns.

The story is full of fun and certainly lives up to expectations. It is of course intended as a read-aloud book. Most pages feature just a few lines of text superimposed on the illustrations. Wherever possible, the text appears on a light coloured background, but in one or two cases the background is grey, purple or orange. I personally had no problem reading these pages. The font itself is quite large and clear, and whenever the word 'Abracadabra!' is used it is set in a larger font that has the appearance of a hand-written word. This could be an interesting book for a confident young reader to tackle alone, especially as the story is such fun and the illustrations are full of humour.

Korky Paul lets his imagination run riot when he illustrates Valerie Thomas's stories. Winnie has hairy legs half covered by yellow and orange striped socks under her pointed blue slippers. Wilbur is a sight to behold as he jumps in fright and runs away from the baby dragon, yelling and wide-eyed. The little dragon has a toothy grin and seems oblivious to the havoc he is creating as he goes after the butterflies. Some of the pages are predominantly in grey and purple hues as the story takes place at night, but things are brightened up by the orangey-yellow dragon as well as Winnie's patterned accessories and the colourful butterflies. Not to be forgotten, of course, are the charming illustrations for the front endpapers by Katherine Guo as well as for the back endpapers by Fabienne Derk; both were ten-years-old at the time.

I read this to a small group of four-year-old children who then had great fun acting out the story. They were able to exaggerate Wilbur's cries of 'Meeoww!' and shout out 'Abracadabra!' each time Winnie cast a spell. The part of the baby dragon is also highly amusing as he spends most of his time chasing either Wilbur or the butterflies.

The tales of Winnie the Witch never disappoint, and Winnie's Midnight Dragon is no exception. I would wholeheartedly recommend this as a picture book to read aloud to children from the age of about three, and because of the humour involved, up to perhaps six or seven. Definitely one to borrow from the library, but also an idea for a gift which I am sure would be appreciated.

Winnie's Midnight Dragon

by Valerie Thomas (author) and Korky Paul (illustrator)

Paperback, 32 pages

Oxford University Press, 2007

ISBN 019279101X

Price £5.99 (Amazon £4.99)