How to Raise and Keep a Dragon
John Topsell (Joseph Nigg, "editor")
Barron's
Fiction, CH? Fantasy/Picture Book
Themes: Dragons
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Description
You've read everything there is to read about dragons. Perhaps you've even attended a few local dragon shows. Now, you want to make the leap from dragon lover to dragon keeper. But, like any animal, there's much more to owning a dragon than simply admiring them. Even the bred-down miniature dragons need special care above and beyond a simple cat or dog. What kind of housing do they need? Would you be better suited to a Standard Western Dragon, a Dragon of India, a Sea Dragon, or something even more exotic, like a Multiheaded Dragon, Salamander, or Piasa? How do you train a dragon? Topsell answers all these questions and more in this all-inclusive dragon care guide.
Review
In the wake of Dragonology's phenomenal success, a host of fantastic "field guides" and similar books have cropped up. This one, too, uses pictures and a guidebook/scrapbook format to present dragon information, but it manages to stand apart by crossing the fantastic field guide genre with a pet care manual format. Topsell (or Nigg) also includes information on many more varieties of dragons than other young adult "dragon guide" books, which is fitting: Joseph Nigg has written many scholarly books on the origins of fantastic creatures. It lost a point for illustration quality and a rushed, slightly dumbed-down or glossed-over feel to some of the dragon descriptions, which contradict information Nigg himself offers in other books. I also thought the bibliography, which mixes real-world books with fictional works, lacked clarification and depth. On the whole, if you love dragons, you'll probably want this one in your library... and in all honesty, who else but a dragon lover would even pick up this book?