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David Thistlethwaite grew up in London, and was often taken to The National Gallery, where a picture of St George and the Dragon was a favourite. At Cambridge he studied art history, and learnt much about such pictures, but nothing on the family life of dragons. The mystery was solved when his daughter, and later his granddaughter, demanded stories, and seemed to know one family in the dragon world very well.
David’s work life has been varied. The most enjoyable parts have been researching art theory, writing a book on art (1998), attending art school, painting portraits and landscape, and writing these stories.
Dragons are not naturally very tidy creatures, and when a meal is over, the last thing they think about is cleaning up. 'Just throw the bones on the floor,' they used to say, and, 'One day we'll clean it up, but not now.' Well, 'One day' had come, and now Rosie had the job of dealing with it.
Loved getting to know Sammy’s family who are just like any other family ,enjoying the things families like doing together….going to the zoo and circus ,skating and surfing . They like being messy, adventurous,kind,helpful, hospitable ,tolerant, the only thing is they are dragons . I loved the story of the ice cream lady at the circus and How Great-Aunt Grizelda ended up having her scales painted. I think that the 6-8 yr recommendation is rather limiting and would think that older children would enjoy as well ( up to11) . More illustrations would have been better as there are lots of fun characters in the book . The stories were fun and imaginative which is what every child ( and grandparent !) wants . I shall be sending my young grandchildren a copy .
Hilarious and insightful, this book is a joy to read for the whole family, whatever the age. The comfortingly familiar and the crazily unexpected join to create stories that leave the grown-ups laughing and pondering and the kids begging to keep reading. 5 stars. You will not be disappointed.
I have just finished reading this book to my 2 sons (8 and 6) at bedtime - one short story a night. They really enjoyed it, and every evening would ask for another. They liked the adventures of Sammy and his family, and my youngest was very excited when George the Zookeeper appeared again in a later story. As a parent, the stories were a nice length to read out loud in about 20 minutes, and there was a nice continuity that left the kids wanting to hear more.
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