Leo and the Lightning Dragons

This originally appeared at The Irresponsible Reader.
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Leo is a very brave knight battling a different kind of dragon—his foes attack him from the inside where he cannot hide from them. He has a lot of people willing to help him, and several do their best, but this is a fight that Leo has to do on his own—so he musters up the courage and the confidence to get the job done with their support.

Gilli B is absolutely the right illustrator for this book! Her style brought it to life—I love her depiction of Lightning Dragons, I doubt that's the approach many artists would've taken with them. Her chimerical pictures capture the spirit of the book beyond those, too. Delightful work.

If you've read anything about this book, you know how hard it would be to saying anything that's not positive about the book (and if you haven't, click here). But I'm going to—it's too short. I'm not looking for much, but we need a little more—just a couple of pages. There wouldn't even need to be much text, some illustrations might do the trick. Leo's got a tough battle to fight, and it's over a bit too quickly, which makes it seem too easy. And there's no way that Leo's Lightning Dragons (fictional or not) are easily vanquished. How White can accomplish that without running afoul of the book's overwhelming positivity, I'm not sure. I just think the subject deserves it.

Do the pluses outweigh my criticism? Oh yes. It's a great book and I'm so glad I read it. The rhymes are cute, the story is very positive, great illustrations and the imagery of the Lightning Dragon fighting inside Leo is a great way to get the idea of epilepsy across to a picture book reader. A good story that should provide a springboard for a discussion with children about this condition and how hard it has to be for people to deal with. This is definitely one to pick up for your young reader.

My thanks to Love Books Group for the invitation to participate in this tour and the materials they provided.

This gorgeous picture book tells the story of a brave young knight who is faced with lots of adversity but through grit and determination doesn't give up. The illustrations are bold, bright and colourful adding to the narrative. The text is also very striking and appealing, with a mixture of different fonts to highlight significant words. The double page at the back of the book gives some wonderful suggestions and activities for children to try out at home to bring the story alive.

I read this story to my Key Stage one class and they loved it. They were memorised by the pictures and were rooting for Leo to defeat the dragons. The book led to lots of discussions about Leo's feelings at different stages as well as the values that were displayed in the story.

This book was extremely touching. My daughter was born with a rare genetic liver disease and had a liver transplant at 3 years of age. Knowing that this book was written for her son who also has health issues I could completely relate to the words that were written on the page. Having a child who is unwell is one of the hardest things to face as a parent. Going through treatments, procedures and having that constant uncertainty to deal with is extremely hard and stressful. I can see this book adding some comfort to those going through worrying times and providing valuable opportunities to discuss their own battles.

All royalties from the sale of this book will go to CHAS (Children's Hospices across Scotland).