The Boy who Painted Dragons

Bibliography: The boy who painted dragons. (2007). New York: Margaret K. McElderry Books.

Annotation: This book is about dragons that are in the heavens and played a game that was them looking for pearls of wisdom. The pearls would say something similar to “seek your heart” and “dare to be great”. The dragons peaked on earth and saw a boy named Ping painting dragons. Ping had seen a painting of a dragon that made him very scared and so one day he began to paint the dragons eye then mouth and said “I am not afraid of you.” Even though he painted them everywhere he was still secretly scared of them. His friends asked him why he painted them and Ping said because he loves them and they are the symbol of wealth, wisdom, power, and represent peace and courage. He would say he wasn’t scared of them because he was full of courage like the dragons. The heavenly dragons loved him so much that they decided to pay him a visit. Ping was terrified of the dragon, so the dragon gave him three wisdom pearls because he could tell he was painting out of fear. Ping then went to the water dragon and asked for power from the water and the dragon gave him a pearl. He did this for the dragon of fire, earth and wind. Ping than began painting the dragons out of joy. The heavenly dragons were very proud of him.

Genre: Fiction, fantasy

Grade: K-3

Readers: Readers that enjoy stories of various cultures will enjoy this book. Readers that also seek courage will also enjoy this book.

Rate/Response: 7 I really enjoyed this book. I loved the illustrations of the dragons. I feel this is a good cultural book and is a good book to begin the discussion of various cultures and courage.

Question: Have you ever been scared of something? Have you ever faced a fear of yours?