Tell the Truth, Dragon! Who Ate the Cake?
I’ve been writing about kids books on Dad Suggests for over 4 years now, and over the years I’ve seen many patterns in the types of books I love (and love sharing with my kids). It’s no secret that I love spooky stories, but that’s by no means the only theme I see our family enjoying again and again.
Some of the other themes I return to over and over again are picture books about empathy, and books about dealing with death. I love fantasy and adventure books - and books with a lot of quirkiness and originality in their world-building. And I also love books that teach valuable lessons to kids.
But that last category comes with a huge caveat. For me, books that teach are a bit like books that rhyme. If you force it, it’s a recipe for disaster. Without the right story and the right art to accompany it, books that were created only to bonk kids over the head with a lesson can be downright insulting to the reader - and to the art that is making children’s books.
However, when done right, books that teach can also count themselves among my very favorite children’s books. It all depends on the message, and, more importantly, the delivery method. It’s like Mary Poppins and her spoonful of sugar. If your book has medicine in it, you better be putting in 10 times as much thought into how you’re going to help it go down.
Tell the Truth, Dragon! by Bianca Schulze is a brand-new picture book that just released this week - and it’s a book that sets out to teach. And, as you can probably guess, the lesson is about lying. That’s a valuable bit of medicine, but, the question remains, how does Schulze plan on making it go down?
Disclosure: This is a sponsored article from The Children’s Book Review and Bianca Schulze. All thoughts, opinions, and recommendations remain our own.
If you’re familiar with Schulze’s other picture books in the Dragon series, you already know the answer to this. Tell the Truth, Dragon! is an interactive picture book that regularly asks questions and encourages the reader to talk to the dragon and become a part of the story. And I think that’s just fantastic.
And, while we’re talking about the spoonful of sugar, don’t underestimate for a second how important the charming and original art by Samara Hardy is in bringing this book to life. These characters are perfectly delightful and just the right amount of quirky to really appeal to us. And I must admit I’m especially fond of the cat.
One specific type of picture book that has always been a surprisingly huge success in our house is the interactive picture book - the type of book that has you touching and shaking the book and gets you talking out loud. But, for whatever reason, I can count on my fingers how many of these books we have in our collection. I simply don’t know why we don’t have more of them. It’s truly the most lopsided ratio of enjoyment to representation in our library.
And it’s really no secret why kids - mine included - enjoy books like this so much. Engagement and involvement are the ultimate secret to just about any parenting or teaching topic you can think of - from enjoying school more to trying new things at dinner. So why should it be any different with reading?
If you’ve read any of the previous books in the Dragon series, you’ll be happy to know that several of Dragon’s favorite friends are back - like the cooks, the cat, and the mice. In fact, the cat plays quite a big role in this one, because Dragon eats a bit of a special cake and blames it on the cat.
And this is actually one of my favorite interactive moments of the book. Instead of outright saying “Dragon blames it on the cat,” the book asks the reader what Dragon is doing while she points at the cat. Allowing that realization to click inside the head of a child first was a great decision, because something tells me it will help kids make connections to similar events they’ve experienced.
Another family-favorite moment, and certainly the most active moment, is when the narrator encourages the reader to help distract the dragon while the cooks hide the cake:
“Can you keep Dragon busy while the cooks put the cake in the fridge? Make a silly face and do a silly dance. That’s it! It’s Working! Stand on your head. Okay maybe don’t stand on your head.”
It’s bothered me for a very long time that many (most?) children learn that lying is a very good shield for avoiding trouble. And who can blame them, because they’re exactly right. Many kids that are perpetually in trouble at home and in school learn the defense mechanism (an unfortunately effective one) that not telling the truth will more often than not end in a sort of stalemate that results in less punishments.
For that reason I think the way that we handle the topic of telling the truth as parents and teachers is vitally important in the raising of a child. The awkward truth that lying sometimes “helps” turns the whole topic into a very interesting discussion with complicated moral subtleties. We often like to say that we value truth, but it’s important to explore the whys of our values as well. A book like this one opens up the door to a conversation like that, and it does it while making our kids shout out loud and smile.
And that’s what it’s all about at the end of the day. Tell the Truth, Dragon! makes us smile. It’s safe to say that this book is going to make lots of kids happy. And maybe even think twice about blaming everything on the cat.
Enter the Giveaway!
One (1) grand prize winner receives:
An autographed 4-Book Set of the Dragon series, including:
Don't Wake the Dragon, signed by Bianca Schulze
Just Be Yourself, Dragon, signed by Bianca Schulze
Who Loves the Dragon?, signed by Bianca Schulze
Tell the Truth, Dragon, signed by Bianca SchulzeA framed 'Growing Readers' illustration by Samara Hardy (Art Size: 7" x 7", Final Frame Size: 12.88" × 12.88")
A $50 Bookshop.org gift card
Two (2) winners receive:
A copy of Tell the Truth, Dragon, signed by Bianca Schulze
You can sign up for the giveaway below. Entry details can be found here.
Have you read one of the interactive books in this series before? Do you have another favorite interactive book? Let us know in the comments!
