The Book of Dragons

E. Nesbit wrote with a mischievous sparkle that few children's authors have ever matched. This 1899 collection assembles twenty-two dragon tales that swirl with the unpredictable logic of a child's imagination. Here be dragons of every conceivable variety: an icy creature frozen mid-breath, a scaly beast that commandeers the General Post Office as its lair, another spiriting away the zoo's prize elephant, and even a surprisingly affectionate specimen whose gentle rumble sends a toddler straight to sleep. The heroes who confront these creatures are equally varied, plucky children, a thoroughly wicked prince, and an entire soccer team whose encounter with a fire-breathing beast emerges quite literally from the pages of an enchanted book. What makes these stories endure is their cheerful chaos, their refusal to take themselves too seriously while never quite letting the reader forget that dragons are, at their core, magnificent and dangerous things. Nesbit had a gift for speaking directly to children without condescension, and her fantasy is suffused with the same irrepressible spirit that animates her famous novels.