by Moe Zilla

Created on: June 16, 2010

"Sunrise Elementary School had a BIG problem..."

All librarians are a little scary, but behind this pair of horn-rimmed glasses sits a fire-breathing dragon. Smoke streams from her nostrils as she dips a green paw into her desk's pencil-and-claw sharpener. "She took her job seriously," the text suggests - perhaps a little too seriously. The bookshelves are covered with barbed wire, and behind her desk is a sign that reads "Do Not Touch The Books. For Display Only."

I love books about libraries, and this one makes an important point. There's a specific topic that the librarian objects to: cruelty to dragons. "She got so fired up about this, she didn't just discard the books she didn't like, she incinerated them." Eventually the dragon-librarian became a real problem for the school, and teachers stopped sending students to the library because "they kept coming back singed."

It's even more interesting if you know the author's own story. Carmen Agra Deedy immigrated to America from Cuban in 1963. She grew up in Decatur, Georgia, and before the book's title page, she thanks her friends at the Norcross Public Library. She dedicates the book to a friend "who has known all along that in the library beats the heart of the school." Maybe she wrote this book to celebrate not just libraries and education, but also free speech and democracy.

The principal reminds the dragon, "don't forget who does the hiring." But the dragon retorts, "and who does the firing?" then sends his necktie up in flames. A delegation of teachers braves the dragon's wrath, but they're frightened off by her terrible fire-snorting. No one realizes that the dragon is exhausted - and also a little bit lonely.

A lost second-grader named Molly Brickmeyer wanders into the library. (Without her glasses, she can't see the dragon-librarian - or her ominous warning signs.) Molly pulls a book from the shelf, and begins reading out loud. And soon students are crowding around the windows, finally enjoying a long-deferred story time.

It's a rare book that can make an exciting and dangerous adventure out of a visit to library story time. The dragon roars, "Give me that book, Molly Brickmeyer." And then she "eyed it suspiciously as it hung from her claw." She examines the book for damage, eyes the children, and clears the smoke from her throat. And then the dragon-librarian reads the story to the children herself.

And Molly Brickmeyer even climbs up in her lap.

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