One day Mr Gordon Collins, a professional list-maker from the government, explores the mountain that overlooks his home and discovers a whole family who are not yet on his list. The difference is that this family – father Sammy, mother Eleanor, daughter Rosie and son Daniel – are dragons, and friendly ones at that…The adventures of this lively dragon family, and of Sammy in particular, formed the basis of numerous stories written by the author to entertain his granddaughter. Now a selection of ten of them is available to all readers, young and old alike. With wit and humour, these tales gently tackle aspects of life we all have to think about: the power of kindness, for instance, or learning to tell the difference between good and bad people.Suitable for reading aloud to children aged 6-8, SAMMY THE DRAGON is an excellent choice for anyone who loves stories that are both amusing and thought-provoking. So, come and join Sammy and his family in their adventures, and discover the many lessons to be learned from these delightful dragons.
David Thistlethwaite grew up in London, and was often taken to The National Gallery, where a picture of St George and the Dragon was a favourite. At Cambridge he studied art history, and learnt much about such pictures, but nothing on the family life of dragons. The mystery was solved when his daughter, and later his granddaughter, demanded stories, and seemed to know one family in the dragon world very well.
David’s work life has been varied. The most enjoyable parts have been researching art theory, writing a book on art (1998), attending art school, painting portraits and landscape, and writing these stories.
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4 reviews
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Dragons are not naturally very tidy creatures, and when a meal is over, the last thing they think about is cleaning up. 'Just throw the bones on the floor,' they used to say, and, 'One day we'll clean it up, but not now.' Well, 'One day' had come, and now Rosie had the job of dealing with it.
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Loved getting to know Sammy’s family who are just like any other family ,enjoying the things families like doing together….going to the zoo and circus ,skating and surfing . They like being messy, adventurous,kind,helpful, hospitable ,tolerant, the only thing is they are dragons . I loved the story of the ice cream lady at the circus and How Great-Aunt Grizelda ended up having her scales painted. I think that the 6-8 yr recommendation is rather limiting and would think that older children would enjoy as well ( up to11) . More illustrations would have been better as there are lots of fun characters in the book .
The stories were fun and imaginative which is what every child ( and grandparent !) wants . I shall be sending my young grandchildren a copy .
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Hilarious and insightful, this book is a joy to read for the whole family, whatever the age. The comfortingly familiar and the crazily unexpected join to create stories that leave the grown-ups laughing and pondering and the kids begging to keep reading. 5 stars. You will not be disappointed.
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I have just finished reading this book to my 2 sons (8 and 6) at bedtime - one short story a night. They really enjoyed it, and every evening would ask for another. They liked the adventures of Sammy and his family, and my youngest was very excited when George the Zookeeper appeared again in a later story. As a parent, the stories were a nice length to read out loud in about 20 minutes, and there was a nice continuity that left the kids wanting to hear more.
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