Dragon Gets By- Dav Pilkey

Dragon Gets By is a really nice book for children beginning to read on their own. It is a series of books featuring the not at all scary, no fire spewing, gentle dragon who is a bit silly.The first book of this series is "A friend for dragon: Dragon's first tales (1991) ." Apparently this series was also made into a TV series but I haven't seen that.

I have only read this one book with my kid who was 6 years old at the time of our first reading, But this is also a book for early readers and younger kids. Here is this dragon barely managing his days through all muddled up chores be it sweeping, cleaning the yard, going shopping. The pictures are really funny and guarantee a laugh and also comforts you if you are a messy homekeeper yourself! ;)

It is always a pleasure to read books that have been illustrated by the author him/herself because there is so much more that the picture conveys. Google books review informed me that the author, Dav Pilkey, is an award-winning author/illustrator of the Captain Underpants series as well. Here is his website for those interested in more of his work: www.pilkey.com

Also, I have a positive bias towards the use of humour in children's books and when kids get the jokes, I so enjoy watching them laugh . Nothing beats being a silly blue dragon and being acknowledged for silly-ness by a toddler!

The language is easy to read and as I wrote before pictures do so much of the talking. There are five stories in the book and each one involves the Dragon getting into some sort of a mess. By the end of the book you start liking the Dragon and wanting to know more of his simple, easygoing life.
Here are some pages-pictures I took using my mobile camera
just to give you an idea

Little Witch Goes to School

We have been having many HAHAHA moments ever since we laid our hands on this zany book. Sylvie Wickstrom has done a great job of illustrating it and Deborah Hautzig has done a fantastic job of creating a  super funny story.

A mom witch who wants her daughter to be bad; never say please; not make friends; and not learn anything!! And she gives her daughter a lunch box full of candies: "This will help your teeth rot".
My kid laughed and laughed at all the topsy turvy instructions coming from the mum. Really, it is its  quirky humour that makes this book irresistible.

Published by Random House, its classified as "Step3: Reading on your own book". This could have been a long read but for its humour and great artwork.

A must have in your collection would be my recommendation!

P.S.: I chanced upon the author's website and really liked what she wrote about her stories that I reproduce here:  Each and every one of them is about the search for a way to be true to oneself and still be accepted and loved by the people who matter to us the most. It seems to be the one story I never tire of telling.