A fablulous story with lots of messages to children such as challenging stereotypes of a princess combining to never give up (a dragon not giving up in school). This prompted me to unearth some plays I’d written for a school reading group, and since then I’ve had 20 plays published. We then created a whole class re-telling just using actions (which we later performed in a class assembly to the school).

As you will read later in this review, I created a whole re-telling of the story using actions with my Year 1 class. He requires a plaster for his head and a little girl comes out of the woods to tend to his injuries . With each test (and each bump, bruise, or scrape), his dream of earning a gold star seems further away than ever.But Princess Pearl steps in and tells Gadabout that she doesn't want to be a princess, she wants to be a nurse and tend sick people. Pearl enjoys a new freedom caring for injured dragons at the school and Zog finally gets a golden star. We want a song about throwing crumpled-up wrapping paper into the bin” was a typical request from the BBC. Naturally I followed up by borrowing the book from the library, which solidified my love for these characters.

This book saw my confidence grow as a teacher and facilitated opportunities in the classroom I didn’t know were possible. With all his misadventures he realises that it will be difficult to achieve his ambition to win a golden star.Whilst Pearl has shown herself to be proficient dealing with minor injuries and maladies throughout the book the others have no experience at all. Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler come up with another winner with 'Zog', who is the biggest and keenest dragon in school but who proves to be accident prone when undertaking any task.

The illustrations are as vivid, imaginative and amusing as you would expect from the illustrator of The Gruffalo, with subtle details that children and adults will love. The main idea of the story is pretty cool: Madam Dragon runs an elementary school for dragons, where little dragons learn all of the necessary skills and arts of being a dragon: first-graders learn flying, second-graders roaring, third-graders breathing fire, fourth-graders stealing princesses, and so on (you get the idea).

The rhyming story is full of delight and near-perfect for reading aloud (there were only 2 lines where the rhythm seemed a touch off), with a great sing-song quality and plenty of fun words, humorous moments, and wee twists to keep little readers engaged and amused.