This is a fabulous story about friendship, trust, magic, dragons and Christmas.
This is a lovely story about Ferdinand, the dragon, his friends, Hugo, the bat and Marge, the hen. Ferdinand has lost his magical powers and three eggs in his cave that have not hatched and he is all alone. Hugo has left his home as there was nowhere for him to hang comfortably each day, so he left to find a home of his own. There he finds Ferdinand and finds that he is alone and hasn't been outside in years. They develop trust and friendship, as Hugo gets Ferdinand to go flying at night. Hugo tells Ferdinand that he knows how to get a hen to help hatch his eggs. They finally find Marge, the hen. They take Marge and some straw back to the cave and she starts to sit on the eggs. Unfortunately, she needs more straw, so off the go again. Once they get back they see changes in the eggs, so she sits on them again with the extra straw. Finally the 3 eggs hatch and Ferdinand has his siblings. While this is going on Greta loves to read to her grandson, Max. He is tired of the same old stories, so asks her to read something new and different. She remembers a book her mother, her grandmother and her great grandmother also read. She goes up to the loft to find the book. When she reads it again to see if it would suit Max, she remembers the magic writing called “Futhorc”, and thinks it just up his street. She reads it to Max. He reads the magic writing “Futhorc”, tells the kids at school and the teacher. She asks to read it and then reads it to the class. They love it. If you believe in Christmas dragons, you might get some special dragon bread. On the 4th Sunday on Advent, if lucky, dragons will come tonight, Christmas eve. They will leave lots of sweet loaves of dragon bread. Hugo and Marge become bat and hen dragons, Ferdinand's assistants. Ferdinand fixed the farmers barn roof with stardust. Every child would get a dragon bread. Ferdinand knew he had Greta to thank for getting his magic back, because she got the book out of the loft and read it to Max. He left her 4 loaves. Greta raised her hand timidly to greet the largest one and the dragon responded by turning a piroutte. Then the Christmas dragons vanished. They still had lots to do. Be ready to keep your eyes open for dragon bread from the Christmas dragons!! This is a fabulous story about friendship, trust, magic, dragons and Christmas. Coloured illustrations would have been better for the children.
I loved this charming Christmas story and wish that I had written it myself. It would be perfect to read aloud to older children on Christmas Eve or for a teacher to read to an older infant/younger junior aged class in the build up to Christmas.
Ferdinand is so distraught that he is the very last of the Christmas dragons, that his tears fill the lake and he feels very alone. An encounter with Hugo, a bat, who has decided to leave his own bustling cave, results in a close friendship and enables Ferdinand to have the confidence to leave his cave and explore. Meeting Marge, a hen who is desperate for a brood, eventually leads to a positive and joyful outcome for them all. Meanwhile, Greta's sharing of her precious family story of a Christmas dragon with her grandson enchants Max so much that his teacher reads the story to the class and the children's belief works its magic. I loved this charming Christmas story and wish that I had written it myself. It would be perfect to read aloud to older children on Christmas Eve or for a teacher to read to an older infant/younger junior aged class in the build up to Christmas. The author has used a variety of sentence structures, vivid description and evocative text to focus the reader's attention. Themes of friendship, feelings, nature and life cycles pervade the text and there is just the right amount of tension and excitement to maintain enthusiasm. In many ways, the content and written style is quite traditional, but the author has included some elements within the language to match children's needs today. It is a sheer delight that in the modern world we live in, we can continue to offer our children the joy and magic of Christmas in literature. The idea of dragon bread is quite delicious too!
Most will love the pictures and the antics of Ferdinand and his new-found friends and family.
'Ferdinand, the last Christmas Dragon' by Audrey Harings is a simple tale for children of four years and above. The author is German, now living in Spain and writes in her first language. The translation into English by Jason Falconer is sometimes a little quirky but the illustrations by Stephanie Ziermann are delightfully amusing. The sad story of Ferdinand, the last of his kind, is that he is fading because no-one believes in him any more, a fate usually reserved for fairies. With the help of Hugo the bat and Madge the hen however plus a classful of children who rediscover his story, he regains his magic and manages to hatch the three eggs that contain his brothers, though how this was going to ensure the continuation of the species is unclear! The Christmas dragon delivering dragon bread to every household in the vicinity on Christmas Eve may be a fictional tradition but it was interesting that the author had the 'original' story within the story written in Futhark, an ancient runic language and writing system used by Germanic tribes in the Middle Ages. This part of the story I think will be a bit of an enigma for British children but, all in all, most will love the pictures and the antics of Ferdinand and his new-found friends and family.