Received an advance reader copy in exchange for a fair review.
Thanks to NetGalley and Capstone for the opportunity to read Do Not Take Your Dragon to Dinner by Julie Gassman with illustrations by Andy Elkerton! Do not take your dragon to dinner has cute, colorful and charming illustrations that are full of expression. The rhyming text flows well and the repetition will be fun for listeners to join in on while being read to. In the middle of the story, the dragon begins to learn manners and will someday take you to dinner! Great fun and deserves 5 stars for an adorable and bright book that I plan on buying for my own grandchild!

I loved this book! The characters were so diverse and inclusive! It delighted me that the dragons were both male and female! The rhyming was easy to follow and had great rhythm. I enjoyed the artwork. It added to the story with lovely little details. It's a great addition to any picture book collection!

Written in rhyme, this gem of a book is sure to have your little one laughing out loud. Is it ever a good time to take your dinosaur out for dinner? Well not if he acts rude, stomps clumsily around and disrupts the whole restaurant with his anti-social behaviour. Your dinosaur can pick his nose while waiting for the meal to arrive, roar at the top of his lungs atop a table, spill his food all over, burp firy burps and emit putrid smells that stink up the whole place, just to name a few. Oh my! What is a girl supposed to do that can't part with her beloved dragon and wants to include him in everything that she does?

Well for starters she can try to cook home cooked meals. A dragon can be most useful helping her achieve this worthwhile goal and even turn it into a grand celebration. Why he can peel, seer, set the table, light the candles all the while practising the art of being polite. He can put table manners and good etiquette into motion as he uses linen napkins, ignores the phone when it rings and closes his huge, dinosaur mouth when he chews his food. Why he can become so well trained in proper eating behaviour that before you know it he will be the one asking her to accompany him out for scrumptious dinner date in an elegant, high-class restaurant. Do you think he will?

This is a delightful book from beginning to end. The illustrations by this talented illustrator are truly amazing. The book stresses the importance of using good manners and goes one step further by demonstrating what good eating manners really are. I highly recommend you add this book to your collection. I am sure it will become a favourite and be begged to be read over and over again. It's a winner all round.

Wonderful illustrations. Perfect for storeytime sessions. Loved it.

Following up on "Don't Take Your Dragon to the Library", this installment clearly articulates "Don't Take Your Dragon to Dinner!" For those familiar with the first tale, this book follows the same formula. Kids of all colors and walks of life attempt to take their dragons out to dinner, only to meet with disaster. The solution? Practice your cooking and etiquette at home! Then, in time, you can finally take that dragon out to dinner.

This title isn't going to be winning any awards, but it has massive kid appeal. The illustrations are comical and vibrant, the text is rhythmic, and lets face it: kids like dragons. Look for this title in medium and larger libraries and purchase if your little reader can't get enough of the scaly beasts, or of course if they have less grace at the dinner table than you would like.

Another fun story about Dragons. This book also teaches about table manners and etiquette in a fun and creative way. Perfect way to teach children about the do's and don'ts when it comes to eating out or having dinner in general.

I loved this book as did my grandson. What a wonderful way to teach your child manners while having fun with this story. As I read the book we talked about what the dragon should do on each page and he usually could tell me, but sometimes I had to help. He loved the illustrations and pointed out the different dragons, their colours and faces etc. He was completely enthralled with this story and of course when the repetitive line of "Do Not Take Your Dragon To Dinner" came around, he read it with me, or yelled it while laughing. I enjoyed the rhythmic pattern to the story as I read it aloud. The illustrations were so bold and colourful it was almost like we were watching a movie or cartoon. I can see this becoming a favourite of any child and the side effect of teaching proper manners is a bonus for parents. A great addition to any family library.

A very colourful book and well written book to teach our young kids the restaurant and table manners.

It is a really nice book for kids from age of 3-6. Graphics will made sure your kids will keep looking with smile on their faces. It shows how dragon behavior can put into embarrassment scenario. Though presented with dragon as source of problem, author is trying to show children what not to do in public gathering. Nice message. If book will be published in India I can buy if for my 2 year old kid.

If you enjoyed 'Don't Bring Your Dragon to the Library', you are going to love this new rhyming book about why you shouldn't take your dragon to dinner.

Sometimes we can't resist the urge to go out to eat as a celebration but there's something you must hear. Do NOT take your dragon to dinner. They are messy, rude, and often very clumsy. They'll make a mess and make you wish that you hadn't gone out to eat in the first place. Unless you teach your dragon their table manners first, of course.

Both the rhymes and brightly colored illustrations are incredibly entertaining and cover a diverse cast of dragons and their dinner companions. My toddler and I couldn't help but giggle at all the chaos and destruction the dragons caused. This is such a fun book that can also teach your little ones that table manners and behaving in public are very important.

Very cute rhyming picture book. What would it be like to take your Dragon to dinner? Will he mind his manners?
My 6 year old enjoyed reading this with me. The illustrations were adorable.

Summary:
'Do Not Take Your Dragon to Dinner' is a hilarious story explaining the many reasons a person should not bring their dragon to dinner. Between the dragon's tail and wings bumping people and dishes, its terrible stink, and impolite burping, this story does a great job of modeling what someone should NOT do at the dinner table. By the end, the story explains how you can teach your dragon proper table etiquette so that one day you will be able to bring him to dinner.

Potential age group:
Grades kindergarten through fourth grade (ages 4-10).

Genre:
Fiction

Topic:
Table manners/etiquette.

Curricular uses:
'Do Not Take Your Dragon to Dinner' is written in rhyme, which lends itself perfectly to be used in a unit about poetry. There is also repetition of phrases throughout the story which, again, can be used in a poetry unit when teaching how rhythm and repetition add meaning to a text. This book could also be used in a character education program when teaching about manners and how to behave while eating.

Interactions of text and images:
The illustrations in this book were colorful, detailed, and beautiful. The illustrations will help younger readers to visualize the story as it is being read. They are also very humorous!

My take on this book:
In my opinion, this is a great story for elementary students. There are many ways this can be used in the classroom as an anchor text for specific reading skills. The illustrations and story made me chuckle, which I know would mean my students would crack up over the stinky dinosaur who knocked a grandma's dentures out. I plan to use this book to reinforce what we just recently learned about poetry, and also to reinforce table manners in our school's cafeteria.

I am really enjoying Gassman/Elkerton collaborations. The stories are fun, the illustrations brightly colored and engaging. In a previous book, we learned why it was not a good idea to take your dragon to the library. Here, we find out why taking a dragon to dinner might not be a good idea. There is a nice suggestion of starting at home where the dragon can help cook dinner and practice manners before they can go out for dinner.

A cute rhyming picture book advising a multicultural group of children to be careful about where they dine with their dragons.

So, so cute. The illustrations and the rhyming cadence of this story work perfectly together. It’s a list of very plausible reason while taking a dragon to dinner would be a very bad idea.

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Do Not Take Your Dragon to Dinner by Julie Gassman
Another engaging adventure for readers of Do Not Take Your Dragon to the Library! This additional adventure is just as quirky and essential as the first, teaching the reader the fine details of using your manners, this time in a fine dining setting. An awesome bonus is the diversity of characters represented in the story. Parents in particular will enjoy the commonalities between the Dragon's behavior and their own toddlers! A strong addition to any children's collection serving PK-2 students.

'It's a special occasion! It's time for a TREAT. Time to dress up and go out to eat. But carefully consider your dinner's guestlist. For, my dear friend, I must simply insist...DO NOT TAKE YOUR DRAGON TO DINNER!'

I must simply agree with this first couple of lines in the book because as I flipped each page there were stinky dragons, dragons that slurp and buuurrrrpppp, dragons spilling food, and picking at fangs. The waiters looked horrified, old grannies teeth were flying across the table, and NO dragons were sitting still or being polite.

As you can see, there is a lot of mayhem in the book and it is such a fun read. The characters look and act comical throughout the book which adds to the goofiness of the pictures. It is both a great book for reading to preschoolers and for early readers to practice their reading. The words are fairly easy to read, however for learning to read the font isn't ideal.

The colours of the pictures are bright, fun and diverse. There are children wearing glasses, a hijab, there are big dragons and little dragons, men with beards, grannies with no teeth, children and adults from a range of cultures. I loved not noticing the " differences" the first couple of times I read the book but I also love that I eventually noticed how inclusive the book is.

Overall the book is a wonderful story, it teaches children to accept differences, manners (or lack thereof), the value of friendship and most of all love.

Do Not Take Your Dragon to Dinner, written by Julie Gassman and illustrated by Andy Elkerton, has a good premise, some lively illustrations, and a fun sense of playfulness, but ended a bit hit and miss for me.

Somewhat akin to the Jane Yolen dinosaur series (How do Dinosaurs . . ), though lacking their consistent polish, this follow-up to Do Not Bring Your Dinosaur to the Library runs through all the ways in which a dinosaur at a restaurant is a bad idea, such as the problems with “A wing in your face, a tail in a drink/And worst of all, that distinct dragon stink!”

As one might imagine, there are quite a few ways in which dinosaurs make for bad dinner companions, and Gassman/Ekerton jovially romp their way through a bunch. Generally it’s a fun listing vividly portrayed, though personally I could have done without the overly graphic pick-their-nose or stinky butt scenes; others may react more positively. The prose is bouncy and mostly fluid, but has a few moments where the meter seemed a little off. Visually, the book employs a bright, playful color palette and gives the dragons a more cartoonish than realistic look. A definite plus is that the human characters are a nicely diverse lot..

My favorite part was the second half, where we see the dragon helping cook at home and then behaving herself at the table. Here the story gets a bit more imaginative, showing the dragon searing a steak for instance, spinning a potato so as to quickly peel it with his claws, and delicately lighting candles. How the dragon transitions from to this less wild persona isn’t quite clear (toward the end a child holds up a Big Book of Table Manners), but that’s a small quibble.

As mentioned, this book and its predecessor lack the smooth polish of the Yolen dinosaur books, and I’d say the visuals don’t match up either, but it’s probably a safe bet that children will enjoy their raucous humor and vivid coloration, even if parents wince a bit at a visual here or there or an off-meter line or two.

This is a FANTASTIC read for those with young children -- a great opportunity to use funny voices, and loud roaring sounds. The illustrations are very well done, vibrant and with lots of things to look at on each page.

The lesson of table manners is well laid out in this book, in a nice, non-preachy way.

I highly recommend!

Do Not Take Your Dragon to Dinner is written by Julie Gassman and illustrated by Andy Elkerton.

Within thirty-two pages, this children's book spotlights good manners and friendships through rhyming text and colorful illustrations.

This book begins: "It's a special occasion! It's time for a treat. Time to dress up and go out to eat. But carefully consider your dinner's guest list. For, my dear friend, I must simply insist...do not take your dragon to dinner!"

Do Not Take Your Dragon to Dinner is a delightful easy-to-read picture book, and it's geared toward young children, particularly ages three to seven.


Note: I received this book from NetGalley, which is a program designed for bloggers to write book reviews in exchange for books, yet the opinions expressed in this review are my own.