Title Ace Dragon LTD. Series --- Author Russel Hoban Illustrated By Quentin Blake Publisher Candlewick Press - 2015 First Printing 1980 Category Children Warnings None Main Characters John Main Elements Dragons

"I can make fire come out of my nose and mouth," the dragon under the pavement tells John. "I can fly. I can spin gold into straw if you have any gold."

John doesn't have any gold - and he doesn't need any straw. (Not yet anyway.) But when the dragon asks if he wants to go flying, John says, "Yes, I do."

First, though, he must fight the dragon. "If you win," the dragon tells him, "I'll take you flying."

What a challenge! Where will it lead? John soon finds out - and he also finds out that you just never know when a bundle of straw might come in handy...

I was thinking the artwork looked very familiar, turns out the artist Quentin Blake also illustrated many of my childhood favorites, various Roald Dahl books. So here we find John, who hears a voice coming from under a manhole cover that says "Ace Dragon Ltd" and decides to meet with the dragon even though they have to fight before he's allowed to fly on the dragon's back.

It has a few absurd moments, but then what do you expect in a book where a dragon wears two pairs of Wellingtons, and there is a moon made of gold, and the dragon just so happens to be able to spin straw out of gold, that's right, I did not get that backwards, it's actually quite an important skill but you'll have to read the book to find out why.