Title The Tale of Custard the Dragon Series --- Author Ogden Nash Illustrator Lynn Munsinger Publisher Little, Brown Books for Young Readers - 1998 First Printing 1973 Category Children Warnings None Main Characters Custard, Belinda Main Elements Dragons

In this humorous poem, Custard the cowardly dragon saves the day when a pirate threatens Belinda and her pet animals.

I guess this is a kind of classic but I didn't care for it very much. It's a silly poem about a cowardly dragon that actually seems to be braver than anyone else. However the author had to use bad spelling to make some of the rhymes work (winda instad of window) and I'm not a big fan of silly words as repeated fillers, much as I think kids in general to like it. Even the story is a bit absurd, with a pirate crawling in through the bedroom window for no reason I can see, but then we're talking about a little girl who has a dragon as a pet so I guess all things can happen. Odgen Nash was never really my kind of poet, but I'm sure he entertains many other people. The artwork is a good match for the tale though.