Tuesday, April 8, 2008

Interlibrary Loan of the day


Everyone Knows What a Dragon Looks Like was written by Jay Williams and Illustrated by Mercer Mayer. It's the story of a boy named Han from the city of Wu on the northern border of ancient China. The city is threatened by the Wild Horsemen from the north, and the city elders decide that the most practical thing to do is pray to the Great Cloud Dragon to come and save them. When the Great Cloud Dragon arrives in the form of a little fat man, the rulers are rude to him, and the city is nearly destroyed by the Wild Horsemen except that Han knows his manners and is polite and respectful to the little fat man who is, in fact, a dragon. The dragon saves the city for Han's sake, and the rulers, missing the point entirely, think the lesson to be learned is that dragons look like small, fat, bald old men. Captain ILL is pretty sure that this is not the real lesson to be learned from this story, but who is he to question the rulers of Wu?

4 comments:

thisandthat said...

First of all, I commend you for obviously reading the entire story. Secondly, does this mean that Danny DeVito is actually a dragon in disguise?

cardboard queen said...

I was thinking exactly the same thing...that the Captain had read this one cover to cover.
I guess this means we all need to be extra polite to small, fat, bald old men. What about young bald men? Or tall bald men? Or men who are only sort-of bald?
Or thin bald men? I need additional guidelines.

Captain ILL said...

Hmmmm, I think I may have inadvertently left out the moral of the story in my abridgment. I believe we are supposed to come away with the idea that we shouldn't judge people by their appearance, but yes, Danny Devito is a dragon.

cardboard queen said...

Does this mean I'm off the hook for being nice to bald men regardless of their height or girth?