Nonsense worth a second glance
Review by Meg Sorensen


SOME picture books arrive like missives from another world; small miracles of perfection that embolden a child to persist in mining the tunnels of their imagination, to find, for themselves, this better place.
Peter Pavey's perfectly formed One Dragon's Dream (Walker Books, A$15.95) is such a book.



First published 30 years ago and a subsequent winner of the Children's Book Council of Australia Picture Book of the Year, it has languished out of print since 1988, until the good fairies at Walker Books included it in this year's additions to their classic Australian and New Zealand picture book collection.

With subtle changes to the cover and slightly richer colour throughout, here again in full illogical, fastidious detail are all of Pavey's evocations of the dream a dragon has about being beset by turkeys, tigers, frogs, kangaroos, stern storks, slippery seals, elephants and numbats, in incremental numbers up to nine, until a team of 10 turtles tows him home to bed.
For the full review go to the Sydney Morning Herald online.