Elvira - Hardcover

Margaret Shannon was born in Adelaide, South Australia, and now lives near Nelson, New Zealand. The setting for The Red Wolf is loosely based on the beautiful fortress town of Loket nad Ohrí in the Czech Republic. After discovering the town in her travels, Margaret Shannon returned to live there for seven months and began developing the illustrations for this book.

Taunted by her peers, gentle Elvira dislikes fighting other dragons and gobbling up princesses. She prefers the shockingly princess-like activities of making daisy chains, devising pretty outfits and preening over herself. So Elvira goes to live "where dresses and daisy chains are appreciated"--with the princesses, who lavish her with clothes and beauty treatments. Returning home, Elvira makes peace with the other dragons, refining their sartorial tastes but not, alas, their dietary habits. The story's message, that it's okay to be different, is quite happily exemplified in first-time author Shannon's own unique brand of humor. One of the funniest illustrations shows two dragons hunkering down with a basket of blonde princesses, popping the screaming damsels into their mouths like bonbons. Even at their most menacing, though, the dragons remain essentially goofy and gleeful, thanks to the well-honed comic sense informing both Shannon's watercolors and her text. Ages 4-7.
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