Beware the Dragon and the Nozzlewock
by Wordsong
Perfect for fans of Jack Prelutsky and Shel Silverstein, award-winning author Vikram Madan’s new poetry collection features delicious vocabulary, hilarious poems, and a full-color graphic novel format!
Vikram Madan packs this whimsical poetry collection with surprise twist after surprise twist and a host of unusual characters. In these pages, you’ll meet ghost guppies (and the brave girl who creates them), Stan the Slouching Man™ who’ll teach you blackbelt slouching, oozing dinosaurs called squishosaurs, a suspicious dragon, and the Nozzlewock (a nose with super-vacuum strength), among many other memorable heroes. Recurring characters and subplots in the art weave the poems together, adding to the merriment. This quirky collection in full-color graphic novel format begs to be read over and over again.★ “In varied but consistently tight verses accompanying expressive cartoon images depicting a diverse cast, Madan also trots in other memorable fancies, from a theatrical chorus line of grown-ups singing away a beleaguered child’s “Bad-Luck Bogeys” to a mummy happily joining a zombie rock band called the Rolling Moans, on the way to a gloriously glutinous finale in which a group of intrepid children tickle the Nozzlewock into a mighty sneeze of its own. Juicy, joyful, and just right for reading aloud, too.” – Kirkus Reviews, starred review
“Vikram Madan is like a modern day Shel Silverstein. His books full of humor and poetry have been favorites of my own kids.” —Kazu Kibuishi, NYT Bestselling Creator of the AMULET Graphic Novel Series
“A delightfully eccentric and quirky collection of poetry, set against brightly colored illustrations and graphic novel comic panels...Because the subject of each poem is goofy in nature, the flow of the book is fast and easy to follow for young readers. Artwork depicts subjects as cartoonlike, with bright colors and lots of movement and action...A fun purchase for elementary graphic novel and poetry collections due to the exciting nature of the poems and the self-contained stories.” —School Library Journal
“If there is anything you can say of the book, it’s consistently interesting, ridiculously funny, and inherently silly…one of the finest, funniest poetry books you’ll have encountered in a long time. For those of you lucky enough to have already read A Hatful of Dragons, this is just as good, if not better. I’m not saying that Madan’s unique form of humor, comics, and verse will save poetry as we know it, but I’m not NOT saying it either. Just hand it to a kid when they ask for something funny. You’ll be doing them a favor (and isn’t it nice to hand out a work of poetry during a month other than just April?). Clever stuff.” —Besty Bird, School Library Journal Fuse 8 blog
“I enjoyed this sharp, snarky collection of illustrated poems that feel familiar (think Poe, Carroll) but have a charm all their own. I'm a sucker for poetry parodies that have good meter, and throw in unexpected vocabulary like causality and palpitated, and I'm hooked.”—Robin Stern, Books Inc., San Leandro, CA
“So much fun! Kids are bound to love!”—Dan Ullom, Brick & Mortar Books Redmond, WA
“If Hitchhiker's Guide was a poetry book for children... This quirky and adorable book is more than a poetry anthology, it is also a graphic novel full of wacky characters whose surreal stories intersect as the poems go on. Read once for the vibes, then again and again as you hunt for all the references not only to other poems in this book, but beloved classics like "Jabberwocky" (referenced by the eponymous Nozzlewock I) or "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" (Deep, Dark, and Lovely). Whether you are reading it to yourself, to your family, or to your classroom, Beware the Dragon and the Nozzlewock is sure to make your audience laugh.” —Amanda Zarni, Book Ends Bookstore, Winchester, MA
“A brilliant collection of illustrated poetry with a narrative arc that will have readers of all ages turning pages to find out what happens with the Nozzlewock!”—Sarah Threlkeld, Island Books, Merced Island, WA
Vikram Madan grew up in India where, despite spending his childhood rhyming and doodling, he ended up an engineer. After many years of tech work, he followed his heart back to being creative and is now the author/illustrator of over a dozen books, including the Theodor Seuss Geisel Honor winning OWL & PENGUIN series, the acclaimed funny poetry collections BEWARE THE DRAGON AND THE NOZZLEOWOCK, A HATFUL OF DRAGONS, THE BUBBLE COLLECTOR, and LORD OF THE BUBBLES, the early reader chapter series BOBO & PUP-PUP, and the graphic-novel-in-rhyme series ZOONI TALES. His books have been honored by Kirkus Reviews, American Library Association, Junior Library Guild, New York Public Library, Bank Street College of Education, School Library Journal blogs, and others, and have appeared on multiple Best Books of the Years lists.
Vikram Madan packs this whimsical poetry collection with surprise twist after surprise twist and a host of unusual characters. In these pages, you’ll meet ghost guppies (and the brave girl who creates them), Stan the Slouching Man™ who’ll teach you blackbelt slouching, oozing dinosaurs called squishosaurs, a suspicious dragon, and the Nozzlewock (a nose with super-vacuum strength), among many other memorable heroes. Recurring characters and subplots in the art weave the poems together, adding to the merriment. This quirky collection in full-color graphic novel format begs to be read over and over again.★ “In varied but consistently tight verses accompanying expressive cartoon images depicting a diverse cast, Madan also trots in other memorable fancies, from a theatrical chorus line of grown-ups singing away a beleaguered child’s “Bad-Luck Bogeys” to a mummy happily joining a zombie rock band called the Rolling Moans, on the way to a gloriously glutinous finale in which a group of intrepid children tickle the Nozzlewock into a mighty sneeze of its own. Juicy, joyful, and just right for reading aloud, too.” – Kirkus Reviews, starred review
“Vikram Madan is like a modern day Shel Silverstein. His books full of humor and poetry have been favorites of my own kids.” —Kazu Kibuishi, NYT Bestselling Creator of the AMULET Graphic Novel Series
“A delightfully eccentric and quirky collection of poetry, set against brightly colored illustrations and graphic novel comic panels...Because the subject of each poem is goofy in nature, the flow of the book is fast and easy to follow for young readers. Artwork depicts subjects as cartoonlike, with bright colors and lots of movement and action...A fun purchase for elementary graphic novel and poetry collections due to the exciting nature of the poems and the self-contained stories.” —School Library Journal
“If there is anything you can say of the book, it’s consistently interesting, ridiculously funny, and inherently silly…one of the finest, funniest poetry books you’ll have encountered in a long time. For those of you lucky enough to have already read A Hatful of Dragons, this is just as good, if not better. I’m not saying that Madan’s unique form of humor, comics, and verse will save poetry as we know it, but I’m not NOT saying it either. Just hand it to a kid when they ask for something funny. You’ll be doing them a favor (and isn’t it nice to hand out a work of poetry during a month other than just April?). Clever stuff.” —Besty Bird, School Library Journal Fuse 8 blog
“I enjoyed this sharp, snarky collection of illustrated poems that feel familiar (think Poe, Carroll) but have a charm all their own. I'm a sucker for poetry parodies that have good meter, and throw in unexpected vocabulary like causality and palpitated, and I'm hooked.”—Robin Stern, Books Inc., San Leandro, CA
“So much fun! Kids are bound to love!”—Dan Ullom, Brick & Mortar Books Redmond, WA
“If Hitchhiker's Guide was a poetry book for children... This quirky and adorable book is more than a poetry anthology, it is also a graphic novel full of wacky characters whose surreal stories intersect as the poems go on. Read once for the vibes, then again and again as you hunt for all the references not only to other poems in this book, but beloved classics like "Jabberwocky" (referenced by the eponymous Nozzlewock I) or "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" (Deep, Dark, and Lovely). Whether you are reading it to yourself, to your family, or to your classroom, Beware the Dragon and the Nozzlewock is sure to make your audience laugh.” —Amanda Zarni, Book Ends Bookstore, Winchester, MA
“A brilliant collection of illustrated poetry with a narrative arc that will have readers of all ages turning pages to find out what happens with the Nozzlewock!”—Sarah Threlkeld, Island Books, Merced Island, WA
Vikram Madan grew up in India where, despite spending his childhood rhyming and doodling, he ended up an engineer. After many years of tech work, he followed his heart back to being creative and is now the author/illustrator of over a dozen books, including the Theodor Seuss Geisel Honor winning OWL & PENGUIN series, the acclaimed funny poetry collections BEWARE THE DRAGON AND THE NOZZLEOWOCK, A HATFUL OF DRAGONS, THE BUBBLE COLLECTOR, and LORD OF THE BUBBLES, the early reader chapter series BOBO & PUP-PUP, and the graphic-novel-in-rhyme series ZOONI TALES. His books have been honored by Kirkus Reviews, American Library Association, Junior Library Guild, New York Public Library, Bank Street College of Education, School Library Journal blogs, and others, and have appeared on multiple Best Books of the Years lists.
PUBLISHER:
Astra Publishing House
ISBN-10:
1635928176
ISBN-13:
9781635928174
BINDING:
Hardback
BOOK DIMENSIONS:
Dimensions: 6.3800(W) x Dimensions: 9.2500(H) x Dimensions: 0.5200(D)