Softcover

ISBN 10: 014054142X ISBN 13: 9780140541427

Publisher: Puffin Books, 1991

Two stories told side by side, Drac fighting the evil Gremlin and children acting out the fantasy in the garden, which was the joint winner of the Australian Children's Book Council's Picture Book of the Year Award 1989.

From School Library Journal:

PreSchool-K-- A young girl and a younger boy play at fantasy amidst the "jungles" (garden), "bubbling seas" (lawn sprinkler), and "black volcano" (smoking barbecue) of their Australian backyard. Enemies at first, the girl ("Drac, the Warrior Queen") and the boy ("the Gremlin of the Groaning Grotto") unite to rescue the "White Wizard," repelling both "General Min" (their cat) and the "Terrible Tongued Dragon" (their dog). At this point, their mother interrupts their play to award them the "Twin Crimson Cones of Tirnol Two" (ice cream cones) for their valor--and this, more than anything, illustrates all that is wrong with this book. It is all too clearly an adult rendering of a child's fantasy. The lavish illustrations leave nothing to the imagination, exposing the fantasy at every turn, while the text seems almost voyeuristic in its intrusion into the private world of the child's imagination. Ironically, this betrays the free spirit that it tries, but fails, to celebrate. --Marcia Hupp, Mamaroneck Public Library, NY
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Publishers Weekly:

Realistic, arresting artwork highlights this singular fantasy about two children's inventive playtime. Ages 4-8.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.