Miss Fanshawe and the great dragon adventure - Hardcover

Scullard, Sue

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0333393074 ISBN 13: 9780333393079

Publisher: Macmillan Children's Books, 1986

Synopsis

Miss Fanshawe, the intrepid explorer, bought a live dragon, which was thought to be extinct, back from Southern Patagonia and gave it to a zoo. The drama of this adventure story begins when an egg laid by the dragon is stolen by an exotic creature which disappears with it down a deep hole. Miss Fanshawe gives chase. The artist, using techniques of perspective drawing, trompe l'oeil and with the aid of holes die-cut in the page takes the reader through a strange world of tropical plants and exotic animals down to the centre of the earth. The egg hatches and with the newly-fledged dragon she escapes upward through a busy city of towers, huge columns and spiral stairways, back to the safety of the earth's surface. This is Sue Scullard's first picture book.

About this title

From Publishers Weekly

Miss Harriet Fanshawe, the great explorer, has heard about the center of the Earth and the fiery dragons' breath that keep its fires aflame. While on expedition in Patagonia, she spots a dragon's nest high up in the mountain. Her only company is Cedric the parrot, her constant companion. Miss Fanshawe carries the dragon's egg in her butterfly net and lassoes the dragon to take back to England. There he's put in a cage for everyone to see. A sinister bird appears, carries off the egg and flies away to a distant crater where it vanishes into its darkness. Miss Fanshawe follows along, in an odyssey to the center of the Earth; this proves to be nothing short of apocalyptic. She faces a black leopard, and passes through a monumental corridor of hieroglyphical columns with infinite extensions, where all sense of time and perspective is lost. With the help of the dragon she saves, Miss Fanshawe reverses her journey back to the world of light. Scullard's Herculean effort to transfigure this grand vision into an illustrated book for children has met with success. Unquestionably, this is one of the most stunning adventures of the year. The cupola of the Magnificent City is cut-out on one page, showing the content of the following spread; this technique is used more than once, with surprising results. Not unlike Cedric the parrot, readers may feel that they too were aboard, traveling from the lowest of the low to the highest of the high. Ages 59.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Macmillan Children's Books
• Publication date: 1986
• ISBN 10: 0333393074
• ISBN 13: 9780333393079
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1