{ "item_title" : "Beware the Dragon and the Nozzlewock", "item_author" : [" Vikram Madan "], "item_description" : "A Boston Globe Best Book of the YearKirkus Reviews Best Book of the YearFinalist, 2025 Washington State Book Award for Books for Young ReadersEvanston Public Library 101 Great Books for Kids★ Kirkus Reviews, starred review★ The Horn Book, starred reviewPerfect 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(TM) 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.", "item_img_path" : "https://covers3.booksamillion.com/covers/bam/1/63/592/817/1635928176_b.jpg", "price_data" : { "retail_price" : "19.99", "online_price" : "19.99", "our_price" : "19.99", "club_price" : "19.99", "savings_pct" : "0", "savings_amt" : "0.00", "club_savings_pct" : "0", "club_savings_amt" : "0.00", "discount_pct" : "10", "store_price" : "" } }

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Young readers devour books in graphic format, whether they’re novels, graphic nonfiction, traditional comics—or innovative works like Vikram Madan’s newest, Beware the Dragon and the Nozzlewock: A Graphic Novel Poetry Collection Full of Surprising Characters!. Having worked as an engineer before returning to his first love of “rhyming and doodling,” Madan has created more than a dozen books, including the poetry collection A Hatful of Dragons.

Madan’s latest is funny and quirky—the sort of book you give to kids who claim not to like poetry, as well as those who do. The interconnected poems feature goofy, silly creatures like ghosts who turn into ghost guppies, squishosaurs, and the Nozzlewock (you’ll have to read to find out more). Throughout, Mandan’s background in STEM shines through, in poems on topics like wormholes and scientists. 

Madan celebrates wordplay, and doesn’t shy away from unusual or long words. As the squishosaurs explain, “Where other dinos trot or plod, / We undulate and flow. / Our protoplasmic pseudopods / Are silent as the snow.” Madan’s artistic style is appealing; the panels vary in size and are easy to read, making this a great choice for readers new to the graphic format.

Bursting with energy and bright images, Beware the Dragon and the Nozzlewock is smart, sassy and perfect for reading alone or out loud together. It’s already on this reviewer’s list for a certain 8-year-old!