The Full Stop That Got Away
Laura Baker and Nathan Reed
Scholastic

Meet Frank, he’s a full stop who loves to make up stories. One day he decides to make up a ‘nice, short, sensible’ one about a dragon. Here’s how it goes: ‘Once upon a time there was a dragon called Dee.’ End of story, so Frank tells us.

However the dragon thinks otherwise and decides to take over the story telling. Dee’s story is a about a tea party to which he invites his dragon pals. A veritable feast it proves to be with goodies galore, a never ending supply of them and that is because Frank has decided to quit.

When fire breaks out you can guess who the dragons call for to come and help. Having been sidelined, the small round entity steps up and cleverly produces some fire-extinguishing precipitation. Finally Frank has proved his point and Dee cannot help but agree.

Our external narrator makes an important comment concerning fun and sometimes allowing it to carry you away just before the book concludes.

With one larger than life main character and another of the fire-breathing kind that he brings into being, this is a very funny rhyming tale about imagination unbounded and knowing when to rein it in. Nathan Reed’s illustrations make this introduction to punctuation into deliciously dramatic dottiness.