Alem is alone on his birthday and asks many different creatures what he should do – he is wondering where he should call home. None of them know but they all give him the same advice: “don’t ask the dragon – he will eat you!”
Alem is one to think for himself, so when he meets the dragon, he listens. The dragon turns out to be helpful, interesting… and vegetarian.
From celebrated poet and memoirist Lemn Sissay, with engrossing pictures from Greg Stobbs, this is an optimistic picture book for young children. A fun rhyming book to read aloud, this would be perfect for storytime.
With the new animal friends he’s made, Alem celebrates his birthday and discovers that home was inside him all along. For readers of Lemn Sissay’s excellent autobiography My Name is Why, the themes in this book will be especially resonant (https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/aug/29/my-name-is-why-lemn-sissay-review). To find your own place when you are alone can be extremely hard, but also sometimes joyful.
The party pictured at the end of the book is one I would very much like to go to.
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