Where Is Dear Dragon? — Margaret Hillert

K-Gr 1—These titles offer new episodes in Hillert's classic series about a little boy and his dragon sidekick. These releases may attract another generation to the books, though some new packaging might have been used to update the oddly old-fashioned illustrations with a livelier style for today's audience. Nonetheless, Hillert captures timeless experiences and dilemmas for young children: the concept of recognizing shapes, the problem of searching for a missing person or object, and the pleasure of playtime with good friends. The stories are vehicles for reading instruction, focusing on high-frequency sight words and also on increasing phonemic awareness, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension. Each book includes word lists and exercises for a child to try with an adult partner. Unfortunately, Shapes reads, I can walk on these squares while the walking path is composed exclusively of rectangles. Purchase if materials for emergent readers are in demand or if the older Hillert titles have a faithful following.—Gloria Koster, West School, New Canaan, CT