The Dragon Slayer: Folktales from Latin America

Gr 4–6—This is the first children's book by groundbreaking comic artist Jaime Hernandez, one of the three Hernandez brothers responsible for the comic "Love and Rockets." Readers will most likely skip over the old-fashioned, didactic introduction by F. Isabel Campoy on the power of folktales to get to the fun part, and what fun it is. In "The Dragon Slayer," a resourceful farm girl refuses to let a seven-headed dragon interfere with her plans of marriage to a prince. "Martina Martinez and Perez the Mouse" centers on a foolish young bride who, when her mouse husband falls into a pot of soup, cries instead of rescuing him. And in "Tup and the Ants," a lazy young man goes far on his wits and ability to get others to do his work. Hernandez's colorful, expressive drawings are full of movement, helping the stories extend beyond the concise, direct text. As so often happens in folktales, humans and animals exist on the same plane, adding to the whimsy. A brief discussion of the three selections closes out each volume.