Drag and Rex: Forever Friends
by Susan Lubner; illus. by Blythe Russo
Primary    Pixel + Ink/Holiday    64 pp.
11/23    9781645951155    $14.99
e-book ed.  9781645951179    $8.99

In spite of their differences, Drag, a relaxed, spontaneous dragon, and Rex, a more serious and somewhat stiff dinosaur, are the best of friends. When they make a snowbear together, Drag accidentally melts it by breathing fire a bit too close; but then Drag encourages Rex to recover from disappointment and skate on the ice that forms. Later, Rex, wearing a button-down shirt and a sweater with elbow patches, helps Drag, in his T-shirt and jeans, calm down enough to notice that the scary story he is reading can’t actually be too scary, since it is about a dragon. The book is divided into three sections, and each section is further divided into three chapters. The stories have plenty of humor; in “Snow Day,” readers may empathize with the friends’ exhaustion when they finally conquer all the buttons, zippers, buckles, and laces involved in getting dressed to go outside—and instead they take a nap. Russo’s lighthearted cartoon-style illustrations on every page and the abundance of white space and attention to layout all work well together to make the book approachable for young chapter-book readers. Give this to fans of Cordell’s Cornbread and Poppy (rev. 3/22) and Snyder’s Charlie and Mouse (rev. 7/17) and their sequels.

From the January/February 2024 issue of The Horn Book Magazine.