Micro review: There Are No Dragons in This Book by by Donna Lambo-Weidner

April 16, 2024

Good morning, good people.

All of my work — my day job and what I do here — goes through seasons of intensity, and right now I am in what can only be called a blizzard, or maybe a hurricane, re: the labor that pays my bills and keeps my family in raincoats, electric blankets, and “the good bagels.” Picture me with a lot of wind in my face, hanging on. (Related: there are really only three months of the year when you might not need an electric blanket in Wisconsin, emphasis on might.)

As ever, I don’t know what’s ahead, and some days I’m thrilled by that, and other days (most days, if I’m being honest), it’s hard work to get right with not knowing. I am, very much so, A Person Who Likes to KNOW.

(Does this squash a lot, if not all of the spontaneity in my life? Absolutely, yes. But does it also somehow assuage my anxiety, for about 12 seconds, when I harbor the delusion that it’s possible to see the future? Never mind that I would never actually choose to see the future, but it’s hard to explain, unless you understand exactly what I mean, how unbelievably pleasurable and soothing this is for an agitated brain.)

I believe, truly, that whatever’s coming is not only for my highest good, but will work out in my favor. It’s impossible, when I look at this incredibly good life I live, to think otherwise. All of it — the things I’ve gone through and endured, the things that asked more of me than I had to give, the things that forced me to change and grow even though I resisted nearly every minute of it — has brought me here, to this, and I can’t wish any of it away, not when I take a true account of my blessings, which are not small in number or size.

But it is a daily practice to remind myself I believe that.

It is a daily practice to live one day at a time (which you would think would have gotten a little easier since it’s a foundational tenet of the spiritual program I’ve been working for nearly eight years but alas, has not).

It is a daily practice to trust in the right timing of things, and the right sizing of my self — my ego and my fear, my feelings, my patterns, one of which is to hold on tighter and tighter the more uncertain I am, when I know, I do know, the only real way to get free is to let go, again and again.

But I have a new chance every day, and faith is a process I choose, and knowing or not knowing really has nothing to do with it. I keep going. The effort of expecting that good things are coming — or at least, that whatever’s coming is exactly what I need — is never wasted.

That’s just as true for you as it is for me.

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Micro review: There Are No Dragons in This Book by Donna Lambo-Weidner, illustrated by Carla Haslbauer (2024)

I received a copy of this book from NorthSouth Books — opinions are my own.

First of all, there is definitely a dragon in this book. Of course there is. He appears on every page, in a variety of clever and increasingly hilarious ways — hiding beneath a coat hanging on a rack, inside the fireplace, in the toilet.

But like other interactive books, especially ones that deny what is clearly happening is actually happening — the 1971 classic, The Monster at the End of This Book by Jon Stone, immediately comes to mind — it’s the fact that little readers can see reality on the page, contrasted with words that contradict that reality, that makes it so utterly delightful.

Haslbeauer’s colored pencil illustrations add much to the pleasure of this title. Their imperfect, childlike nature gives the feeling that children themselves could have drawn these images, and when you add in the dragon “hidden” (not at all) throughout, and the ask at the end to shake the book in order to jiggle the dragons out, the whole story is a romp from beginning to end.

This one is best for little ones who are old enough to find the dragon and enjoy interacting physically with the story — 2-3yo is probably the sweet spot, though I can see plenty of preschoolers who would enjoy this one immensely, too.

It’s very fun, and I highly recommend it.

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Read good books and take good care 😘
Sarah

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