Age 2-5

In this handsome picturebook, Puybaret’s atmospheric paintings, all gently curving lines and scrupulous precision, give new life to the old Peter, Paul and Mary song. Honalee (originally inspired by a cave in Hawaii) is a magic land of fairies, drifting mist, flat blue seas and impossibly slender trees. There are elegant castles and viaducts on the tops of its hills and the rocks and plants have faces. Puff, who combines a sweet cartoon expression with the delicate poise of Ucello’s famous dragon, plays with dolphins in sailor’s stripes and mortar boards (suggesting intelligence), pirates influenced by Peter Pan and potentates from the Arabian Nights. The pictures temper the theme of loss as Jackie Paper grows up and leaves the island by depicting a happy coda – a new friend for Puff in the next generation, Jackie’s daughter. The book comes with a CD of the song and other tunes, mellowly performed by Yarrow and his daughter Bethany.

PUFF THE MAGIC DRAGON, song by Peter Yarrow and Lenny Lipton, paintings by Eric Puybaret
(Macmillan £10.99)
Buy the book here at the offer price of £9.89 (inc p&p)

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