A Dragon’s Guide to Making Your Human Smarter
(A Dragon’s Guide #2)
By Laurence Yep and Joanne Ryder
March 15, 2016
Random House
For fans of How to Train Your Dragon comes a new tale about dragon Miss Drake and her human pet Winnie, by a two-time Newbery Honor winner, featuring illustrations by Caldecott Honor winner Mary GrandPré.
Three-thousand-year-old Miss Drake has arranged to send her dear pet Winnie to The Spriggs Academy, an extraordinary school for humans and magicals alike. Winnie is particularly excited about magic class and having Sir Isaac Newton for science. She’s also making new friends—and frenemies. . . .
When a plot to snatch Winnie from her San Francisco home is uncovered, Miss Drake is ready to use all her cunning and magic to thwart it. Not that feisty Winnie needs the help. . . . As a team, the intrepid duo you first met in A Dragon’s Guide to the Care and Feeding of Humans is unstoppable!
With equal doses of whimsy and humor, Laurence Yep and Joanne Ryder have crafted an enchanting story about true friendship.
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Praise for A Dragon’s Guide to Making Your Human Smarter
"Yep and Ryder keep the magic coming with their whimsical fantasy, enhanced by Grandpré's sweet drawings. The story positively vibrates with fun." —Kirkus Reviews
" Lighthearted episodes of unusual school lessons and field trips, illustrated by GrandPré’s winsome spot art, are grounded by Miss Drake’s more serious encounters with the goons...a gratifying development as this buoyant, fantastical series continues."—The Horn Book Review
Winnie and 3,000 year old dragon, Miss Drake, are back for another dragon-sized adventure! Winnie starts at The Spriggs Academy, an all-girls school for humans and magicals. With teachers like Sir Isaac Newton and classes about magic, Winnie quickly finds herself enjoying school, and even makes great friends. But a new danger, in the form of Winnie’s paternal grandfather, Jarvis, lurks in the shadows. Miss Drake is determined to do whatever she has to to keep Winnie safe. And precocious Winnie has her own frenemy to deal with at school.
I absolutely LOVED A Dragon’s Guide to the Care and Feeding of Your Human and authors Yep and Ryder have created magic again with A Dragon’s Guide to Making Your Human Smarter! With a sparkling, pitch-perfect voice and a story that just bursts with charm and whimsy, this book simply dazzles and delights. The magical secret-world of San Francisco and the quirky Spriggs Academy, make for captivating and imaginative settings. In every corner of Winnie’s lovely home, the city, and Spriggs Academy, there are fascinating objects, people, and magic to find and young readers will love every minute of discovering it all. The Spriggs Academy, with its unusual classes, unforgettable (and at times, wonderfully wacky) teachers, and unbelievable field trips (meeting Nessie in the Loch!), this is one school readers will wish they could attend!
What I loved most about book one in this series, were the fantastic characters, and Yep and Ryder bring back witty Winnie and lovable Miss Drake, and introduce readers to a gaggle of new, fun and engaging characters, both humans and magicals. Readers will enjoy seeing Winnie’s friendships blossom, be entertained by her frenemy situation, and love her heartwarming and tender friendship with Miss Drake.
my final thoughts: A Dragon’s Guide to Making Your Human Smarter is filled with adventure, humor, heart, and wonder from beginning to end, and readers will find themselves utterly charmed!
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Joanna Ryder is an award-winning author whose books offer a unique blend of poetry and science. Her innovative Just for a Day series invites children into the world of wild animals, ranging from a sea otter to Tyrannosaurus rex. Ms. Ryder says, "Children know that my books often ask them to imagine being a different creature. So they always ask me which animal I would choose to be. I'd be a flying one, I tell them. Or if I could, I'd wish for wings. And I've discovered children would love wings, too. But which ones to choose? I wrote Rainbow Wings to help us decide." Ms. Ryder lives in Pacific Grove, California.
Born June 14, 1948 in San Francisco, California, Yep was the son of Thomas Gim Yep and Franche Lee Yep. Franche Lee, her family's youngest child, was born in Ohio and raised in West Virginia where her family owned a Chinese laundry. Yep's father, Thomas, was born in China and came to America at the age of ten where he lived, not in Chinatown, but with an Irish friend in a white neighborhood. After troubling times during the Depression, he was able to open a grocery store in an African-American neighborhood. Growing up in San Francisco, Yep felt alienated. He was in his own words his neighborhood's "all-purpose Asian" and did not feel he had a culture of his own. Joanne Ryder, a children's book author, and Yep met and became friends during college while she was his editor. They later married and now live in San Francisco.
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