Celebrated children's writer Joan Aiken, author of the classic The Wolves of Willoughby Chase, spins an original fairy-tale in this brightly-illustrated picture-book. The story of siblings Window and Handle - the former a homebound knitter and storyteller, unable to get very far because of a lame leg; the latter an energetic sailor who periodically leaves home on long sea voyages - it centers around the gift of a wooden dragon, from brother to sister. Ignoring the hand-carved memento, Windows instead pines for her absent brother, and worries about her own fate, if autumn leaves should bury their house. When the dragon, now dusty and pining himself, comes to her in a dream, WIndow manages to snap out of her malaise, cleaning the dragon and setting him loose on the aforementioned leaves. Returning to his "secret magic island,' he leaves Window in a much more hopeful state...

Although a great fan of Aiken's work, I confess to being a tad disappointed in The Wooden Dragon, which I had to track down through inter-library loan. Unlike her retelling of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, or her original fairy-tale, The Moon's Revenge, which were both published here in the states, this one was only ever published in London (at least in English), and is therefore more difficult to obtain in the USA. Leaving such issues aside, I found that the story here, although engaging enough, did not live up to the author's better work. The names of the two main characters - Aiken has a penchant for idiosyncratic names - were distracting, and the dilemma of the leaf-buried house somehow felt so obviously contrived, rather than organically magical. There's nothing really wrong here (although I would have preferred Handle to return at the end), so perhaps my lukewarm response was the result of overly high expectations. The accompanying illustrations by Bee Willey were quite lovely, with a gorgeous color scheme, and a leaf motif throughout that was sometimes subtle, sometimes obvious. I found her human faces a little creepy, but perhaps they were meant to have a sort of eldritch enchantment.

All in all, despite my qualifications, this is still a book worth seeking out, if one is a Joan Aiken fan, or enjoys picture-books featuring fantastic tales. ( )