This charming little tale combines two of my favourite things, books and dragons. Nonesuch starts off as a regular dragon, raised by his grandmother who has a hoard of gold, jewels etc, which every dragon needs, as she teaches him. He witnesses the demise of various family members at the hands of humans and also witnesses the savagery of human beings against each other in early mediaeval England. Then his grandmother sort of commits suicide by crawling down to the hot interior of the earth and when he tries to go after her, although he is driven back by the heat, his biochemistry is changed in a unique way. Left alone, he eventually forms attachments to humans and through a monk who makes illuminated manuscripts, to the beautiful book that will become his treasure over succeeding centuries.

This is a story where the characters and their interaction forms the main interest as there is no big action packed plot. It is a gentle story, but there are still villains who do harm and some quite adult notions in the final, 20th century portion, dealing with municipal corruption and unscrupulous property developers. Under it all, however, the modern villain probably has a lot in common with a mediaeval one Nonesuch encountered, a point made clearer by the property developer's choice of reading matter - The Prince by Machiavelli. The final section provides the opportunity for Nonesuch to draw on his heritage, and yet the reader should not expect pyrotechnics.

A nice touch is the inclusion of illustrations including marginalia in the style of an illuminated manuscript. ( )

This was a charming book. Though it was written for children, it's a story that adults will enjoy as well, filled with history and even some (well-hidden) philosophy. It's a short book and an easy read. While I loved the story, I also enjoyed the little illustrations that pepper the margins of the book as well, like an illuminated manuscript. The book's out of print, but snatch it up if you see it at a used book sale. I'm glad I did. ( )

Nonesuch is a dragon, and the protagonist of the story. We meet him as a very young dragon in ancient times. But dragons, it seems, live a very very long time, and the book's chapters aim at a handful of specific points of Nonesuch's life reaching to the present day. The premise, that a dragon's duty is to always guard its treasure, and that this dragon has chosen a book as its treasure, is a delightful concept for a booklover such as myself. But the storytelling is uneven. There are stretches of the book that are warm and delightful, there are stretches with more involved plotting, and there are stretches that grow quite tedious long before they reach an end. It is at heart a children's novel, good, but no classic. ( )

A charming tale about a dragon called Nonesuch, who is the last of his kind. It covers some six hundred years of his life, starting out when he is a young dragon living in a medieval forest. Needing a treasure to guard, Nonesuch forsakes the usual gold and instead chooses an illuminated book. For a time he observes the monk who illustrated the volume, then accompanies the book on its journey through the centuries. He survives while his relatives die out, by his ability to change size in order to hide. He watches humans from secrecy, reflecting on their various follies, and in the end is a little dragon no larger than an insect, haunting a modern bookshop and still guarding his precious book. At one point a rat teaches him how to read, and Nonesuch can finally value his book not merely as a physical object (albeit a beautiful one) but for the words it contains. Such an engaging little fantasy, written for younger readers but with intriguing little details and clever explanations (like how the dragon survived into modern times by fasting, hibernating and changing shape). There is some moralizing in the tale, and Nonesuch deals out his own form of justice, to people he feels deserve it. A story sure to charm booklovers who like a little light fantasy.

from the Dogear Diary ( )

I own over three thousand books and have read many more. But this charming book is on my Top Ten all-time list. The story of a dragon who finds its ambition as a Book Dragon is whimsical and also sad, in a way. It takes Nonesuch the Dragon a while to find his bookworm ambition, six centuries in fact. The adventures take the reader through the ages, and children will be in wonderment at the description of plague-stricken London and caves full of treasure.

This is the kind of story that allows us to remember the innocence of childhood, while treasuring the love of books. Real books. The kind you hold in your hand. The illustrations are pen-and-ink, and the chapters start with beautiful calligraphy mirroring the medieval ages. I'm fairly sure my groaning bookshelves have a Nonesuch living in them.

Book Season = Year Round ( )