SuitabookSmoky the dragon baby
Jenny O'Connor
- Reading
- Read together and pause to compare goblin ideas of good behaviour with your own. Invite the child to predict what the fairies might do, then revisit those predictions as the story unfolds.
- Themes
- Belonging and difference: Matty is described as not fitting into goblin world and faces her mother's expectations about tidiness and food. The premise places difference and expectations at the centre, but does not establish how the story ultimately evaluates them.
- Keeping a pet: Matty loves Smoky, her new baby dragon, and wants to keep him despite his being too good for her parents' liking. The conflict raises the question of whether a pet should have to behave in a particular way to be kept, but the story's answer is unknown.
- Worth knowing
- Matty’s parents threaten to send Smoky away, creating a separation concern within the family. The outline does not show how serious or upsetting this becomes, or how the conflict ends.