Deep in their cave kingdom live the snack dragons, fearsome beasts who survive on a diet of princesses. At least, most of them do. Rory is different; he has a taste for bicycles, lovely, crunchy bicycles. He’s also lazy, cowardly and a liar, things he has got away with for years. But one day he is found out. His punishment is to have his wings clipped, making him unable to fly. And Rory loves to fly; it’s his great skill and enjoyment. His only chance of pardon is to do an act of great service for dragon-kind. So, reluctantly, he sets out, while he can still fly, to find a princess. But they have been hunted almost to extinction…

And Rory is distracted by a scrumptious-looking bicycle. Unable to resist, he swoops down and grabs it. But its owner is not disposed to let it go. Which is how Rory meets Flora, a feisty Scottish girl who challenges the dragon with a promise of something he’ll enjoy more than her bicycle. Rory is unconvinced but they agree that he’ll give her bicycle back to her if she succeeds. And so, an unlikely partnership is formed.

Rory and the Snack Dragons is a gently amusing story with a side-helping of sustainable food production and consumption. And there are a few twists in the dragons’ tails on the way to a happy ending. Louisa MacDougall’s debut chapter book is a satisfying chomp, delightfully garnished with Giulia Cregut’s dynamic illustrations.

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