I am feeling like I'm lacking a little Can-con these days, so I went hunting on our Canadian picture book shelves. And I came up with this new one from Orca Publishers, a great local publisher.

Dragon Tide by Ingrid Lee is the story of a girl who can make real dragons out of sand. Two kids watch the mysterious stranger as "she cupped and coaxed the sand." They watch until the stranger leaves, and manage to keep the dragon safe from other kids, as they wait for the tide to come in and set the dragon free. Soizick Meister's illustrations are pretty cool too, and include many small dragons hidden throughout.

I do have a few small complaints with the book though. First is to do with the writing. At some point Lee uses the word "knurl." Beyond the fact that it is an unusual word that most kids won't know, it is an ugly word. Also, the stranger talks funny. Some of her lines include: "People fear the dragon, even when it cannot hurt them.... I must leave now, before the sea returns." Melodramatic much?

Lastly, there seems to have been some lack of communication between author and illustrator. Lee describes the children's fingers as "chubby," and yet, the pictures show them looking old enough to be out of the chubby stage. And weirdest of all is the final scene when the children make a fire on the beach. By themselves! With no adults!

Despite this though, the idea of a sand dragon that comes to life and returns to the sea is a really neat one, and for the most part, I enjoyed this offering.

Dragon Tide written by Ingrid Lee illustrated by Soizick Meister
ISBN 1551433524
32 pages