This book (and the BBC One animated adaptation) inspired a whole term of English and Drama for my Year 1 class. The main idea of the story is pretty cool: Madam Dragon runs an elementary school for dragons, where little dragons learn all of the necessary skills and arts of being a dragon: first-graders learn flying, second-graders roaring, third-graders breathing fire, fourth-graders stealing princesses, and so on (you get the idea). I think perhaps it was just that it was a larger story with more active characters and lacked that singular focus so suited to the form. She began writing songs for children's television but has focused on writing books when the words of one of her songs - A Squash and a Squeeze were made into a children's book in 1993. The rhyming, the images - so much for her to point out and so vivid - and the funny fantasy story with a happy ending.

I liked them in the book but their personalities came to life on screen and I was more focused on their friendship developing through the years. What elevates ‘Zog’ above many similar but inferior contenders, apart from the quality of the writing and illustrations, is the great twist at the end of this particular story - delivering a lovely and important message, albeit in a subtle, palatable and gently effective way that adds rather than detracts from the overall narrative. Pearl enjoys a new freedom caring for injured dragons at the school and Zog finally gets a golden star. Lesson 5: To end the first week, we read the whole story for the first time and finished watching the film. Naturally I followed up by borrowing the book from the library, which solidified my love for these characters.The story follows his attempts at learning to fly, roar and breathe fire, leading to a series of minor injuries for which a mysterious girl provides assorted bandages and plasters. Pearl’s story was also expanded so I gained more of an understanding of the role she was being trained to fill.

He’s Madam Dragon’s most enthusiastic student and he desperately wants to earn one of his teacher’s golden stars.But with the help of Princess Pearl, he eventually wins a golden star and agrees to go out and help other people/creatures as an ambulance for the flying doctors: Princess Pearl and Gadabout. The rhyming story is full of delight and near-perfect for reading aloud (there were only 2 lines where the rhythm seemed a touch off), with a great sing-song quality and plenty of fun words, humorous moments, and wee twists to keep little readers engaged and amused. Not only can I pretty much recite the whole story by heart now, but the 5/6 year olds in that class, after only 3 weeks, could remember every key line in the story - some of them even correcting me when I misremembered a rhyming pair. Zog is proud and happy and the princess proves to be most useful in that she looks after the dragons whenever they are sick. We work separately - he’s in London and I’m in Glasgow - but he sends me letters with lovely funny pictures on the envelopes.

Think about the forces that are taking place when Zog learns to fly, crashes into a tree and then falls down. Madame Dragon first of all teaches her dragon pupils to fly and although Zog begins flying 'fast and free', he eventually crashes into a tree. He was the illustrator for Julia Donaldson's first picture book, A Squash and a Squeeze - the start of a hugely successful partnership.

He is desperate to impress his teacher and win a golden star, but he is accident-prone, and each year he has to be helped by a kind young girl who patches up his bumps and bruises. The little girl comes along to console him when he is morose over that possibility and tells Zog that she is Princess Pearl and they fly off together back to the school where Madame Dragon meets them and says, 'Our first princess so far'. This is one of those stories that I would happily read/watch over and over, with or without a child. Luckily, a nice and mysterious girl is always there where she falls to put a plaster or clean the wounds. This is a lovely book which I used in SEA and the class choose as their theme for the classroom book corner.

Zog and Princess Pearl examine referent power because they quickly figure out that they are better together. So everything turns out happily as Gadabout and Princess Pearl fly away on Zog to become the first of the flying doctors! I really enjoy getting the children in the audience to help me act out the stories and sing the songs.

In year four, he has to capture a princess - can the young girl help him with his trickiest challenge yet? Lesson 3: ‘Roaring Lesson’ - the children all had a chance to roar and then we described each child's roar as a class on sugar paper. Throughout the book Madam Dragon’s students learn all of the dragon basics, including flying, roaring and breathing fire. Volunteers then read their re-telling aloud to the class (two read their stories aloud in the class assembly to the school). Whilst ‘Zog’ may not quite have the feel of a Donaldson/Scheffler classic (a la ‘Gruffalo’ et al) it’s not far off and nevertheless it’s a very strong addition to their already impressive canon of excellent children’s books.