The genre of this book is fantasy and it is a fictional book. The artwork looks hand-drawn and colored using colored pencils. It is about a little boy who becomes King and he still has to be taken care of. The Chancellor and the Prime Minister looked after him and showed him the former King's (his great-great-great-great-great grandfather) library. They told the little King that his great-great-great-great-great grandfather was a wizard so they advised him to stay away from his books. However, the book, The Book of Beasts particularly sparked his interest. They hid the book from him, but the little boy soon found the book and read it. He found that the creatures on the pages were becoming real and flying out of the book. First, it was a butterfly, then a blue bird. Then the little boy saw a dragon on the next page and quickly shut the book, but it was too late. The dragon escaped and the king felt he should do something. Finally, he released a Manticora but that didn't work. Then, he let the Hippogriff out of the book and this was a beautiful winged horse creature. He finally saved the day by helping the King capture the dragon. At the end, the white Hippogriff accepted the position of the King's own Hippogriff. There are many pages in this book and many words per page, so I would say the reading level is probably third grade. The curricular connections are: Kings, royalty, disobeying, dragons, Hippogriffs, and adventure. ( )

Abridged, illustrated version of Nesbit's story about Lionel, a small boy, who, to his great surprise, is made King.

A wonderful story with beautiful artwork. ( )

This book is a lot of fun, sparkling with the wit of E.Nesbit and filled with fantastic beasts that stir up quite a bit of trouble for a little boy whose great-great-great-great-great grandfather has died and left a kingdom to him. The original, unabridged version was written in 1900 and is included in a collection of stories called "The Book of Dragons". Inge Moore's new version of the story of the Book of Beasts is a wonderful opportunity for us to enjoy these fun-filled characters and the gentle humour of this great childrens' author.
Meet the Blue Bird of Paradise, the huge Red Dragon,the Manticora, and the beautiful Hippogriff and discover young King Lionel's thoughtful solutions to the problems they create when they spring to life straight off the pages of the magical Book of Beasts.
Moore's illustrations are colorful and comic and I enjoyed them a lot. ( )