Dragons Love Tacos

Title: Dragons Love Tacos 
Author: Adam Rubin 
Illustrator: Daniel Salmieri 
Publisher: Dial 
Publication Date: June, 2012  
Genre/Format: Fiction/Picture Book 
GoodReads Summary: This scrumptious read-aloud has a whole lot of kick!

Dragons love tacos. They love chicken tacos, beef tacos, great big tacos, and teeny tiny tacos. So if you want to lure a bunch of dragons to your party, you should definitely serve tacos. Buckets and buckets of tacos. Unfortunately, where there are tacos, there is also salsa. And if a dragon accidentally eats spicy salsa . . . oh, boy. You're in red-hot trouble.
The award-winning team behind Those Darn Squirrels! has created an unforgettable, laugh-until-salsa-comes-out-of-your-nose tale of new friends and the perfect snack. 
What I Think: I love tacos, I love burritos, I love fajitas. I love them all. Mexican is one of kind of food that I love as a vegan. Put guacamole on anything and I'm a happy girl.
     I also have a love of dragons. I loved watching Peter, Paul and Mary when I was a kiddo and Puff the Magic Dragon was one of my favorite songs by them (along with Leaving on a Jet Plane...ugh, they both make me cry my eyes out). I also loved the Disney movie Pete's Dragon. Pretty much I love dragons.
     This book combines dragons and tacos and I couldn't be more thrilled about this. I loved it so much that I dreamed up a way to celebrate it for my 2013 Bookish Un-Boring List. Peanut and I are going to have a taco party and read this book and other dragon books and do a dragon craft. We may even watch Pete's Dragon. We've started brainstorming a list of his friends to invite. I remember Martha Stewart one time talking about kids' parties and that kids should invite as many kids to a party as they are old. Seeing as Peanut is five, we're thinking of five of his close friends to invite to our dragon party. It's going to be awesome. We'll have a taco bar which is possibly the most awesome part. The right kind of food can totally make a party.
    It's probably time that I get to what I like about this book! It's written as if it's talking to the reader but then there are parts when the author talks to the dragon. There are lots of literary elements you can point out to kids or highlight as you read depending on which element you want to focus on. One thing I really enjoy about this book is that it's great for making predictions. It does take a while to get to what you pretty much know is going to happen but I think kids will enjoy the build up of excitement towards the end.
     I'm on the lookout for other dragon books so if you know of other books with dragons please put them in the comments for me!
Read Together: Grades K - 4 
Read Alone: Grades K - 5 
Read With: If I Had a Dragon by Amanda Ellery, Puff the Magic Dragon by Peter Yarrow and Lenny Lipton, Saint George and the Dragon by Margaret Hodges, Eragon (series) by Christopher Paolini, Firelight (series) by Sophie Jordan
Snatch of Text: 

"Why do dragons love tacos?

Maybe it's the smell from the sizzling pan.

Maybe it's the crunch of the crispy tortillas.

Maybe it's a secret."

Reading Strategies to Practice: Activating Background Knowledge, Making Connection, Making Predictions, Making Inferences
Writing Strategies to Practice: Descriptive, Alliteration, Repetition, Anaphora, Point of View, Onomatopoiea, Expository
Writing Prompts: Write about your favorite food. Write a how-to piece that describes how to make your custom taco, give your taco a unique name.
Topics Covered: Parties, Food, Dragons

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