Children were falling out of love with books, which was not a good thing in his eyes and so he wanted to do something magical to address this. He peeked through the curtain and to his surprise The Emporium was indeed the library just as he had described.
The front of the shop displayed mock stain-glassed windows between pointed arches, a high impressive, vaulted ceiling festooned with ornate stone decorations and each wall was lined with all kinds of volumes displayed in pristine rows on immense wooden bookshelves. A huge carved table situated in the middle of the room had chairs spaced out evenly around it.
That night as children settled in their beds, words as ethereal as smoke whispered deep into their sleepy minds. Dream of adventures, of pirates and treasures, of kings and princesses, of fairies and talking animals … dream of all that is waiting to be explored.
One-by-one the younger children came. They entered the front door and stared in wonder as they took their places at the table and fumbled with the bookmark set before them.
The book dragon took its time, it wanted to choose carefully so that every child got just what they wanted.
The first little boy had visons of riding fast on horseback, rounding-up the cattle and outsmarting the bandits. The Brave Cowboy by Joan Walsh appeared before him. Cautiously he opened the cover and as he flicked through, he was drawn further and further into the story until he was gone.
The girl next to him never even noticed, she was engrossed in Ian Cuncliffe’s beautiful book, I Want to be a Witch. It told her everything she needed to know and with a flick of her imaginary wand she faded from sight with a spark of stars.
Each child at the table got their own book, their own adventure to colour their dreams and, once they were hooked, they returned to their beds.
The next group were the pre-teens, the ones that think they know everything but are not quite so self-assured as full-blown teenagers. They were to prove a little trickier.
They were not as quick to take their places and needed Thrumps to cajole them to their seats.
The stroppy lad that initially threw the bookmark down with disgust folded his arms and huffed, he huffed a lot, loudly demonstrating that he was bored. The Book Dragon had met his type before. He had no time for reading, he was more practical preferring hands-on experiments and gadgets. Leaning forward, but still feigning apathy he surreptitiously glanced at the cover of the book that now lay before him. Awesome Engineering Activities for kids. The orange cover had weird stuff on it with a kind of mock sticker that read, 50+ Exciting Steam Projects to design and build. To his surprise he found himself turning over the pages, and that was it, he was also lost.
The others were not as difficult. One young lady wanted to know all about the stars, another about horses, and the rest craved some kind of mystery adventure. Each got what they desired.
The last through the doors were the teenagers. The Book Dragon stupidly assumed they would all be into mindless drivel and anything that they were not quite old enough for but wanted to try anyway. He was happy to be proved wrong.
Although none of them were never keen to read a book, they were very savvy with the Internet, but most of the time they only really paid attention to social media stuff and instant bursts of help gained from some very untrustworthy sources.
A nerdy looking kid in freshly pressed pyjamas stared into space, engrossed in something within his own mind, obviously a puzzle that still needed solving. The Book Dragon smiled; Difficult Riddles for Smart Kids landed with a thump before him, making him jump. He read the title aloud and almost through himself between the covers, instantly popping out of sight.
The girl at the end of the table, tucked the bookmark into her pocket, making sure no one was watching. The Book Thief appeared before her. She turned it over and idly read the blurb … a foster girl scratches out a meagre existence by stealing when she encounters something she can’t resist – books. She was gone before she got any further.
The rest were equally as disinterested to begin with, but it wasn’t long, with the right literary prod they had all been dispatched.
And so the night continued. Group after group, child after child all sent home with a newfound thirst for the written word. Each had a bookmark and from then on, every time they started to forget about reading, the dragon on it would come to life in their dreams and remind them how wonderful it is to turn the pages and escape.
On waking, safe back in their own beds, the kids had no idea where the bookmark that they clutched in their hand had come from, but one thing they all knew was that they couldn’t wait to join a library.