Publisher's Weekly Weighs In

As happy as I was with my Kirkus Review, I’m equally thrilled with this from Publisher’s Weekly:

I love how the reviewer put something into words that I had noticed but never articulated. It’s true that illustrator Birgitta Sif managed to create a dragon who is “big and present” but never scary or ominous. This is exactly right, and I’m sure it was no easy feat.

When I wrote the story, I know I had a vision in my head of what the dragon might look like, but I can’t remember it anymore. Because as soon as I saw Sorg (our pet name for the dragon, even though his name is never mentioned in the book), it was obvious that THIS was how he was always meant to look.

The tender expressions the dragon shows to the boy were not something I imagined initially. I pictured a much more indifferent creature. But now I couldn’t imagine it any other way. I love the hints of maternal love the dragon displays toward the boy, as though through this heavy, omnipresent experience of grief, the boy’s mother isn’t so far away after all.