I have a soft spot for Dan Santat’s work. Therefore, when I saw he was promoting a new book due in April 2024, Roar-Choo!, I knew I was going to need a copy. And as much as I prefer paper, desperate times call for desperate measures and I picked up Charlotte Cheng’s picture book via an online reader copy.This book is an adorable bedtime story in general, or for when your own dragon has a sniffle or two (and hopefully without the sneezes that are as dangerous as our dragon friend of the story). We see a dragon (i.e.: a little kid who won’t slow down and deal with the cold they caught) telling the patient phoenix (the patient and caring parent) all of the reasons why they cannot slow down, drink tea, or take a nap (or all the things they are told to do that will help them fight the cold). But of course, eventually things work out (even though the dragon and its sneezes cause a lot of trouble), and when the phoenix catches the cold as well, things take a fun turn.
Santat’s work is in their traditional style of adorable (and a bit goofy in a happy way) illustrations that cover the page and are detailed terribly well (they can be a bit busy), but do not hide the needed information of the story. If I needed to put things into a one sentence description, I would say that everything (the text and illustrations) are clever and colorful.
