I am going through my online reader copy list and found a holiday book, Pup and Dragon: How to Catch an Elf. This is part of a “How to Catch” graphic novel series, and by the author of the picture book How to Catch series, Alice Walstead. These books have various subjects, but I will start with the Pup and Dragon stories. Or story more accurately. I am not sure where in the series How to Catch and Elf falls for our BFFs, Pup and Dragon, but it is not the first. Still you can pretty much pick up the idea, which is simple. Pup is a dog who wants to catch an Elf for Christmas. He and Dragon get into trouble, sing Jingle Bells, slide down an eggnog slide and may or may not catch an elf. At first, things seem like Pup is the “smart one” and Dragon not the brightest spark in the pack, but that changes a few times. The Paul Gill illustrations are fun, simple, colorful, playful. They are not OMG Best Ever! But they capture the moments and tone of things. Overall, this is a fun book, I might pick up more, but as of right now, I’m good.
I know of Walstead because of the picture book How to Catch books. I don’t think I had read any, but knew of them. Each book has a theme of the “How to” with a narrator (sometimes the thing/person/item we want to catch, sometimes an “all knowing” one) telling us the ins and outs. How to Catch Santa Claus is self explanatory. The narrator shows all the traps the kids try to get ol’ Saint Nick. The art of Andy Elkerton has a nod towards Gill’s work (or at least his elf), so they are similar looking, but for a younger audience. Still, they are colorful, the right amount of details and not overly busy, but not minimalistic. This book is funny, but not LOL for me. I think it is a good Christmas Eve read, unless you don’t want to give your child any new ideas on their own traps. 
Elkerton and Walstead also created How to Catch a Garden Fairy: A Mythical Adventure Through Nature, and How to Catch a
Daddysaurus. These two were not as fun for me. But I am thinking a kid aged three to six would be thrilled. Garden Fairy is for the older crowd, as the text is longer and a more in-depth story arc. The idea of trying to capture your Garden Fairy goes throughout the book, in sometimes way too bright illustrations, but then again, the perfect addition for a garden with the Tooth Fairy, Unicorns, Colorfully striped Zebras and of course, the Garden Fairy. And Daddysaurus takes a turn with the catching as we also find the things he does for us. I was a smidgen confused as sometimes the character doing something looked like a kid, but I was assuming that it was the Daddy figure. Of course, I should have realized otherwise, as Daddysaurs is a dinosaur, and therefore wouldn’t look like a large kid. Therefore, when you are reading this, put your adult side to bed, and keep the child innocence that will not question things awake.
Daddysaurus. These two were not as fun for me. But I am thinking a kid aged three to six would be thrilled. Garden Fairy is for the older crowd, as the text is longer and a more in-depth story arc. The idea of trying to capture your Garden Fairy goes throughout the book, in sometimes way too bright illustrations, but then again, the perfect addition for a garden with the Tooth Fairy, Unicorns, Colorfully striped Zebras and of course, the Garden Fairy. And Daddysaurus takes a turn with the catching as we also find the things he does for us. I was a smidgen confused as sometimes the character doing something looked like a kid, but I was assuming that it was the Daddy figure. Of course, I should have realized otherwise, as Daddysaurs is a dinosaur, and therefore wouldn’t look like a large kid. Therefore, when you are reading this, put your adult side to bed, and keep the child innocence that will not question things awake.Then I read My First How to Catch the Big Bad Wolf by Walstead and illustrated by Ashley Selby. I appreciate the hard work that went into things, but overall, things fell flat. I am writing this review the day after I read it, and have already forgotten it. (SORRY!) I will say it is perhaps I read too many of the theme all at once, or maybe it was just not the book for me, but I do recommend looking at it and seeing if it works for your child. Selby’s art is on the younger side, a bit sugary and colorful. They are fun, but not OMG BEST for me. 
