The Tale of Custard the Dragon

I loved reading this poem to my daughter 20 years ago and soon I will be reading this to my grandson. This Ogden Nash poem has good rhythm for reciting to a beat. It gives you good opportunity to take deep breaths between lines. The poems are exciting and cute. It is so much better than reading dreary prose with long lines that go on and on forever. With prose you talk so long, you can never catch a breath, you get low on oxygen, you start yawning and you want to fall asleep. That won't happen with this Ogden Nash poem. The beat of the rhythm of the stanzas, the cute exciting story, the deep breaths at the end of short lines, will want you to keep going on and on to the very end. I LOVE IT! More importantly, my daughter loved it when she was a child. Soon my grandchild will enjoy hearing me recite, the way babies love to hear happy family voices, full of energy!

This is a great little book. I know because after I read it to my daughters (3 and 5) they immediately demanded I start over and read it again. Then they described the story to their mom and then made her read it to them. So it's a good one.Ogden Nash's wordplay and clever rhymes are wonderful and timeless. Lynn Munsinger has done a fine job capturing the playful spirit with cute illustrations.For anyone who doesn't know, Ogden Nash wrote the poem "Custard the Dragon" in 1936. Lynn Munsinger did the illustrations and made it into a book in 1995. Nash had been dead for 24 years by that time so we'll never know what he would have thought, but as far as I'm concerned it's a classic.

My dad recited Ogden Nash poetry to me and my siblings as children and this was always one of my favorites. I love being able to pass it on the my niblings and share this bit of joy with them.

Love Ogden Nash and liked that this is hardcover and illustrated.

I originally purchased this book for my nephew when he was 4 years old (10 years ago). It has become a family favorite so I went hunting for a copy for own 4 year old. It has a wonderful theme (being brave does not mean being unafraid) and the amount of gore is perfect for a 4 year old boy. That said, I would recommend waiting until your child is old enough to handle a wee bit of gore and some very big words. We spent the first several readings having to stop frequently to define words.*** SPOILER ALERT ***The story: Custard is a very timid dragon who lives with a young girl, her dog, her cat, and her mouse. He is not fierce and is afraid of everything and his mates are always teasing him for it. Then one day, a pirate attacks the young girl. Her dog, cat and mouse all run away to save themselves. Custard, however, in a very startling turn of events, eats the pirate and saves his friend.

This story, a poem, was written in about 1936 and was originally purchased by our family in about 1940. I purchased the book, illustrated in the 1990's, to give to several young people just learning stories. The story itself is about Belinda, her dog, cat, mouse, and cowardly dragon--Custard. All of the others made fun of Custard but, when the chips were down it was Custard who dispatched (and ate) a marauding pirate. The story is great, and well illustrated. The poetry is also great. In our family the story is being told and retold on its 4th generation (I memorized it 50 years ago for my son, nieces, and nephews). It is a book that can be used to teach reading and to entertain many young kids.

The best & most fun rhyming story for children. Adults love it too! No library should be without this book.

I first read this poem a zillion years ago and loved it. Ogden Nash deserves sainthood! Grab a kid or two and read this together, it's one book where the illustrations AND the words are equally fantastic. Do you speak English? Then buy this book! Trust me, I'm a librarian.

This is for this is for the "Candlestick Press" edition. My kids love this poem and have it in a collection so I thought I'd get it as a standalone book. However this is not a book you could give a young a child - it would quickly be destroyed by a three year old. It even comes with an envelope saying "alternative to a card" which seems about right.The art is fine, very colourful but it's a series of stamps at the bottom of the page rather than full pages images as you might expect.The poem itself is excellent, but this item really needs a better description as right now you dont know quite what you're getting and might have the wrong expectations.

Ogden Nash is my favourite poet and I have loved his poems and children's stories since I was a kid. I started reading this book to my daughter from an early age and now aged nearly two she asks for it often. It's got great repetition, an engaging story and lovely illustrations. I would say this is more of a book for a longer attention span, or perhaps for slightly older children, it is a firm favourite in our house.

This ancient tale by Ogden Nash never loses it's appeal ... I read it to my children, and am now reading it to my great-grandchildren. A wonderful classic that I'd recommend to anyone who's young at heart!

It is about a dragon who is scared of everything but when it is necessary to be brave he is very brave. It is a lovely story but I found it a bit boring. My daughter didn't ask for it again.

One of my favourite stories of all time but the book was from clearing stocks of a French library! There was markings and stamps all over the words not in good condition at all.