How Droofus The Dragon Lost His Head

How Droofus The Dragon Lost His Head written and illustrated by Bill Peet

This story takes place long long ago, probably in medieval times, in a small kingdom or village. The main character is Droofus the Dragon. Other important characters are the little boy, his father (the farmer), and the King. 

In the beginning, Droofus is a four year old dragon who gets separated from the rest of the dragons while they are flying from one place to another. He becomes a vegetarian dragon and lives in the forest alone. 

One day, Droofus gets bored and decides to try flying again. While he is out flying, the king sees him and decides he needs to have that dragon's head on the wall of his great hall. He offers a hundred golden quadrooples to anyone who brings him the dragon's head. Every brave knight goes searching for Droofus but after several months they gave up in despair. 

One day, a little boy goes up the mountainside looking for his lost lamb, Flossy. He searches in a cave and finds her but also sees Droofus asleep in the cave. He tells his dad about the dragon and his dad tells him that if he tells the King, he might get part of the reward. The boy refuses because he believes the dragon is a good dragon. 

Droofus goes flying but gets caught in a storm, his wings are shredded  and he crashes down into a farmer’s field. It happens to be the farm of the little boy’s family. The boy nurses him back to health and Droofus becomes a very big help on the farm. Unfortunately, one day Droofus is spotted by a neighbour and goes to tell the king. The king comes to get the dragon… and you’ll just have to read the story to find out what happens.

Duh…duh..duh…

What we thought of the story:
Overall, we really enjoyed this story. 1/30 didn't like the story, 3/30 sort of liked the story, 26/30 really liked the story.
Some of the things we liked were:
-how Bill Peet described and illustrated Droofus the dragon
-the way Droofus became a harmless vegetarian (unlike the rest of the dragons that caused trouble and were definitely NOT vegetarians)
-how they solved the problem at the end.
-the little boy and how he wasn't afraid of Droofus but instead wanted to save his life
-how Droofus makes such a difference in the lives of the family
-how Bill Peet creates characters that are so likeable

We would recommend that you read this story and many others by Bill Peet that we love, such as, Hugh Harold, Big Bad Bruce, and The Whingdingdilly.