Review: Dragon Folding

This is the second collaboration between Christopher Cheng and Lucia Masciullo, the first being The Imagineer. There is an obvious understanding between author and illustrator: the text and pictures have a beautiful symbiotic relationship.

Mr Singer lives alone in his home named Dragon Hall, which is a ‘fractured old house with a wiggly sign’. He is grumpy and crotchety and never smiles; his home is grey, and so is he. ‘But it wasn’t always this way.’ When Mrs Singer was alive, the house was always full of laughter and the smell of freshly baked cake.

This is a lovely picture book that gently explores the impact of grief, and how it can remove the colour from someone’s world. Lucia uses this metaphor by creating the early illustrations in shades of grey. As the young boy Evan makes his way back into Mr Singer’s life, he brings the colour back into his world, both metaphorically and literally, and the pages become brighter and full of colour. Lucia’s hand drawn illustrations, with gentle pastel colours, sympathetically reflect Christopher’s poetic words.

Dragon Folding celebrates friendship, intergenerational relationships and the importance of a supportive community to the wellbeing of all its members.

• Review
• Christopher Cheng