Ed Young’s wonderful ink-and-brush illustrations marvelously display the dragons at their boisterous best, whether perched watchfully on a roof, or bearing a heavy pillar on their back, or cavorting through the water.  The medium is perfect for catching the fluid movement of the dragons with their snake-like long bodies; alongside the ink-and-brush image is a more static picture of the dragon as it would appear on the edifice or object with which it has become associated.

The tale of the Dragon King is itself an old Chinese legend.  As Young points out in his Author’s Note, the ancient Chinese tribes who used to each have a totem animal, formed a union to be ruled under one totemic animal — the Dragon King.  Variations of the folktale exist in different parts of China but all of them speak of the king having nine sons.   “The Sons of the Dragon King”, in which all nine sons are accounted for, is the version of the story Young chose for his book.  And indeed, a good choice it was as evidenced in the pleasure my daughter and I experienced in reading it!