Willobe of Wuzz

Teya Rosenberg is an assistant professor of English specializing in
children’s literature at Southwest Texas State University.

Willobe is not like other dragons. Despite his strong flame and ability
to direct that flame, Willobe prefers such creative pursuits as
painting, glass blowing, admiring flowers, and being friends with
winglythings. He refuses to devour princesses, preferring to offer them
muffins he’s baked. A dispute with his father and grandfather drives
Willobe from his home village to the mountains with the winglythings.
There, he meets a young female dragon, Wannabe, a potter and artist.
After reconciling with his family, Willobe and Wannabe create their own
home.

Willobe of Wuzz employs a tried-and-true story line but suffers from
being too cute as well as too obvious. Willobe is a gentle artist in a
society that does not understand him. However, he is surrounded by an
inconsistent, and frequently inconsequential, mix of real, mythical, and
made-up characters (donkeys, unicorns, winglythings) and settings
(mountains and valleys, but the rain falls up). A collection of
resourceful princesses (in the style of Robert Munsch’s Paperbag
Princess) are fun but do not always fit with other elements of the
story. The use of names—Willobe and Wannabe fulfil their dreams in
Canbe—is disappointingly didactic, a 19th-century ploy given a
20th-century spin by the focus on personal growth: “If you want to
find it [Canbe], it’s not that far from here. ... Just look inside.”
Some readers may enjoy the details, which the pretty illustrations
support, but the story is inconsistent and ultimately too sweet.
Recommended with reservations.