There's a Dragon in Bathurst

Steve Pitt is a Toronto-based freelance writer and an award-winning journalist. He has written many young adult and children's books, including Day of the Flying Fox: The True Story of World War II Pilot Charley Fox.

“There’s a dragon in Bathurst / in case you didn’t know, /
There’s a dragon in Bathurst / you just have to go / To the village
bridge / and take a look / And you’ll see the dragon / Jump out of
this book. /

Bathurst is a pulp-and-paper town in northern New Brunswick. The
“dragon” is a serpentine-shaped sand bar that runs across the
harbor. This little book immortalizes that peculiar geographical feature
in whimsical rhyme and black-ink drawings. The story, told in rhyming
couplets, is about a benign dragon who lives quietly in the harbor.
Birds and animals play on the dragon’s back, and people have built a
bridge down his spine.

The book itself consists of 10 sheets of paper divided into 20 panels
and stapled through the centre. The pages are misaligned and the
silk-screened cover suffers from gaps in the ink. Although the poetry is
competent, it is let down by the book’s amateurish production. Not a
first-choice purchase.