In A Rainy Dragon Day, Vienna-based author and illustrator Julie Völk offers a gentle and humorous picture book perfect for early readers aged five to eight. The story begins on a cozy, rain-pattered day, where a child is settling in with books and a long-haired dachshund. Their quiet afternoon is amusingly interrupted when Fred the dragon appears at the door, urgently needing a bathroom. What follows is a charming quest as the child and dog help their new friend venture out into the storm to find facilities suitable for a dragon. Their journey leads them to a magical lagoon filled with whimsical, floating pagoda-style bathrooms, providing a delightful and satisfying conclusion to their adventure.
This book is a fantastic choice for classrooms with developing readers, especially those learning English or who are sometimes reluctant to read. Völk’s narrative is driven by her delicate, full-page watercolour illustrations, which provide strong visual cues that support comprehension at every turn; a student struggling with the text can still easily follow the plot and character emotions through the art. The language is direct and accessible, using primarily simple sentences and everyday vocabulary. When a new word like ‘pagoda’ is introduced, it’s defined visually by the illustrations, creating a natural learning moment without needing to break the story’s flow. The almost complete absence of idiomatic language makes the text straightforward for English language learners. Praised with starred reviews from Kirkus and Booklist, the book’s gentle, giggle-inducing humor and winsome characters create an engaging experience. A Rainy Dragon Day excels as a high-interest, low-vocabulary read, making it a powerful tool for building reading confidence and showing students that simple stories can still be rich with imagination and charm.
