My daughter absolutely loved the silly ways that the dragon attempts to overcome his inability to eat a snow cone. This story was an absolutely adorable way to show children to not give up and that the most unexpected things can help you reach your goal!

A fun little read, where minor flaws don't really distract from the appreciation you'll get. It features, as you'd guess, a dragon who only wants to eat a snow cone, but being so warm of breath finds the whole exercise impossible – all he has when he breathes out is a gloopy, melting ex-cone of ex-snow. And so on he goes on a quest, across the animal kingdom, for advice. The owl says to get it lobbed into his mouth by a giant catapult, but it's a cat of a different kind that benefits. A fisherman shows him how to fling it mouthwards on some fishing line, but other animals actually like eating things off fishing lines… Anything he tries, fails, until…

Yes, I suppose you could turn this into a lesson about persistence – or a thinking exercise about how you'd go about being the dragon in this situation. Or you just keep it as it is – a decent slice of colourful whimsy. There are some naff rhymes, and the poem is trying to do three things at once and it ends up a bit too much for it to juggle – not only do we have the "he could go and ask…" introductions to all the other characters, we have the "when a dragon wants a snow cone…" verses where we see the proof of what happens after each encounter, and we get bits of line where a word or two escalates and escalates and repeats and repeats, which is a trick that is OK. It's just that all three of these come in seemingly at random and without enough pattern to them.

That said, as I say, those are quite picky comments, and this is commendable. Not earth-shattering, but still certainly commendable. I could have done without his little sidekick friend, who is in the art but not the text, but again this doesn't detract me from giving this four stars, which the target audience will declare this deserves with ease.

Silly and fun, I love a rhyming story. The illustrations were cute, and I think this would be super fun to read aloud.

It is not necessarily a unique concept to write a children's book about overcoming challenges and frustrations, but it is not often done well. Dragons Can't Eat Snow Cones however does it well. This story had the perfect balance of silliness and creativity and shares the message with little ones that when they face challenges, to think of a new way to try again. I also love that this story shows what can happen when you think outside of the box. Very cute and beautiful illustrations as well.

This little dragon wants a snow cone, but he has one big problem- he breathes fire and melts it every time. What shall he do?

The little dragon ends up asking different animals for a solution, creating a repetitive story that young readers will pick up on quickly. The repetition in the story will allow for conversation and thinking about foreshadowing.

The illustrations in the book are really fun! There are bright colors, big faces, and every situation is drawn with a bit of humor. I really loved the part where he went into a deep dark cave to ask a bat for help. The darker pages really popped against the colorful pages of the rest of the book.

The story is told in a rhyming scheme, which makes it bouncy and fun. There are a few times where the rhyme breaks a bit, but it is nothing major and shouldn't trip up an early reader.

Overall, I really loved this story. The determination of the dragon is really fun, and seeing him try to solve his fire breath problem was very creative.

Our five year old loves this book and wants to add it to his library! It’s so very cute. We love the rhyming. Unique story. We would read this frequently and also read other books by this author.

Book Review: When a Dragon Wants a Snow Cone

This book is absolutely adorable and hilarious! As a teacher in the early years, I can already imagine how much my students would love it. The story is filled with opportunities for interactive discussions, like brainstorming other ways the dragon could solve his problem or talking about how we might tackle similar challenges ourselves.

I also love how much detail there is in the illustrations—there’s so much to notice and discuss! From the other animals in the background to the dragon’s creative (and slightly chaotic) ideas, every page offers something new to explore. Questions like “What flavors do you know?”, “What have you tried?”, or “How do you think the dragon is feeling?” make it such an engaging read-aloud.

And honestly, the idea of eating a snow cone with a slingshot? My students would absolutely howl with laughter. The dragon’s attempts are both funny and clever, and the humor combined with the vibrant illustrations makes this book a joy to read.

Highly recommend this for classrooms, story time , or just for a fun, giggle-filled read! I’ll definitely add this to my class library.

I received this electronic ARC from Cider Mill Press through NetGalley.
This is a very fun book! The illustrations are absolutely delightful and my favorite part of the book. My four-year-old son loves dragons, and enjoyed this book. However, his attention span couldn't quite handle the length of the book, and I do feel that regardless of the age reading, this book could be shortened while still keeping the sweet and educational story line and wonderful illustrations.

This was a very cute book! The illustrations were fantastic and the concept is extremely fun!

I gave four stars because I feel like it goes too long and drags some which isn't great when reading to littles.

This book was such a cute book, I am a special education teacher and am always looking for new books to incorporate into my lessons. This book was such a wonderful book to do a read aloud on and ask them questions for theme, and other story elements. The illustrations were so well done and the storyline was adorable. The storyline was a bit on the longer side but the fact that it was so engaging it kept my students engaged throughout the book. They even were able to notice many of the rhyming words.

A funny enough book for kids, similar to dragons love tacos kind of theme. The repetitive rhyming was a bit lacking in creativity

I did like this book. I liked how the dragon was almost using the scientific method and surveying other animals to get ideas for how he can eat a snow cone. I could see me using this with my students as a way to show them how in the scientific method you have a problem or a question and you try and find out ways to solve it.

Having the words rhyme was very cute. However, some of the word choices either didn’t make sense, the word choice was a stretch to make a rhyme, or it used words that I know that my elementary students would not know the meaning of.

Eye-catching illustrations that pull your eyes to all the details. I enjoyed the pace and flow of the story with the thing, which is one of my favorite things in children's picture books. I would do this as a read-aloud for pre-k-1st grade.

Thank you so much to Cider Mill Press / Applesauce Press and Netgalley for the ebook to read and review.

Dragon wants to eat a snow cone but it melts before he can try every single time. So with a plan he sets off to find a way that he can successfully eat and enjoy his snow cone. Talking to each different animal and in different climates he tries everything he possibly can.

This was so much fun to read I absolutely loved this book. Dragon didn’t give up, he really was so dedicated to the task at hand. He was willing to try literally everything and anything just so he could try a snow cone. It was so adorable and really sad when it just wouldn’t work for him.

I loved the way this was written it was poetic, rhyming but also had its funny parts within it too. It has a great lesson for children about dedication and to keep trying when things don’t always work out. It was so easy and enjoyable to read, it flowed so wonderfully. I also adored the illustrations seeing dragon in all the different situations he was in, seeing so many different animals. There was so much to look at and I really loved it.

This is an excellent book to read with your young ones they’re going to seriously love this book, it’s so wonderfully created and illustrated. Such a clever story and children will read it again and again.

Dragons Can't Eat Snow Cones was an adorable story about a dragon who just wants to eat a snow cone. The only problem is it keeps melting before he can eat it. He tries a bunch of different ways to eat a snow cone and seeks the advice of others.

The story was adorable and the dragon was so sweet. He was driven and determined to try to eat a snow cone. The dragon was full of ideas and creativity and was not afraid to ask others for help. This story helps teach children perserverance and to ask for help when needed. It was silly and creative with fun rhymes.

This book is adorable, clever, and has great pacing and art. It is exactly the type of book my kids love finding and laughing through - and will continue to reference afterwards. Very cute and definitely would buy this for my kids.

Go on a journey with our dragon as he tries to achieve his dream of enjoying a snow cone without it melting before he gets it into his mouth. His friends and other animals all come up with some hilarious and creative suggestions, which should provide the family with a good chuckle and teach kids some valuable lessons on helping others. I thought the page of the bat didn’t need to be so scary (some parents may want to tape up those pages) as the bat was not dangerous in the tale, but otherwise, this was a fun read.

Thank you to Cider Mill Press and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Dragons Can't Eat Snow Cones is a very cute picture book with fun rhymes and gorgeous illustrations.

The dragon wants to try a snow cone because they look so delicious. Unfortunately, the snow cones melt from the dragon's fire every time so it has to keep trying new and ever goofier methods to get that sugary goodness. Eventually the dragon gets so frustrated it throws the snow cone and it rolls down a snowy hill and hits the snow cone cart, making a giant snow cone ball that can't melt before it gets eaten!

The rhymes didn't flow perfectly and I don't love that the solution comes from a moment of giving up out of frustration but I know my niece and nephew would really enjoy this book for bedtime.

I would recommend this book to anyone looking for a colorful, fun story with dragons and little animals and no overly heavy messaging.

4.5/5 stars

Thank you to Applesauce Press and NetGalley for providing the eARC. All opinions in this review are my own.

I will be sharing my review on Goodreads this week and Amazon/Barnes and Noble on or after the publish date.

This book is super cute!
Bright colourful illustrations that were really eyecatching and the verses were in rhyme which I always find keep the attention of children for much longer.
Great read that made my son smile in places, but I did feel it went on a bit too long and potentially some children would lose interest.

This book was funny and silly. Kept my 7 year olds attention the entire time. Illustrations were colorful. I would be interested in reading others if it became a series.