Drunk book choices are the best book choices

So I brought fantingviolet to my library’s annual wine tasting, because my library is awesome like that.  With the advent of the self-checkout feature on their app, we get the lovely combination of drunken book selections!  We were drinking in the children’s section (being the youngest group at the wine tasting) and so I was able to peruse the lovely selection.  I picked up the audiobook of Kenny and the Dragon, because it looked interesting.  After I chose it, I realized that it was narrated by Alan Cumming!  Good job, drunk me! Alan Cumming does a fantastic job reading this lovely story.

Kenneth (or Kenny) Rabbit is a young rabbit who is a bit different from his contemporaries.  He likes to read and loves science and history and all sorts of learning. He doesn’t really have friends because he is so different.  One day, his father reports that a dragon has come to their property, and Kenny decides to go and find out what the story is with this dragon.  He discovers that the dragon, Grahame, is a quite cultured fellow, who likes poetry and creme brulee and has never killed a thing in his life. So the two become great friends.  

But a dragon cannot remain unnoticed for long, and so he is discovered, and there is call for his execution.  And the town just happens to have a retired knight in town! Old George owns a bookshop, and is Kenny’s only other friend.  But the king calls Sir George out of retirement to slay the dragon, and so Kenny is in quite a pickle. How on earth can Kenny save both of his friends?

Some aspects of the story are a little strange.  We have Kenny and his family, who are rabbits. George is a badger.  And yet Kenny’s family have a farm and are shepherds. So, rabbits and badgers are ‘people’ animals, but sheep and horses and cows are not?  How does that work?

There is mention of “The Reluctant Dragon” at the end of the story, by “some English chap.”  In doing a little research, I found that “The Reluctant Dragon” is a short story written in 1898 by Kenneth Grahame!  The story is the basis for this one, only without rabbits, I’m fairly sure. The author did keep the feeling of the language, though.