Sunrise Elementary School had a dragon lady, literally, as its new librarian. The school had never had a dragon in the library before. She considered it her job to guard the books and protect them from sticky fingers. Every book was in its correct place, and she took the liberty of burning any books that she perceived to have anti-dragon sentiment contained within them.

The children were afraid to enter the library, but they missed story time dearly. Then Miss Lotta Scales got lonely. Luckily, one day a single girl walked into the library to read, which soon caused an entire class to crowd 'round the library. The librarian observed the girl reading to the kids and got jealous. As the librarian began reading to the kids, she quickly metamorphosed into Miss Lotty, a lovable children's librarian, a librarian whose motto was "Open minds, open books."

The Library Dragon by Carmen Agra Deedy, 1994

I love the dragon claws on the cover holding the ancient scroll. Blue smoke emanates from it and purple dragonflies decorate the yellow background. The illustrations by Michael White are bold and simple with lots of primary colors. 

• Carmen Deedy's web site
• Michael P. White's web site
• Books by Carmen Deedy
• Books about dragons