This amusing short novella, DRAGON'S FIRST CHRISTMAS, challenges preconceptions and makes the fantastic seem almost normal. Rose, a student of palaeontology, and her husband Henry live in New York, and they have adopted a newly hatched dragon from a museum's clutch of supposedly fossil eggs. DRAGON'S FIRST CHRISTMAS is a lively one.

Rose and Henry are determinedly trying to raise the telepathic youngster as their child rather than a pet. The only other member of his species is in the nearby zoo. But this is the 1920s and zoos are places of close confinement and little respect for rare species. While they don't want to treat little Virgil like a caged, trapped animal, they find that they need to start taking measures to ensure his, and their, safety. He's already burnt down the Christmas tree in their lodging house.

The time period brings other attitudes of course, Rose is brushed aside by people who assume that her husband must be the expert on palaeontology and dinosaurs. Married women, after all, are not generally allowed to be students. She's also expected to be responsible for all the cooking, even though her adopted son Virgil sleeps in the oven.

I don't want to spoil the fun so I suggest reading the book to find out what kind of Christmas the family manages, and if they get any help from the real experts in parenting dragons. Emily Martha Sorensen has written a few short novellas in her Dragon Eggs series so you can take it from the start and look forward to more adventures. DRAGON'S FIRST CHRISTMAS, third in the sequence, has some nicely seasonal elements and can be read as a standalone... but you'll want more.