David LaRochelle

author & illustrator

100 Mighty Dragons All Named Broccoli

100 Mighty Dragons All Named Broccoli

by David LaRochelle
illus­trat­ed by Lian Cho
Dial Books, April 2023
Ages: Preschool to Grade 3
ISBN 978–0525555445

Buy the Book 

bookshop.org
(local book­sellers)

ama­zon

Medal-wor­thy drag­on draw­ings by stu­dents at Lin­coln Cen­ter Elementary:

Dragon drawing from Lincoln Elementary
Dragon drawing from Lincoln Elementary
Dragon drawing from Lincoln Elementary

High on a moun­tain live 100 mighty drag­ons all named Broc­coli. When a tremen­dous wind blows half the drag­ons away, ten oth­ers sail off to become pro­fes­sion­al surfers in Hawaii. The old­est and youngest drag­ons take a train to New York City to start their own heavy met­al band. And a mys­te­ri­ous wiz­ard turns four more into a uni­corn, a were­wolf, a zom­bie, and a tiny pink poo­dle. Now how many drag­ons are left? Read­ers will delight in fol­low­ing each and every drag­on as they leave their home for mar­velous adven­tures, until there is but one drag­on remain­ing. That’s when this final drag­on named Broc­coli retreats to a cave for the win­ter and reap­pears in the spring with a sur­prise that will thrill and delight!

Buy the Book 

bookshop.org
(local book­sellers)

ama­zon

Resources

Have some mighty fun with these free drag­on down­load­able exten­sion ideas:

Awards and Recognition

  • Smith­son­ian Mag­a­zine, Ten Best Chil­dren’s Books of 2023
  • A School Library Journal/Fuse #8 Best Math Book of the Year, 2023
  • Bright­ly Best Pic­ture Books of 2023
  • 2024 Chil­dren’s Book Coun­cil’s list of Librar­i­an Favorites
  • 2024 Texas 2x2 List
  • 2025 Bill Mar­tin Jr. Pic­ture Book Award nominee
  • 2024 Read Aloud Indi­ana Age­less List
  • 2024 Math­i­cal Book Prize Hon­or Book
  • Kids’ Indie Next top ten pic­ture book list, May/June 2023
  • Ama­zon Best Book of the Month selec­tion, April 2023

Reviews

“Cho’s col­or­ful por­tray­als offer comedic mag­ic and flair. Read­ers will be cap­ti­vat­ed by the antics of each Broc­coli, [and the drag­ons’] quirky expres­sions will elic­it plen­ty of gig­gles. … This is one enter­tain­ing and sil­ly way to do math.” (Kirkus Reviews)

“Col­or­ful and count­able … Humor­ous details through­out keep the math con­cepts live­ly.” (Book­list)

“A non­stop drag­on par­ty.  … Com­i­cal­ly spe­cif­ic out­comes and locale shout-outs make a close look of this bustling read irre­sistible.” (Pub­lish­ers Week­ly)

“Every­thing David LaRochelle pub­lish­es is pure gold — but this! This could be the fun­ni­est, most charm­ing, most cap­ti­vat­ing count­ing book ever! I laughed out loud, I got a lit­tle wor­ried, and I cheered at the end.” (Kathy Adams, Kids’ Indie Next List)

“You can call this a count­ing book. You can call it a math book. I call it a hilar­i­ous, charm­ing and extreme­ly sil­ly book. …  Once again, Geisel Award-win­ning David LaRochelle [gives] us a wacky, thor­ough­ly orig­i­nal sto­ry … A great addi­tion to any child’s book­shelf.” (Lau­rie Hertzel, The Min­neapo­lis Star­Tri­bune)

“You have nev­er seen a count­ing book quite like this, because there has nev­er been a count­ing book quite like this. … David LaRochelle has craft­ed a book so clever, so utter­ly sil­ly and absurd, so delight­ful and so engaging—and has been so well abet­ted by illus­tra­tor Lian Cho—that kids and adults alike [will] read and reread and delight in the whole thing … [The title con­cept] makes for an even­tu­al twist end­ing that read­ers will not see com­ing and that gives Cho an oppor­tu­ni­ty to dis­play amaz­ing illus­tra­tive vir­tu­os­i­ty.” (InfoDad.com)