Danny Dragonbreath is your typical youngster.  He puts up with his father’s good-natured lectures.  He goofs off instead of doing school work, waiting until the last minute to eek out something off the top of his head.  He dreams of being a pirate.  And he’s not very good at breathing fire.  Unfortunately, since Danny is an actual dragon, that last one poses a bit of a problem.  He practices every day, but he can’t seem to figure out the internal mechanics to make it work, no matter how much he thinks “hot” like his father says.

Danny and his best friend Wendell, an iguana, take a trip to the sea shore to visit Danny’s cousin Edward, a sea serpent.  Danny needs to write a report on the ocean to make up for the abysmal, last minute fiction he tuned in on ocean-dwelling bats.  Instead of going to the library, like Wendell urges, Danny wants to experience the ocean first hand, and enlists his kindly cousin for the project.

Danny and Wendell get to see a coral reef up close, they get chased by a shark, find a sunken ship, and nearly get eaten by a giant squid.  All in all, it was a grand adventure.  Danny laughs off each near death experience, and seems to actual learn a thing or too, despite his best efforts to just have fun.  Wendell is rather terrified most of the time, but discovers that he actually knows more about the ocean than he had realized, and even finds just how tough he can actually be and manages to stand up to the school bully the next day.

This is a charming story of learning how to make learning fun.  It is about facing one’s fears, and seeing that you are stronger than you could have ever imagined.  Danny Dragonbreath is a wonderful character, and the mix of comic-like illustrations every 3 or 4 pages makes the story a joy to read.