Lemery House Press
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Lemery House Press
PERFORMANCE EDITION
by Querida Funck
The Reluctant Dragon: A Performance Edition
Adapted from the work of Kenneth Grahame
By Querida Funck
A witty fable of friendship, imagination, and the courage to choose peace over pride—adapted for today’s readers, actors, and storytellers.
In this Performance Edition of The Reluctant Dragon, Lemery House Press brings Kenneth Grahame’s timeless tale into a format designed for stage and classroom use. Blending literature and performance, this edition presents the complete text of Grahame’s classic story framed by insightful context, character and story arc analysis, and techniques for live or recorded interpretation.
First published in 1898, The Reluctant Dragon playfully overturns the knight-versus-monster tradition. Instead of a ferocious beast, Grahame gives us a poetry-loving dragon, a sensible boy, and a courteous St. George who learns that not every battle must end in blood. Their unlikely friendship becomes a lesson in empathy, imagination, and creative compromise—a message as relevant now as it was more than a century ago.
This Performance Edition supports readers and educators seeking ways to bring literature to life. Actors and voice artists will find guidance for pacing, tone, and character differentiation. Teachers and drama coaches can draw from included notes on historical context, classroom discussion ideas, and approaches for story-theatre performance.
Part of the True Voice Shorts – Modern Fables for Grown-Ups series, The Reluctant Dragon: A Performance Edition celebrates the power of story to bridge page and stage, inviting readers to read, speak, and share timeless literature in new ways.
An independent publisher of print and audiobook editions — blending artistry, performance, and timeless storytelling.
At Lemery House Press, we publish stories that stay with you — the kind that echo long after the last page or final line. Whether it’s a children’s book that sparks imagination, a memoir that preserves lived experience, or a theatrical work that finds new life on stage or in voice, our mission is rooted in honoring story as legacy. Everything we do is connected by a belief in the power of storytelling to preserve memory, deepen empathy, and give voice to what matters. We don’t aim to publish everything. We aim to publish what endures.
