From the Owl and the Pussycat
by Edward Lear.
Still one of my favourites.
I remember squealing with glee when my parents would recite this.
Its is so good!! Why haven't I heard of it before??
It has an amazing premise. so simple yet so good. Dragons in the Napoleanic (is that the word?) wars!!
(perhaps I should stop with the exclamatory marks.)
I loved many things about this book, like the way it's written (challenging but not boring) to its characters (they are not cliched and they are not unlikeable! At the same time!) and, well (this is embarrasing) the cover, which really caught my eye and made me want to read it. I'm talking about the temeraire cover, this one.
so yeah, basically, this book is great. C'est Magnifique, except I doubt the english navy would be amused by that.