Herb, the Vegetarian Dragon is a 1999 children's picture book written by Jules Bass and illustrated by Debbie Harter.
In the land of Nogard, all the dragons enjoy raiding castles and feasting on knights and princesses. All of them, that is, except Herb, who prefers tending his vegetable garden and coming up with new recipes. When a dragon hunt is announced and Herb is the only one who doesn't know about it, he is captured and sentenced to death. Can he find a way to keep himself olive, or will he be dead meat?
This book provides examples of:
- An Aesop: Even if people are different, there's no reason they can't live together, as long as they don't hurt each other.
- Decapitation Presentation: The king declares that Herb's severed head will be stuffed and mounted above the castle gates.
- Delightful Dragon: Herb is a vegetarian dragon who wouldn't hurt a fly, and loves nothing more than to tend his vegetable patch. Unfortunately, this also makes him easy prey for knights on a dragon hunt.
- Dub Name Change: The Spanish edition of the book changes Herb's name to Floro.
- Hero with Bad Publicity: Herb is believed to be just another vicious man-eating dragon by the people of Nogard, and is nearly beheaded until Nicole speaks up in his defense.
- Heel–Face Turn: When given an offer by the king to keep their heads in exchange for not eating people, Meathook and the other meat-eating dragons decide to take it, and live peacefully in Nogard from then on.
- Honor Before Reason: Herb refuses to eat meat under any circumstances, even when he's been imprisoned and Meathook offers to break him out on the condition that he eats a leg of wild boar.Herb: Thanks, but no thanks. I don't see it your way, so I'll take my chances. I don't ask you to stop eating meat, so why do you ask me to stop eating vegetables?
Meathook: Idiot! You can't be different in the dragon world and survive. - Long Neck: No real attention is called to it, but all the dragons in this book have comically long necks.
- Meat Versus Veggies: Meathook and his friends all love devouring wild boar and raiding castles to eat humans, while Herb is a friendly dragon who prefers eating vegetables from his personal garden.
- Make an Example of Them: Tired of the dragons eating his people and raiding his castles, the king of Nogard sends his knights out on a dragon hunt to capture them alive and publicly execute them in the courtyard of Castle Dark. Meathook and his friends hide from them, but Herb isn't told about the plan and is the only dragon to get captured. He's almost executed until a little girl pleads for his life.
- Off with His Head!: Herb is captured by the knights and nearly beheaded in a public execution.
- The Power of Trust: To prove to everyone that Herb would never eat a human, Nicole fearlessly climbs into his mouth, sits on his tongue, and trusts that he won't eat her. He doesn't.
- Prehensile Tail: One illustration shows Herb cooking and using his tail to hold a ladle full of soup to his mouth.
- Vegetarian Carnivore: It is made perfectly clear that Herb could eat meat if he wanted to, but he doesn't, due to his personal principles.
- Virtuous Vegetarianism: Herb is the only dragon in all of Nogard who doesn't eat people, preferring vegetables from his garden.
- Would Hit a Girl: When describing how Meathook enjoys raiding Nogard, the narration notes that he particularly enjoys "the sweet taste of royal princesses."
