No one would have believed in the last years of the nineteenth century that this world was being watched keenly and closely by intelligences greater than man’s and yet as mortal as his own; that as men busied themselves about their various concerns they were scrutinised and studied, perhaps almost as narrowly as a man with a microscope might scrutinise the transient creatures that swarm and multiply in a drop of water. And then the dragons arrived. War of the Worlds Hidden textRaak - is that something like "The Toll Booth"? Who was the author?
There once was a boy named Milo who didn't know what to do with himself--not just sometimes, but always. And then the dragons arrived. The Phantom Tollbooth - Norton Juster
When Mary Lennox was sent to Misselthwaite Manor to live with her uncle everybody said she was the most disagreeable-looking child ever seen. And then the dragons arrived. The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett