My Father's Dragon

by Ruth Stiles Gannett

I have been reading this book to my daughter over the past several days. I believe it is one my mother read to me as a child, but I remembered it only vaguely. My Father's Dragon is a cute little story about Elmer, a boy who runs away from home to rescue a baby dragon. The dragon is being held prisoner on an island full of wild animals. They keep him tied up next to a river, and use him to ferry across. Advised by an old alley cat he befriended, Elmer fills his backpack with some unlikely-sounding items: chewing gum, colored hair ribbons, pink lollipops, six magnifying glasses, etc. Each of these things eventually comes in handy as Elmer uses them to help and/or thwart the wild animals he meets in his journey. It's really quite clever. My daughter loved this book and all the distinctive, charming illustrations by Ruth Chrisman Gannett. She kept looking ahead at the pictures to guess what would happen next, and turning to the map across the endpapers, following the route of Elmer's journey. As soon as we were done reading the last chapter, she wanted to open the next book immediately.

Rating: 3/5                   87 pages, 1948

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