Z Reviews: My Father's Dragon

Z and I read My Father's Dragon by Ruth Stiles Gannett together as a bedtime story a month or so ago. Here are his (brief) thoughts on the book!

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The book is about a boy named Elmer Elevator. One rainy day, Elmer meets a cat that tells him about Wild Island. Elmer decides to go there so that he can rescue an abandoned baby dragon. Will Elmer get past the wild animals and rescue the dragon in time?

The Wild Island mouse messes up his quotes all the time! I thought it was funny. I enjoyed the book. There are other books: Elmer and the Dragon and The Dragons of Blueland. I still don't have My Father's Dragon #2 yet.

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This was a really fun book to read together. I personally liked doing voices for all of the different animals on the island. The plot moves along at a quick pace and I was impressed by how the story didn't seem very dated even though it's from 1948. It was a Newbery Honor Book in 1949. The original illustrations by Ruth Chrisman Gannet are beautiful and quite unique. I'm glad they haven't updated them at all! There was a 1997 anime film made from this story (Elmer no boken) but I don't think it's available in the States. Bummer.

Finding friends in unusual places,
K and Z