Book Review: Three Tales of My Father's Dragon by Ruth Stiles Gannet

Stars: 5 out of 5
Pros: Fun stories with great characters to spark the imagination

Cons: Could be too thick for some kids

The Bottom Line:

Imaginative tales

Fantasy kids will enjoy

All three in one book

Three Adventures to Capture the Imagination of Children of All Ages

60 years ago, Ruth Stiles Gannet published a little book (and I do mean little) called My Father's Dragon. While it has not become a classic book that is read by every child as they grow up, it is filled with adventure, humor, creativity, and fun characters.

The original book was followed by two more adventures with the same characters. Three Tales of My Father's Dragon collects all the stories in one place. Since these books follow one another, I will have to spoiled bits of the early books to talk about the later ones.

My Father's Dragon - The first story introduces us to our main characters. It is through an ally cat that Elmer Elevator (the narrator's father, a device that is dropped in later books) learns about the baby dragon being held captive on Wild Island. The dragon was injured in a crash, but now the animals use him to avoid traveling over the river that divides their island in two. Elmer is outraged at the injustice and sets out with such things as lollipops, gum, magnifying glasses, and hair ribbons to help him. Can he succeed?

Elmer and the Dragon - (And here come the spoilers.) After Elmer rescues the dragon, the dragon graciously agrees to take him home. But their journey gets dangerous when they are blown off course and land on an island. While at first it appears uninhabited, Elmer soon finds the residents who suffer from a dread disease, curiosity. Can Elmer help them cure it?

The Dragons of Blueland - With Elmer safely home, the dragon takes off to reunite with his family. To his horror, he discovers that they have been discovered by a group of men who want to send them to various zoos. The dragon races back to Elmer. Can Elmer come through one last time?

Separately, these books are around 85 pages each, which is probably why this one comes in at 256 pages. Each book has about 10 chapters. They read fast, so there are plenty of convenient places to stop if you are so inclined. The target age is someone who is wanting to transition from picture books to chapter novels, so I'd say 4-8 year olds. They make for great read aloud stories, but they also work well for the transitioning reader ready for a slightly more difficult vocabulary.

Each two page spread features at least one picture. Some are quite small, taking up just a fraction of one page. Some are larger, taking up one of the two pages. All the pictures were drawn by the author's step mother and are extremely detailed black and white drawings. There is some beautiful artwork here, and they capture the charm and humor of the stories perfectly.

Make no mistake about it, these stories are wonderful. The fantasy element will certainly capture any child's imagination. Who wouldn't love to rescue and befriend a dragon? The stories are filled with absurd situations that will tickle the funny bone. And Elmer uses lots of creativity to get out of some tight spots.

And the characters are great as well. True, they aren't developed beyond the basics. But they are a step ahead of picture book characters and warm enough that kids will want to read more about them.

I only have one complaint, and it is about this book in particular. I don't tend to do well with multi-volume sets. I like watching my progress through a book, and not seeing as much progress discourages me. It's purely psychological, I know. A veracious reader won't have that problem. But if your child is scared by large books, it might be wise to get the thinner individual books to help spark their love of reading.

Whether bought in this volume or individually, these are stories that should become a bigger part of childhood. So start today introducing your child to the Three Tales of My Father's Dragon.

This review is an entry in this week's Marvelous Middle Grade Monday hosted by Shannon Messenger.  Check out the rest of the entries.