More Diversity in Your Book Diet

My Father's Dragon by Ruth Stiles Gannett may be a little dated, but it's still a darling story to feed children's imagination.

Elmer Elevator is a young boy who finds an alley cat. The alley cat is a little scrawny and sad looking so Elmer takes him home. Elmer's mother is not fond of the alley cat, so Elmer decides to run away. He speaks with the alley cat about his love of flying and the alley cat tells him about a dragon that he knows who is living life in captivity. Elmer decides to rescue the dragon.

This book is very short (only 77 pages) and broken down into chapters. While it does have a pretty solid amount of pictures, they are fairly detailed, dated line art so the pictures may not appeal to some young children. However, I think this book would make a great bedtime story or reading time story where a book needs to be parceled down into smaller chunks. There are 10 chapters of about 3 pages a piece, so it's already broken into manageable chunks. It's also nice because the chapters are fairly self-contained. The reader doesn't necessarily have to recall exactly what happened last time so long as they can track Elmer's journey along.

While I never heard of this book as a child, I'm glad to have taken the time to read it as an adult. I'll be finishing up the trilogy for sure.

Middle Grade March Count : 10