My Father's Dragon is a children's novel by Ruth Stiles Gannett. The Story about a young boy, Elmer Elevator, who runs away to Wild Island to rescue a baby dragon. My Father's Dragon was made into an anime film titled, Elmer's Adventures: My Father's Dragon.
 |
| My Father's Dragon. |
My Father's Dragon
Author: Ruth Stiles Gannett
Illustrator: Ruth Chrisman Gannett
The narrative mode is unusual, in that the narrator refers to the protagonist only as my father, giving the impression that this is a true story that happened long ago. The illustrations within the My Father's Dragon book are black and white done with a grease crayon on a grained paper.
My father was very hungry when he woke up the next morning. Just as he was looking to see if he had anything left to eat, something hit him on the head. It was a tangerine. He had been sleeping right under a tree full of big, fat tangerines. And then he remembered that this was the Island of Tangerina. Tangerine trees grew wild everywhere. My father picked as many as he had room for, which was thirty-one, and started off to find Wild Island.
The second thing that happened was that he nearly walked right between two wild boars who were talking in low solemn whispers. When he first saw the dark shapes he thought they were boulders. Just in time he heard one of them say, "There are three signs of a recent invasion.
My father couldn't see who was talking because he was hanging in the air right over the pool, but he said, "Oh, no, I'm so sorry. I didn't know that everybody had a private weeping pool."
My father didn't even have time to say "Elmer Elevator, explorer" before the gorilla interrupted, "Too slow! I'll twist your arms the way I twist that dragon's wings, and then we'll see if you can't hurry up a bit." He grabbed my father's arms, one in each fist, and was just about to twist them when he suddenly let go and began scratching his chest with both hands.
My father and the dragon laughed themselves weak because it was such a silly sight. As soon as they had recovered, my father finished cutting the rope and the dragon raced around in circles and tried to turn a somersault. He was the most excited baby dragon that ever lived. My father was in a hurry to fly away, and when the dragon finally calmed down a bit my father climbed up onto his back.
About The Author
Ruth Stiles Gannett wrote My Father's Dragon just a few years after her graduation from Vassar College in 1944. It was an immediate success, becoming a Newbery Honor Book, and was soon followed by two sequels, Elmer and the Dragon and The Dragons of Blueland. All three dragon stories have been continuously in print in the more than 40 years since their publication. The author's other books include Katie and the Sad Noise and The Wonderful House-Boat- Train. She is married to the artist and calligrapher Peter Kahn. They have seven daughters and seven grandchildren.
