NEWBERY HONOR BOOK • The beloved tale of a boy on a daring quest to rescue a dragon, featuring the original black-and-white illustrations“Irresistible . . . a real delight.”—The New Yorker Now a Netflix animated film featuring the voices of Jacob Tremblay, Gaten Matarazzo, Whoopi Goldberg, Alan Cumming, and more!When Elmer Elevator hears about the baby dragon being held captive on Wild Island, he knows just what to do. First, he packs his knapsack with important supplies, like chewing gum, lollipops, and lots of rubber bands. Then he stows away on a ship headed for the island. Along the way, Elmer meets many exotic animals. Each tries to sidetrack him, but Elmer has some tricks up his sleeve . . . or more precisely, in his knapsack. One way or another, he will rescue the dragon!
First published in 1948,
My Father’s Dragon has delighted generations of young readers. It is classic storytelling at its finest.
Read all of Elmer’s adventures!Elmer and the DragonThe Dragons of Blueland
On sale: December 27, 2005
Age: 8-12 years
Grade: Grades 3-7
Page count: 96 Pages
ISBN: 9780440421214
Reading level: Lexile: 970L | Fountas/Pinnell: N
Ruth Stiles Gannett wrote
My Father’s Dragon just a few years after her 1944 graduation from Vassar College. An immediate success, it was named 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 since their publication. In 2022,
My Father’s Dragon premiered as an animated film on Netflix. Ruth Stiles Gannett died in 2024, at the age of one hundred.
Ruth Chrisman Gannett was already a well-established artist and illustrator when she began collaborating with her stepdaughter on
My Father’s Dragon and its sequels. Her pictures for these books are perhaps her most enduring work. Her illustrations can also be seen in the first edition of John Steinbeck’s
Tortilla Flat and in
Miss Hickory by Carolyn Sherwin Bailey. Ruth Chrisman Gannett was married to Lewis Gannett, daily book critic for the
New York Herald Tribune. She died in 1979.
Praise for My Father’s Dragon“Here is a real delight—a nonsense tale in which the ingenuity of the humor and the logic of the nonsense are irresistible.”
—The New Yorker“The power of
My Father’s Dragon lies in the author’s assurances that while the adults in our lives can set things right some of the time, children will also become strong and clever enough to take care of themselves, and, when the time comes, will rescue their own children.”
—The Horn Book
