My Father's Dragon

My Father's Dragon
By Ruth Stiles Gannett
Publisher/date:Random house 1948
# of pages: 77
reading level: 3
genre: fantasy


Summary:

the father of whoever is talking is the main character. it starts with him meeting a cat that he takes in and feeds against his mother's wishes. then he runs away to find a dragon so he can fly. the cat tells him about Wild Island and how to get there to find the dragon. the boy stows away to get to to island. there he finds tangerines to eat. he then meets several different animals. all of them don't want him to be there, and they want to eat him. however, he uses the things in his pack to distract them so he can escape. for example, he gives gum to the tigers, toothpaste to the rhino, ribbons to the lion, suckers to the alligators, etc. throughout the whole thing, the boars are trying to find him because they know someone his one their island. he meets other animals too and they all talk. then, he finds where the dragon is, and he wants to free him from the harsh conditions it is forced to work it. the animals try to stop him, but the alligators take them all down stream while he is cutting the rope the dragon is tied to. eventually he gets it loose, and the dragon is happy to be freed.

who benefits?

anyone who likes fantasy will benefit. anyone who has a good imagination and likes stories where animals talk and dragons exist will like this book.

what problems could this books have?

well, the boy does run away from his mother, and he disobeys her by feeding the cat a saucer of milk. that's not a very good example. especially because at the end, he doesn't even go back home. other than that, i don't see any other problems with this book.

my reaction:

i didn't really realize this book was so old. i think it's cool that it's been around for so long and it's still considered a good book. its won a Newberry Honor. that's cool. i didn't find this book to be the most entertaining book. i thought it was really clever that he was able to get away from all the animals some way. however, maybe because it's an older book i don't really like the writing. i thought it was sad too that he ran away from his mother without even looking back. that wasn't my favorite, but the whole island thing was cool.