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In the first book, a boy named Elmer Elevator is tipped off by an alley cat to rescue a baby dragon who's being held captive and used as free transportation by a bunch of mean animals on an island. In the second book, Elmer and the baby dragon help an island of escaped canaries, including one who used to belong to Elmer's mom before it flew the coop, uncover a long-hidden secret. In the third, Elmer helps the dragon rescue the rest of his family from hunters.
A charming and whimsical set of children's fantasy books from the 1940s, which unlike almost every English-language children's book from the 1940s, manages to HAVE an island and NOT HAVE racism. Two islands, even!
These books, with equally delightful illustrations by the author's step-mother Ruth Chrisman Gannett, are funny and sweet and have excellent kid-logic. Elmer packs pink lollipops (handy for bribing crocodiles) and tangerines (he eats the inside, while the baby dragon prefers the peels). Escaped canaries live together on an island. The baby dragon's mother is blue while his father was yellow, so his brothers are blue and yellow in configurations ranging from horizontal stripes to vertical stripes to patchwork to speckles, while his sisters range from blue-green to yellow-green. I only wish that particular illustration had been in color, but it's very adorable even in black and white.
A charming and whimsical set of children's fantasy books from the 1940s, which unlike almost every English-language children's book from the 1940s, manages to HAVE an island and NOT HAVE racism. Two islands, even!
These books, with equally delightful illustrations by the author's step-mother Ruth Chrisman Gannett, are funny and sweet and have excellent kid-logic. Elmer packs pink lollipops (handy for bribing crocodiles) and tangerines (he eats the inside, while the baby dragon prefers the peels). Escaped canaries live together on an island. The baby dragon's mother is blue while his father was yellow, so his brothers are blue and yellow in configurations ranging from horizontal stripes to vertical stripes to patchwork to speckles, while his sisters range from blue-green to yellow-green. I only wish that particular illustration had been in color, but it's very adorable even in black and white.