My Father's Dragon

Summary

My Father's Dragon is told by a narrator about the boyhood adventure of their father, Elmer Elevator. One cold rainy day Elmer brings home a drippy old alley cat; his mother hates cats, whips him when she finds the saucer in the cellar, and throws the cat out. Walking in the park, Elmer says he would love to fly, and the cat, once a great traveler, tells him how: on Wild Island, joined to the Island of Tangerina by a line of rocks, the lazy animals have captured a baby dragon who fell from a cloud with a bruised wing. They keep him tied by a knotted rope and beat him into ferrying them across a wide muddy river. Elmer packs his father's knapsack with chewing gum, two dozen pink lollipops, rubber bands, rubber boots, a compass, a toothbrush and toothpaste, six magnifying glasses, a jackknife, a comb and brush, seven hair ribbons, an empty grain bag, and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, then stows away on a ship. At Cranberry he hides in the bag and is unloaded as dried corn on the cob. Living on tangerines, he crosses the rocks at night, stepping on a sleeping whale, while two suspicious wild boars track signs of an invasion. In the jungle seven tigers mean to eat him until he gives them gum that he says will grow more gum. A weeping rhinoceros gets toothpaste for his yellowed tusk, a lion afraid of his mother gets a comb and ribbons for his tangled mane, and a gorilla's six little monkeys get magnifying glasses to hunt fleas. Elmer persuades seventeen crocodiles to line up across the river for lollipops, crosses on their backs and cuts the dragon's rope as the whole mob charges after him; the crocodiles swim off carrying the animals downstream. Elmer and the dragon fly away toward Tangerina. Random House published the book in 1948 with Ruth Chrisman Gannett's black-and-white drawings and a map of the islands; it was a Newbery Honor Book in 1949.

Plot or Argument

• Chapter One: My Father Meets the Cat

  Elmer befriends an alley cat against his mother's wishes, says he longs to fly, and hears of Wild Island.

• Chapter Two: My Father Runs Away

  The cat describes the captive baby dragon; Elmer packs his knapsack in secret and stows away among bags of wheat.

• Chapter Three: My Father Finds the Island

  Disguised as a grain bag he is unloaded at Cranberry, eats tangerines on Tangerina, and leaps the rocks to Wild Island by night.

• Chapter Four: My Father Finds the River

  A mixed-up mouse, two tortoises and two wild boars nearly discover him; he learns to hide his tangerine peels.

• Chapter Five: My Father Meets Some Tigers

  Seven hungry tigers surround him, and his story about gum that grows more gum sets them chewing and arguing.

• Chapters Six to Eight: Rhinoceros, Lion and Gorilla

  Toothpaste for a weeping rhinoceros, ribbons for a lion's mane and magnifying glasses for a gorilla's flea-hunting monkeys each buy his escape.

• Chapter Nine: My Father Makes a Bridge

  At the river he finds the crank that summons the dragon and lines up seventeen crocodiles with lollipops on their tails.

• Chapter Ten: My Father Finds the Dragon

  With the animals in pursuit he saws through the rope; the crocodiles swim away with the mob, and boy and dragon fly off.

Characters

• Elmer Elevator, protagonist

  The narrator's father as a little boy, kind to a stray cat and clever enough to outwit an island of wild animals.

• The cat, guide

  An old alley cat and former traveler who tells Elmer about the dragon and helps him plan and pack.

• The baby dragon, captive

  A young dragon with yellow and blue stripes, red horn and gold wings, forced to ferry the animals across the river.

• Elmer's mother, parent

  A woman who hates stray cats and punishes Elmer for feeding one.

• The two wild boars, pursuers

  Pompous investigators who keep finding signs of an invasion and finally lead the stampede.

• The mouse, minor animal

  A little mouse who mixes up the sounds of her words.

• The seven tigers, obstacle

  Hungry tigers who take turns speaking and are distracted by chewing gum.

• The rhinoceros, obstacle

  An old rhinoceros who weeps in a private pool over his yellowed tusk.

• The lion, obstacle

  A lion with a snarled mane who scolds himself and fears his mother will stop his allowance.

• The gorilla, obstacle

  A fierce gorilla who twists the dragon's wings and is plagued by fleas, served by six little monkeys named Rosie, Rhoda, Rachel, Ruthie, Ruby and Roberta.

• The crocodiles, unreliable helpers

  Seventeen moody crocodiles who form a bridge for lollipops and then swim off.

Lessons

• Kindness to the helpless

  Elmer's adventure begins with kindness to a wet old cat that nobody else cares about, and it ends with rescuing a baby dragon whom the animals beat and overwork. The story teaches that noticing someone who is suffering is the first step to helping.

  • Why does Elmer feel sorry for the dragon before he has even met him?
  • How did the animals treat the dragon, and why was that wrong?
  • Who is someone you could be kind to, the way Elmer was kind to the cat?

• Thinking ahead

  Elmer and the cat pack carefully, and almost every odd thing in the knapsack, from the hair ribbons to the rubber bands, saves him later. Good preparation and a calm head turn small things into tools.

  • Which thing in Elmer's knapsack helped him the most?
  • What would you pack for a trip to Wild Island?

• Solving problems by meeting needs

  Elmer never fights. Each animal who threatens him has a worry, such as a yellow tusk, a messy mane or fleas, and Elmer gets past by helping with it. The book shows cleverness and generosity working together.

  • What was each animal upset about when Elmer met it?
  • Why did helping the animals keep them from eating Elmer?
  • Was it fair for Elmer to tell the tigers the gum would grow?

• Learning from mistakes

  Elmer leaves tangerine peels behind, and the boars use them as clues. When he overhears them, he saves every peel from then on. Even a brave explorer has to notice his mistakes and change.

  • How did the boars find out someone had come to the island?
  • What did Elmer do differently after he heard them?

Context

My Father's Dragon belongs to the American picture-and-chapter books of the years just after the Second World War, when Random House and other New York publishers were building lists of short illustrated novels for children who had just begun to read. Its tall-tale tone, with a narrator retelling the father's boyhood as if it were family history, and its knapsack of ordinary supplies set it apart from older European dragon stories in which the dragon is a foe to be slain.

Composition

Ruth Stiles Gannett wrote the story in her twenties; it was published by Random House in 1948 with illustrations by her stepmother Ruth Chrisman Gannett, including chapter drawings and a map of Tangerina and Wild Island. It was followed by Elmer and the Dragon (1950) and The Dragons of Blueland (1951). The Project Gutenberg edition used here (#30017) notes that no evidence of a US copyright renewal was found; it reproduces the text but not the drawings.

Reception

The book was named a Newbery Honor Book in 1949 and has remained in print for more than seventy-five years, often read aloud in the early grades and collected with its sequels as Three Tales of My Father's Dragon. An animated film adaptation was released in 2022.

Comparisons

• the-wonderful-wizard-of-oz

  Both send an American child to a strange land where talking animals, including a lion with a worry of his own, are met one by one on a road toward a goal.

• the-jungle-book

  Kipling's jungle animals have laws and dignity; Gannett's jungle animals are lazy, vain and easily distracted, a comic counterpart to Mowgli's world.

• mr-poppers-penguins

  Both are mid-century American comic novels in which an ordinary person's care for animals leads to an adventure, told in plain, deadpan prose.

• alices-adventures-in-wonderland

  Alice and Elmer each fall into a world of absurd, self-important creatures; the mouse's spoonerisms and the boars' pompous reports recall Carroll's word play and mock-officials.

• the-hobbit

  A small, unlikely hero sets off with a pack of supplies and survives by wit rather than strength, though Tolkien's dragon is a foe and Gannett's is a friend in need.

Quotes

For Students

A reading companion for classical Christian high school students. See the student guide.

Reading Guide

Watch for

• Each thing Elmer packs in Chapter Two, and where it shows up again later.
• The tangerine peels Elmer leaves behind, and what the boars make of them.
• How each animal Elmer meets has a worry of its own.
• The sign on the crank by the river in Chapter Nine.
• What the crocodiles do at the very end, and why the narrator says they are not dependable.

Key terms and names

Wild Island

The jungle island, nearly cut in two by a muddy river, where the animals keep the dragon tied up.

Tangerina

The island next to Wild Island where tangerines grow wild; Elmer lives on them for days.

Stowaway

Someone who hides on a ship to travel without being seen; Elmer hides among the bags of wheat.

Knapsack

A bag carried on the back; Elmer borrows his father's to pack his supplies.

Invasion

An enemy coming into a place; the boars are sure one is happening when they find Elmer's peels.

Ferry

A boat, or here a dragon, that carries passengers across water; the animals make the dragon their ferry.

Seminar Questions

1. Comprehension Why does Elmer's mother throw the cat out of the house?
2. Comprehension How does Elmer get off the ship at Cranberry without the sailors catching him?
3. Comprehension How does Elmer get across the river to reach the dragon?
4. Interpretation The animals tied up the dragon to make their lives easier. What does that tell you about them?
5. Interpretation Why do you think none of the animals noticed Elmer once he had given them something?
6. Interpretation Elmer ran away from home without telling his parents. Was he right to go?
7. Big Question If you see someone being treated badly, what should you do, even if you are small?

Faith Connections

• Proverbs 12:10 (Scripture)

  A righteous man regards the life of his beast. Elmer cares for a stray cat and an overworked dragon, while the island's animals use the dragon cruelly.

• Matthew 10:16 (Scripture)

  Jesus tells his disciples to be wise as serpents and harmless as doves. Elmer gets past every danger by cleverness without hurting a single animal.

• Isaiah 58:6 (Scripture)

  God asks his people to loose the bands of wickedness and undo the heavy burdens. Elmer's whole journey is to cut one rope and set a captive free.

Logic and Rhetoric

Central argument: The dragon is suffering, and the strong animals of Wild Island will not free him. A boy cannot fight tigers or a gorilla, but each of them can be distracted by kindness to its own small need. Therefore a small, prepared and generous person can rescue someone the powerful have trapped.

Rhetorical device: repetition with variation. Chapters Five to Eight each repeat the same pattern: Elmer is caught, the animal reveals a worry, Elmer pulls the right object from his knapsack, and the animal becomes too busy to notice him leave.

Debate: Resolved: that Elmer was right to trick the tigers about the chewing gum.

Memory Work

One cold rainy day when my father was a little boy, he met an old alley cat on his street.

One doesn't contradict a hungry tiger.

Writing Prompts

Essay: Tell how Elmer gets past two animals on Wild Island, and explain what each one wanted.

Comparison with The Wonderful Wizard of Oz: Compare Elmer's lion, who is worried about his mane, with Dorothy's Cowardly Lion. What does each lion need, and who helps him?

Medical Lens

Medical content is slight. The dragon arrives with a badly bruised wing, is tied up until it heals, and is then overworked and has his wings twisted as punishment; the book treats this plainly as cruelty to a hurt young creature. The animals' complaints are comic rather than clinical: the rhinoceros says he cannot sleep at night for thinking about his ugly yellowed tusk, the lion fears his mother, and the gorilla is driven to distraction by fleas. A reader could note in passing that Elmer's mother whips him, an ordinary household punishment in the period, stated without comment.

• Chapter Two, My Father Runs Away

  The cat explains that the baby dragon fell from a cloud with a bruised wing, was tied up while it healed, and is now beaten and overloaded.

  Pain
• Chapter Six, My Father Meets a Rhinoceros

  The rhinoceros weeps constantly and cannot sleep over his yellowed tusk until Elmer shows him how to brush it.

  Nursing Caregiving

Creative Prompts

• Classroom

  Make a picture list of everything in Elmer's knapsack, then draw an arrow from each item to the animal or problem it solved.

• Fiction

  Write what happens when the crocodile train finally stops and the wild boars try to explain to everyone how the invasion got away.

• Dialogue

  Act out Elmer telling the cat, back home, how he rescued the dragon, with the cat asking questions.

• Classroom

  Draw a map of Tangerina and Wild Island showing the Ocean Rocks, the river, the clearing and the crossroads sign, and trace Elmer's route.

Further Reading

• Elmer and the Dragon, Ruth Stiles Gannett

• The Dragons of Blueland, Ruth Stiles Gannett

• The Reluctant Dragon, Kenneth Grahame

  An earlier gentle-dragon story.