My Father's Dragon

Cute and silly read.

OK, any book that encourages Charlie to snuggle up to me and then talk excitedly about the plot and characters gets high ratings. But it's really cute, especially the illustrations. (My favorite is one that's also on the cover of of the lion, with his mane combed out, braided and tied in bows.) Charlie and I both enjoyed Elmer Elevator's adventures searching for the dragon on Wild Island.

My son absolutely loved this book. I was reading aloud from our paperback copy for our Sonlight Curriculum K 2020 reading and he was always eager for more, Rascal is currently 6.5-years-old. I later found that my 11.5-year-old daughter was going off to read ahead on her Kindle, as we have an open domain copy there as this is apparently a vintage story. Apparently, everyone from the three-year-old to the almost 12 loved it. We finished the book while on a trip out of town, and on the night back my son found the sequel on the shelf and asked to read it soon. The next morning, he discovered the third in the trilogy and is now begging for it as well. I think that makes for a great read! I bought this book originally in a set of Sonlight Core A books, it has since been moved to HBL K 2020.

Lots of children's books are interesting for adults, too, but I think there is a point where the book is for such a young reader that it's not going to be fun for an adult. Unfortunately, this book is part of the latter group. It is on the 100 Best Children's Books list, so there is definitely merit here, and the illustrations are lovely. But as an adult who is reading this on my own, it was boring. Why would an adult read a children's book on her own? Because I plan to read every book on the list that I never read as a kid, and so erase the embarrassment of admitting to my library school professor that I'd only read 12 of the listed books. Plus, as I said before, lots of children's and young adult books are very interesting, and good reads at any age.

This was a cute little book! My kids loved it and begged me to read them more. I'm very interested in reading the sequels.

Lovely little adventure story of
boy who travels to an island and
meets many intriguing creatures.
The story never feels contrived.
Recommended.