It’s only fair to say that my kids liked this book a lot.

My Father’s Dragon is a Newberry Honor book from 1948. It concerns the adventures of the narrator’s father, one Elmer Elevator (“Elmer”? Shouldn’t that be “Otis”?), when as a young lad he traveled to Wild Island to rescue a baby dragon. In form, the book is a fairy tale: the prince (Elmer) sets off to seek his fortune (the baby dragon) and has to overcome a sequence of obstacles along the way (the wild animals that want to eat him and prevent him from stealing their dragon). The prince has to rely on his wits and on the assortment of peculiar items his fairy godmother insisted that he take with him, each of which is just exactly what’s required to nullify one of the obstacles. And the story of each obstacle is told with lots of parallel words, so that the structure is entirely obvious.

So far, so good. Elmer’s not really a prince, of course…but the real problem is that there’s no fairy godmother, and so the assortment of peculiar items just lies there and looks peculiar. Elmer sets out with:

• A lot of chewing gum. (OK, I’ll buy that.)
• A bunch of pink lollipops. (Ditto. But why pink?)
• A tooth brush and tooth paste. (Well, maybe. It was 1948, and despite running away from home I suppose Elmer was well brought up. I doubt my boys would think to bring a tooth brush, though.)
• A comb and a brush. (No. I really don’t think so.)
• Seven hair ribbons. (Huh? Now, wait right there!)

There were a few other items, but I’ll stop with the hair ribbons. If Elmer’s fairy godmother had insisted on the hair ribbons, I’d buy it. If Elmer had reflected that he might run into savages who would be pacified by gifts of beads and hair ribbons, I’d credit him with foresight. But you just can’t tell me that a young American boy, now or in 1948, is going to run away from home and be sure to bring along a supply of hair ribbons!.

He doesn’t even chew any of the gum or enjoy any of the lollipops himself.

If the author packed up Elmer’s backpack and then amused herself coming up with ways to make use of the various items, I have to wonder how many boys she knew. If, as I suspect, she went back and filled up the backpack with the items she had Elmer make use of, I still wonder how many boys she knew.

I read this book to the kids at bedtime over three nights. I’d been reading them P.G. Wodehouse, and our youngest was bored with it; she’d taken to wandering off. Jane thought that if I read something more age-appropriate that Mary would stay and listen. She did, (though occasionally under duress) and the older kids, as I noted above, enjoyed it thoroughly. Me, I liked the bit with the crocodiles.

But in general, neither Jane nor I will be adding this one to our list of favorite books. It’s missing a fairy godmother.

Update: Aha! It’s as I thought. Seven daughters.