 Book cover | |
| Author | Ruth Stiles Gannett |
|---|---|
| Illustrator | Ruth Chrisman Gannett |
| Language | English |
| Series | My Father's Dragon trilogy |
| Genre | Children's novel |
| Publisher | Random House |
Publication date | 1948 |
| Publication place | United States |
| Media type | Print (hardback & paperback) |
| Followed by | Elmer and the Dragon |
My Father's Dragon is a 1948 children's novel by Ruth Stiles Gannett, with illustrations by her stepmother Ruth Chrisman Gannett. The novel is about a young boy, Elmer, who runs away to Wild Island to rescue a baby dragon.
Both a Newbery Honor Book and an ALA Notable Book,[1] it is the first book of a trilogy whose other titles are Elmer and the Dragon and The Dragons of Blueland. All three were published in a 50-year anniversary edition as Three Tales of My Father's Dragon.
A Japanese animated film based on the original novel and its illustrations premiered in 1997, while the character Boris the Dragon was produced into a plush toy designed by Sunflower Publishing Company and released in the fall of the same year. A second animated film, based on the trilogy in general, with animation production by Cartoon Saloon, was produced on Netflix in November 11, 2022.
The narrative mode of the original novel is unusual in that the narrator refers to the protagonist only as "my father", giving the impression that this is a true story that happened long ago. The other two books in the trilogy are narrated in the third person.
The illustrations are by Ruth Chrisman Gannett and hand-drawn in black and white with a grease crayon on grained paper. Gannett also illustrated a number of other children's and adult books, including Tortilla Flat by John Steinbeck.
- ^ "Random House entry". Retrieved 2007-07-25.