Author: Ruth Stiles Gannett
Publisher: Dover Publications
Rating: WORTHY!
It's unusual for me to write a review so long after reading the book, but this one was so short and weird that it was hard to forget what it was about. It's an amazingly fantastical adventure wherein nine-year-old Elmer Elevator bravely sets out to make early acquaintance with his destiny, and ends up almost as much by luck as by judgment, rescuing an imprisoned young dragon who naturally becomes his friend in the doing.
It's a bit of a scary adventure in the jungle, which Elmer, who lives in Popsicornia, has to reach by way of Tangerina. On Wild Island he predictably meets up with wild critters who aren't exactly friendly, but Elmer, having learned of the dragon's plight on the island from an alley cat with whom he teams up, loads up his back pack with useful items like chewing gum, a comb and a hairbrush, lollipops, magnifying glasses, toothpaste and brush, seven hair ribbons, an empty grain bag, and food, supplemented by tangerines, but of course I won't spoil it by revealing where he obtained those....
The cool thing about Elmer is that he's all about smarts and trickery. He never resorts to barbaric fisticuffs or brawling, and he always manages to outwit his foes no matter how big and scary they might be, or whether they be rhinos or tigers, monkeys or crocodiles. It's quite a remarkable book given that it was originally published seventy years ago.
This book is a very fast read and is the first of a trilogy (Elmer and the Dragon and The Dragons of Bluelandfollowed it), so there's more to come after this one is done. I recommend it.
