My Father's Dragon
A teacher’s look at why this book belongs in the Read-to-Me, Read-by-Me stage.
Why it fits Read-to-Me, Read-by-Me (for the kindergarten-ready set, between being read to and reading alone)
A boy packs chewing gum and hair ribbons to rescue a baby dragon, and every item pays off. The map alone launches a hundred pretend expeditions. A 1948 Newbery Honor that reads like it was written yesterday.
What makes it special
The narrator packs exactly what a child would — gum, ribbons, lollipops — and every item defeats a specific animal, a plot children find deeply satisfying. The 1948 ink illustrations and endpaper map invite expedition-planning between chapters. Read-aloud fantasy where cleverness, not strength, wins the day.
From the publisher
A young boy runs away from home to rescue an abused baby dragon held captive to serve as a free twenty-four hour, seven-days-a-week ferry for the lazy wild animals living on Wild…
About Ruth Stiles Gannett
Ruth Stiles Gannett (1923–2024) wrote My Father's Dragon at 25 while snowed in one winter, with her stepmother illustrating; the 1948 Newbery Honor classic has never left print and remains many families' first chapter book.
Gannett wrote it with no plan to publish — she typed it for fun between jobs — and spent most of her long life not as a famous author but raising seven daughters, pleasantly surprised the dragon kept flying.
Also by this author: Elmer and the Dragon · The Dragons of Blueland
More from “Chapter One, Together”
This book is part of The Best Books for Beginning Readers: 30 Teacher Picks (Read-to-Me, Read-by-Me) in our guide The Best Children’s Books by Age — 120 books chosen by the Montessori-certified teachers at Creative Minds Montessori in Frisco, TX. Come see how we build readers →
Nobody paid for this review — not the author, not the publisher — and the store link above earns us nothing. Our only interest is the reader this book fits.