My Father's Dragon

My Father's Dragon is a children's novel by Ruth Stiles Gannett about a young boy, Elmer Elevator, who runs away to Wild Island to rescue a baby Dragon. Both a Newbery Honor Book and an ALA Notable Book, 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. It was made into an anime film titled, Elmer's Adventures: My Father's Dragon.

The narrative mode 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 within the book are black and white done with a grease crayon on a grained paper, done by Ruth Chrisman Gannett, who also illustrated other children's books such as My Mother Is the Most Beautiful Woman in the World, Paco Goes to the Fair, Miss Hickory, Hipo the Hippo, and adult books such as Tortilla Flat by John Steinbeck and Cream Hill by Lewis Stiles Gannett, the author's father and husband of the book's illustrator.

Awards and nominations
It was cited as a runner-up for the Newbery Medal in 1949 and was an ALA Notable Book. It was also nominated for the Ambassador Book Award in 1948.

Film, TV or theatrical adaptations
In 1997, the book was made into a Japanese anime film titled, Elmer's Adventures: My Father's Dragon. It starred Yu-ki as Elmer Elevator and Megumi Hayashibara as Boris the dragon.

Other formats
Unabridged audiobook at LibriVox

A digitized version is also available at Project Gutenberg.