Three Tales of My Father's Dragon, Ruth Stiles Gannet

Three Tales of My Father's Dragon (50th anniversary hardcover edition)
Ruth Stiles Gannet, illustrated by Ruth Chrisman Gannet
ISBN: 0679887116
Re-Read: December 30, 2013 - January 3, 2014.

Juv: illustrated trio of stories about Elmer Elevator and his adventures with Boris the blue-and-yellow striped baby dragon.  The first was written and illustrated as a family project, and published in 1948 to instant acclaim.

I remember these so fondly from childhood.  The tangerines, the sticks of chewing gum, the very carefully crafted lists of everything from knapsack provisions to hidden treasure contents.  And of course the elderly stray cat, the baby dragon, and Elmer himself, totally willing to rise to any occasion as long as he's had a bit of time to think through a plan.

The first story is the classic, the one most people will remember, where Elmer ventures to Wild Island and braves everything from boars to rhinos to crocodiles with wit, chewing gum, toothpaste, and lollipops, on his mission to rescue a mistreated baby dragon who is chained to a river crossing.

The second story chronicles Elmer and the Baby Dragon's journey to bring Elmer back home in time for his father's birthday, with their stopover at the Island of Escaped Canaries, where King Can the XI, and all the other canaries,  are dying (albeit very slowly) of curiousity because the King won't tell his deep family secret about a long-hidden treasure.

Third story has Boris (the baby dragon now has a name) returning home to the Blueland Mountains after schlepping Elmer back home.  Unfortunately, Boris arrives just in time to see his whole family (all 15 of them: 6 sisters, 7 brothers, and parents) besieged inside their cave home, trapped by a group of explorers determined to capture them and sell them off to zoos.  Back to Elmer for assistance, and the two children sneakily and cleverly defeat the bad guys, leaving no one the wiser.

Delightful memories, delightful stories, and the illustrations are just quirky and sweet enough to fit perfectly.    

The Perilous Gard, Elizabeth Marie Pope

The Perilous Gard, Elizabeth Marie Pope.  ISBN: 0590460579

Read September 4, 2013

YA: Newbery Honor.  Bloody-Mary-era England mysterious castle and well-built fae.

Picked up a slightly-damaged paperback at the 10-for-$2 table at the Greenville Literacy Society's Really Big Book Sale.

 

I somehow missed this when I was younger, and I'm sort of sad that I did.  It's very Willow/Labyrinth/Dark Crystal feel, and the fae are beautifully done.

Kate and her sister are handmaidens to the Princess Elizabeth in exile while Bloody Mary rules, until Kate's impetuous sister writes a letter to complain of their treatment.  The sister gets dragged into Mary's court, but Kate (blamed for the complaint because she's not the pretty one) is exiled even further, to the Perilous Gard, all the way out near the Irish border.  

The castle is eerie and filled with servants who seem to have a divided loyalty.  The village is filled with traumatized peasants.  The forboding woods are filled with ancient oaks.  The lord and his younger brother are hiding a sad, dark secret.  Headstrong, stubborn, logical Kate is determined to find out how they're all related, even if it gets her kidnapped Underhill.

Really truly very good.  If I had been younger when I first encountered it, I have a feeling it would end up in the supreme favorites who-can-do-no-wrong list with The Hero and the Crown and the Alanna books.  As it is, as an adult, I notice the seams, so it downgrades to merely extremely solid.