My Father's Dragon

See?  This is just the kind of thing that's going to make me happy I'm now a librarian.  Here's a classic I've never read.  I was tossing 3rd grade read aloud ideas around with My Lovely Bride, the best 4th grade teacher ever, and this was one she mentioned.  I couldn't place it, but lo, it was in my library.  So I'm off to a good start catching up with children's lit.

It's kind of like and extended version of Harold and the Purple Crayon and is a great beginning chapter book.  It follows the adventures of a young boy, the narrator's father, who tricks a number of wild beasts on an island that would otherwise eat him up with just the right combination of items in his pack in an effort to, of course, rescue a baby dragon.  The pictures keep the tone light throughout.

It's silly and wonderful and will be a good one to recommend to imaginative second and third graders.

I hear there are sequels but don't know anything about them yet.