Elmer Elevator met an old alley cat one cold rainy day and asked him if he wouldn't like to come home with him. The alley cat says, "I'd be very much obliged if I could sit by a warm furnace, and perhaps have a saucer of milk." Elmer's mother is not at all happy about it. She said, "If you think I'm going to give that cat a saucer of milk, you're very wrong. Once you start feeding stray alley cats you might as well expect to feed every stray in town, and I am not going to do it."
After three weeks of hiding the cat in the cellar, Elmer's mother found out. She threw the cat out. Later Elmer sneaked out and took a walk with the cat. The cat told him about a trip he had made last spring to the Island of Tangerina stopping at the port of Cranberry. He explored a nearby island called Wild Island and found a baby dragon who was being used to fly animals across a river. The cat proposed that Elmer go with him back to Wild Island to save the dragon.
Elmer agreed to do this and prepared for the trip. The night before he sailed he borrowed his father's knapsack and packed everything carefully. "He took chewing gum, two dozen pink lollipops, a package of rubber bands, black rubber boots, a compass, a toothbrush and a tube of toothpaste, six magnifying glasses, a very sharp jackknife, a comb and a hairbrush, seven hair ribbons of different colors, an empty grain bag with a label saying "Cranberry," some clean clothes, and enough food to last my father while he was on the ship. He couldn't live on mice, so he took twenty-five peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and six apples because that was all he could find in the pantry."
He has a specific use for every item on that list. After he arrives on Wild Island he encounters various animals who want to eat him up. The picture on the front cover is of the lion who was worried about his mane. When Elmer first saw the lion, Elmer was hiding in the underbrush and the lion was trying to untangle his mane. His mother was coming to tea and he would be in big trouble if his mother saw his mane looking like this. Elmer took out the comb and brush and the seven hair ribbons of different colors and showed the lion how to comb, brush and braid his hair. Another danger averted on his way to rescue the baby dragon!
He does rescue the baby dragon. The book ends with Elmer and the dragon flying off to the Island of Tangerina much to the distress of the animals on the island.
The first time I bought this book I had a sick five year old at home. I went home and told him I had a new book and I would just read the first chapter and then he could go back to sleep. He insisted that I read chapter after chapter until we had finished the book! I have read it in classrooms also with the same effect. I rarely read more than two chapters at a time in case the class can not sustain attention for that long. This is an excellent first chapter book.
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