By Ruth Stiles Gannett
A boy stows away to a wild island to free a captured baby dragon, and the odd little things in his knapsack turn out to be exactly what he needs to slip past every hungry animal guarding it.
Elmer Elevator hears there's a baby dragon on Wild Island, worked half to death hauling animals back and forth across a river, so he stows away on a ship and sets off to rescue it. What makes the book is his knapsack. He packs chewing gum, lollipops, rubber bands, a comb, a magnifying glass, and a few other odds and ends, and one by one each silly little thing turns out to be exactly what he needs to get past the tigers, the rhinoceros, and the lion who would all happily eat him.
Coming off picture books, a real chapter book can feel like a big jump. This is about as soft as that landing gets. The chapters are tiny, and each one is its own little puzzle: a new beast blocks Elmer's path, and he pulls one more gadget out of his bag to get by. Your child gets a whole satisfying stretch of story every night without having to carry much in their head from one chapter to the next. There's no magic to keep track of either, just a brave boy, a knapsack, and a dragon waiting at the end.