Doctor Dolittle The Complete Collection, Vol. 4: Doctor Dolittle in the Moon; Doctor Dolittle's Return; Doctor Dolittle and the Secret Lake; Gub-Gub's Book
Just in time for the major motion picture Dolittle starring Robert Downey Jr.—soaring into theaters on January 17, 2020!
Journey into the world of Doctor Dolittle, the kind and eccentric naturalist who can speak with animals. Working with original author Hugh Lofting’s son, these books have been fully updated for the modern reader, all while retaining the full charm of the originals.
Rediscover the children’s literature classic with four novels from the beloved series!
This concluding volume delves into prehistorical puzzles that begin with the Doctor’s arrival on the lunar surface in Doctor Dolittle in the Moon . There he not only meets the Moon Man and intelligent plants, but learns how the moon came to be in the first place. In Doctor Dolittle’s Return , he sets out to reveal all he learned on the moon, but is no sooner off to Africa to rescue his old friend, Mudface the turtle, the last living passenger of Noah’s Ark. In Doctor Dolittle and the Secret Lake , we at last hear his fascinating tale of The Great Flood.
This complete collection of the tales of Doctor Dolittle concludes with the delectable dessert that is Gub Gub’s Book , in which the famous pig writes a book of his an encyclopedia of food!
Hugh Lofting was a British author, trained as a civil engineer, who created the character of Doctor Dolittle — one of the classics of children's literature.
Lofting was born in Maidenhead, England, to English and Irish parents. His early education was at Mount St Mary's College in Sheffield, after which he went to the United States, completing a degree in civil engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
He traveled widely as a civil engineer before enlisting in the Irish Guards to serve in World War I. Not wishing to write to his children of the brutality of the war, he wrote imaginative letters that were the foundation of the successful Doctor Dolittle novels for children. Seriously wounded in the war, he moved with his family to Connecticut in the United States. Lofting was married three times and had three children, one of whom, his son Christopher, is the executor of his literary estate.
"For years it was a constant source of shock to me to find my writings amongst 'juveniles,'" Lofting reported. "It does not bother me any more now, but I still feel there should be a category of 'seniles' to offset the epithet."
Doctor Dolittle Hugh Lofting's doctor from Puddleby-on-the-Marsh who could speak to animals first saw light in the author's illustrated letters to children, written from the trenches during World War I when actual news, he later said, was either too horrible or too dull. The stories are set in early Victorian England, (in and around the 1840s, according to a date given in The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle). The Story of Doctor Dolittle: Being the History of His Peculiar Life at Home and Astonishing Adventures in Foreign Parts Never Before Printed (1920) began the series and won the Lewis Carroll Shelf Award in 1958.The sequel, The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle (1922), won Lofting the prestigious Newbery Medal. Eight more books followed, and after Lofting's death two more volumes, composed of short unpublished pieces, appeared. The series has been adapted for film and television many times, for stage twice, and for radio. Other Works for Children The Story of Mrs Tubbs (1923) and Tommy, Tilly, and Mrs. Tubbs (1936) are picture books aimed at a younger audience than the Doctor Dolittle books. They concern the titular old woman, her pets (with whom she can speak) and the animals who help her out of trouble.
Porridge Poetry (1924) is the only non-Dolittle work by Lofting still in print. It is a lighthearted, colorfully illustrated book of poems for children.
Noisy Nora (1929) is a cautionary tale about a girl who is a noisy eater. The book is printed as if hand-written, and the many illustrations often merge with the text.
The Twilight of Magic (1930) is aimed at older readers. It is set in an age when magic is dying and science is beginning. This work is the only one of Lofting's books to be illustrated by another person (Lois Lenski). Victory for the Slain Victory for the Slain (1942) is Lofting's only work for adults, a single long poem in seven parts about the futility of war; the refrain "In war the only victors are the slain" permeates the poem. It was published only in the United Kingdom.
Oficialmente, he terminado el último libro de Doctor Dolittle. Sinceramente, el libro "bonus", el de Gub-Gub, me parece muy pesado. Por muy corto que sea, es un personaje que nunca me ha gustado mucho y el humor en este caso, me parece muy forzado. He de decir que en general, es el volumen con menos ilustraciones, lo cual me parece una lástima. Hubiera estado muy guay ver algún dibujo de Itty, el gato lunar, pero bueno. En este caso, sí que tenemos bichitos interesantes (justo el anterior o Mudface, la tortuga). Aunque, repito, desde ese primer volumen en el que se burlan de todos los países, nada ha sido lo mismo.
Muy alegre de haberlo leído, creo que es de los mejores libros infantiles que hay.
Hugh Lofting continues his imaginative tour de force by having Doctor Doolittle travel to the moon. How? By a giant moth and oxygen generating flowers. He uses a little 'handwavium' when the moth tumbles through space, but no more than Star Wars.
The good Doctor is accompanied by his faithful scribe Stebbins, who's the narrator, Chee-chee the monkey, and Polynesia the parrot. Once there, they discover amazing vegetation and eventually animals. Of course, the Doctor learns their language and stories.
This book is not to be missed by Doctor Doolittle fans.
I enjoyed Doctor Dolittle in the Moon and Doctor Dolittle's Return, they both felt closer to the first story of Doctor Dolittle and Stubbins. Secret Lake was alright and I skipped most of Gub-Gub's book as I didn't really enjoy most of it. I am glad to have read all the Doctor Dolittle books and remember reading them as a child. I was fond of them back then and I am still fond of them now. 3 out of 5 stars for this collection.