My Father's Dragon ~ Ruth Stiles Gannett

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3 Book Triolorgy by Ruth Stiles Gannett.
1 ~ My Father's Dragon
2 ~ Elmer and the Dragon
3 ~ The Dragons of Blueland
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Ruth Stiles Gannett wrote My Father's Dragon just a few years after her graduation from Vassar College in 1944. It was an immediate success, becoming a Newbery Honor Book, and was soon followed by two sequels, Elmer and the Dragon and The Dragons of Blueland. All three dragon stories have been continuously in print in the more than 40 years since their publication. The author's other books include Katie and the Sad Noise and The Wonderful House-Boat- Train. She is married to the artist and calligrapher Peter Kahn. They have seven daughters and seven grandchildren.
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Father
My Father's Dragon
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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My Father's Dragon is a children's novel by Ruth Stiles Gannett about a young boy, Elmer Elevator, who runs away to Wild Island to rescue a baby dragon.
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Both a Newbery Honor Book and an ALA Notable Book, it is the first book of a trilogy whose other titles are Elmer and the Dragon and The Dragons of Blueland. All three were published in a 50-year anniversary edition as Three Tales of My Father's Dragon.
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It was made into an anime film titled, Elmer's Adventures: My Father's Dragon. The illustrations within the book are black and white done with a grease crayon on a grained paper, done by Ruth Chrisman Gannett, who also illustrated other children's books such as My Mother Is the Most Beautiful Woman in the World, Paco Goes to the Fair, Hipo the Hippo, and adult books such as Tortilla Flat by John Steinbeck and Cream Hill by Lewis Stiles Gannett.
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Awards and nominations ~ It was cited as a runner-up for the Newbery Medal in 1949 and was an ALA Notable Book. It was also nominated for the Ambassador Book Award in 1948.

Film, TV or theatrical adaptations ~ In 1997, the book was made into a Japanese anime film titled, Elmer's Adventures: My Father's Dragon. It starred Yu-ki as Elmer Elevator and Megumi Hayashibara as Boris the dragon.

http://collectingchildrensbooks.blogspot.com/2008/06/fathers-day-brunch.html
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HER FATHER’S DRAGON ~ What do you do when you have a couple free weeks between jobs? Take a vacation? Hit the beach? Though not even twenty five years old at the time, Ruth Stiles Gannett used her two weeks off to write a children’s classic.
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Published in 1948 and illustrated by her stepmother, Ruth Chrisman Gannett, MY FATHER’S DRAGON is the whimsical tale of Elmer Elevator, who saves a captive baby dragon by using his wits...as well as some chewing gum, lollipops, and ribbons. Throughout the book, Elmer is referred to as “my father” -- an eccentric choice, but one that gives the book an added dimension and makes it especially appealing for read-alouds. MY FATHER’S DRAGON was named a Newbery Honor Book and continues to be loved by readers today.
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Two sequels, ELMER AND THE DRAGON (1950) and THE DRAGONS OF BLUELAND (1951) followed.

All The World's A Stage ~ by William Shakespeare

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Elvis Presley paraphrased the intro of ‘All The World's A Stage ~ by William Shakespeare’ in his song ‘Are You Lonesome Tonight’. Here’s more info from Wikipedia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_the_world
All the world's a stage is the phrase that begins a famous monologue from William Shakespeare's ‘As You Like It’, spoken by the melancholy Jaques. The speech compares the world to a stage and life to a play, and catalogues the seven stages of a man's life, sometimes referred to as the seven ages of man: infant, school-boy, lover, soldier, justice, pantaloon, and second childhood, "sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything". It is one of Shakespeare's most frequently-quoted passages.

All The World's A Stage
~ by William Shakespeare
‘As You Like It’, Jaques (Act II, Scene VII, lines 139-166)
(Blog Version ~ Note that everything within these '{parenthesis}' do not belong to the actual phrases by William Shakespeare.)

{00 ~ Intro:}
All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages.

{01 ~ The infant:}
At first the infant, mewling and puking in the nurse's arms.

{02 ~ The boy:}
And then the whining school-boy, with his satchel and shining morning face, creeping like snail unwillingly to school.

{03 ~ The lover:}
And then the lover, sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad made to his mistress' eyebrow.

{04 ~ The soldier:}
Then a soldier, full of strange oaths, and bearded like the pard, jealous in honour, sudden and quick in quarrel, seeking the bubble reputation even in the cannon's mouth.

{05 ~ The adult (the justice):}
And then the justice, in fair round belly with good capon lin'd, with eyes severe and beard of formal cut, full of wise saws and modern instances; And so he plays his part.

{06 ~ The elderly:}
The sixth age shifts into the lean and slipper'd pantaloon, with spectacles on nose and pouch on side; his youthful hose, well sav'd, a world too wide for his shrunk shank; and his big manly voice, turning again toward childish treble, pipes and whistles in his sound.

{07 ~ The 2ND childhood:}
Last scene of all that ends this strange eventful history, is second childishness and mere oblivion; sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything."