''Doctor Dolittle in the Moon'' is a 1928 children's book by

Hugh Lofting Hugh John Lofting (14 January 1886 – 26 September 1947) was an English American writer trained as a civil engineer, who created the classic children's literature character Doctor Dolittle. The fictional physician to talking animals, based in a ...

. The book tells the story of

Doctor Dolittle Doctor John Dolittle is the central character of a series of children's books by Hugh Lofting starting with the 1920 ''The Story of Doctor Dolittle''. He is a physician who shuns human patients in favour of animals, with whom he can speak in the ...

who studies mystical animals and plants on the Moon. While on his adventure, his friends on Earth long for his return home.

Plot

Doctor Dolittle has landed on the

Moon The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It is the fifth largest satellite in the Solar System and the largest and most massive relative to its parent planet, with a diameter about one-quarter that of Earth (comparable to the width of ...

and is discovering new things each day. He meets Otho Bludge the Moon Man, a Stone Age artist who was the only human on the Moon when it broke away from the Earth. The animals of the Moon flock to Doctor Dolittle, and he discovers how to communicate with the intelligent plants there.

Themes

There is no pretence that the Lunar environment, described in meticulous detail, conforms to what was known to science at the time of writing; thus, the book can be considered as

fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction involving Magic (supernatural), magical elements, typically set in a fictional universe and sometimes inspired by mythology and folklore. Its roots are in oral traditions, which then became fantasy ...

more than

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...

. ''Dr. Dolittle in the Moon'' includes an early presentation of the concept of "ecology", though it did not use that term. Dr. Dolittle helps guide the Lunar Council, headed by Otho Bludge, negotiate how many seeds each person can legally produce each year.

References

External links

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''Doctor Dolittle in the Moon''
at Gutenberg Australia {{DEFAULTSORT:Doctor Dolittle In The Moon 1928 British novels 1928 children's books 1928 fantasy novels British children's novels Doctor Dolittle books Novels set on the Moon Prehistoric people in popular culture Frederick A. Stokes Company books