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 (4)

The Doctor Dolittle books were my favorites as a child. They were the first long books I ever read on my own. I remember loving them not only for the fantastic, funny and exciting stories, but because Hugh Lofting never wrote down to me as a child. He showed people with all their flaws and quirks, and made me think about things in ways I had never considered. He also taught me empathy, respect for animals, and fairness in all things, while revealing a world full of wonders.But the books have been largely unavailable in the U.S. for the past few decades due to a smattering of unfortunate racial representations in the first three books in the series. Those are the books that make up Volume One of this collection and are discussed in my review of that book. Yet ironically it is the later books in the series, which don’t suffer from these issues, that have been the most unavailable.So I was excited when I saw Simon & Schuster’s Aladdin imprint was finally going to make the entire Doctor Dolittle series available again. When I read that Hugh Lofting’s son Christopher was updating them “for the modern reader” I did worry exactly what that might mean. But then the books arrived.First, let me just say they are STUNNING!! The design and layout is crisp and fresh! Each story has been entirely reset and copyedited; they now have a consistency of spelling style and grammatical usage throughout that the original editions often lacked. And Lofting’s illustrations are reproduced beautifully. Then there are the covers! The art is spectacular, and the effects on the jackets give them a rich, lustrous quality. And this one is hands-down the best, and not just because we see the epic scale of Mudface the turtle set against a giant moon that hints at the Doctor’s visit there. No, what I really love about this cover is that we get to see the Doctor’s entire household menagerie all together as they listen to Mudface’s tale of Noah and the Flood.The books in this volume are all stories of lost worlds, and in many ways they’re the oddest Lofting wrote. DOCTOR DOLITTLE IN THE MOON is unlike anything else ever. Wildly inaccurate from a scientific standpoint (it was written in 1928 after all) it reveals a nearly psychedelic moon alive with flora that not only talk and think, but have, along with the insect population, created an Orwellian governmental structure that sees no problem in having kidnapped the Doctor and holding him prisoner. It’s a testament to how open to the weird children are that I found nothing odd about this book when I originally read it. On re-reading it as an adult, I can’t help but think Lofting was crushingly weary of his literary creation by this point and just decided to see how far he could take things. That weariness was even more obvious in that it took him five years to figure out how to return the Doctor to the Earth in DOCTOR DOLITTLE’S RETURN, a slim volume considering the time it took to write and the paucity of story it contains. Luckily, he made up for it dramatically with his final book, DOCTOR DOLITTLE AND THE SECRET LAKE. This is a book that Lofting began shortly after introducing the character of Mudface at the end of DOCTOR DOLITTLE’S POST OFFICE. But he continued to work on it right up until his death in 1947, with it published the following year. It’s a remarkable retelling of the Great Flood, but with a bitter, unlikable Noah, who is barely mentioned, and a story that veers dramatically from that in the Bible. I remember being awed by it as a child, and found it still holds up incredibly well reading it as an adult.As for “updates”, again there are practically none. There are a few word tweaks along the lines of those mentioned earlier, and some errors and anachronisms in the original books have been fixed. And thankfully, the illustrations in MOON, which were spread willy-nilly throughout the original book all now match up with the correct text.It really is fantastic not only having all of these stories available once again, but also in such beautiful editions. The paperbacks are nice, but the hardcovers look and feel even better and make for a beautiful presentation on the shelf. Hats off to Simon & Schuster for bringing all of these stories back and in such a marvelous way!

I've always loved insects and sci-fi. So this volume was especially right up my alley as a child! While I loved hearing the stories of the life of the Green Canary, and seeing the Dr's adventures, I loved the stories of the insects! Like the Water Beetle who traveled (inadvertently) on the foot of a duck!And the sci-fi! Well! Dr Dolittle goes to the moon! This story kind of reminds me of the 1902 film of the moon landing. The same fantasy that you have to just accept and enjoy (I don't want to give the story away)The only changes to this book that I seem to recall is the deletion of drawings of Bumpo, as well as the naked girl our primodal artist drew (it wasn't revealing) and they change her from being "a young girl" to a woman. Probably a good thing in this day and age of pedos-that wasn't Hugh Lofting's intention, but reading it today, it may sound a bit...pervy to someThe giant moth reminded me of Mothra (like I said, I like cheesy fantasy/sci-fi) especially since I used to watch the Godzilla movies a lot as a kid (still do!)They just don't make books like this anymore (which is why I won't see the movies-either the new one, or the Eddie Murphy set-I hate how they distort beloved old characters)