#173 in Children’s books
The Story of Doctor Dolittle
- 156
- Pages
- about 3 h
- Reading time
- Lewis Carroll Shelf Award
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Our view
“The Story of Doctor Dolittle” is a gentle, funny children’s classic about a kind doctor who learns to speak with animals. Dolittle’s good heart and the comedy of his animal household carry it. Some readers point out racial language and ideas typical of 1920 that have not aged well; others see them as a way into a conversation with children about how much has changed.
The view of the BookRank editors, written from readers’ ratings and comments. It does not affect the score or the book’s place in a ranking.
About the book
The Story of Doctor Dolittle, Being the History of His Peculiar Life at Home and Astonishing Adventures in Foreign Parts (1920), written and illustrated by the British author Hugh Lofting, is the first of his Doctor Dolittle books, a series of children's novels about a man who learns to talk to animals and becomes their champion around the world. It was one of the novels in the series which was adapted into the 1967 film Doctor Dolittle.
Reading order · Doctor Dolittle
Full order & progress →- The Story of Doctor DolittleThis book
7.67.6 / 10 - The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle
–Not ranked yet - Doctor Dolittle's Post Office
–Not ranked yet - Doctor Dolittle's Circus
–Not ranked yet - Doctor Dolittle's Zoo
–Not ranked yet - Doctor Dolittle's Caravan
–Not ranked yet - Doctor Dolittle's Garden
–Not ranked yet - Doctor Dolittle in the Moon
–Not ranked yet - Doctor Dolittle's ReturnDoctor Dolittle's Return–Not ranked yet
- Doctor Dolittle and the Secret Lake
–Not ranked yet - Doctor Dolittle's Puddleby Adventures
–Not ranked yet - Doctor Dolittle Meets a Londoner in ParisDoctor Dolittle Meets a Londoner in Paris–Not ranked yet
- Gub Gub's Book
–Not ranked yet
Where the score comes from
The sources average 6.8 across 75 ratings — not yet many, so the reader vote carries 34% of the weight and the rest pulls toward the Children’s books average of 7.9. That is how 7.6 comes out.
| Source | Average | Ratings | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open Library | 6.9 | 7 | 9% |
| Hardcover | 6.8 | 68 | 91% |
Frequently asked
What age is The Story of Doctor Dolittle for?
The Story of Doctor Dolittle sits on the Children shelf in the sources we use, which by convention means roughly ages 5–10. This is a guide from the book’s category, not a publisher’s age rating. It has 156 pages — shorter than 98% of the ranked books in Children’s books.
In this book
Themes this book shares with others — each leads to the best books on it.
If you liked this
Same shelf — Children’s books — with scores between 7.2 and 8.0, closest to this book.
