[1] Although much of the material had been printed originally in 1924[citation needed] for the Herald Tribune Syndicate,[1] Lofting planned to complete the story in the book form but never finished before he died.

Lofting's wife's sister, dancer Olga Fricker, completed the book and was published posthumously in 1950.

Much of the book is repeated from the 1926 novel, Doctor Dolittle's Caravan.

It tells the story of the Doctor's friend Pippinella the Green Canary, in slightly greater depth.

This article about a children's fantasy novel of the 1950s is a stub.