Children's literature Fantasy Adventure Companionship Communication with animals Exploration
Doctor Dolittle’s Post Office is a children’s novel by Hugh Lofting, first published in 1923.
The heart of the book is the creation of an animal-run postal service, a network of birds and other creatures that carry letters across seas, jungles, and deserts. This whimsical system becomes a way to connect far-flung beings, deliver urgent news, and solve problems that ordinary messengers could never reach.
Amid shipboard journeys, island stopovers, and encounters with rare species, the story celebrates communication, cooperation, and curiosity. Each episode turns into a gentle lesson about using knowledge to help others and listening across differences, transforming practical challenges into imaginative adventures.
Like many classics of its era, some early editions include colonial-era depictions and stereotypes that later printings have revised. Even so, the novel remains treasured for its inventive world-building, humane humor, and faith in kindness, showing how a simple idea an make a big world feel closely connected.
"One morning in the first week of the return voyage when John Dolittle and his animals were all sitting at breakfast round the big table in the cabin, one of the swallows came down and said that he wanted to speak to the Doctor.
John Dolittle at once left the table and went out into the passage where he found the swallow-leader himself, a very neat, trim, little bird with long, long wings and sharp, snappy, black eyes. "
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The Doctor Dolittle's Post Office book is available for download in PDF, ePUB and Mobi:
Copyright info
Doctor Dolittle's Post Office by Hugh Lofting is believed to be in the public domain in the United States only. It may still be copyrighted in other countries. If you are not in the United States, please check your local laws to ensure this eBook is in the public domain in your country before downloading Doctor Dolittle's Post Office in PDF or ePub.
Dolittle doesn’t just talk to animals—he builds systems with them. This installment becomes a joyful manual for networks: routes, reliability, and trust across species. It’s funny, episodic, and quietly proud of collaborative logistics, turning stamps and sacks into instruments of care.
In a world run by protocols and platforms, this is a child-friendly lesson in infrastructure and stewardship. Read with context for its era, and keep its core: communication as a shared craft, not a magic trick.
How networks serve lives.
Kind rules, kinder outcomes.
Episodes that connect neatly.
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Gentle adventure that respects animals; bright invention, clear sentences, and steady moral weather.
We have 4 books by Hugh Lofting in the AliceAndBooks library