Here are the details of a book my dad read around 1960 (possibly as late as 1963, but unlikely).
Plot elements: A boy (named maybe Ling or Lo, or a hyphenated name with one of those syllables) goes on a long quest collecting golden dragon scales that in the end fit together like a puzzle and make a dragon.
Genre: kids chapter book
Publish date: likely late 40’s early 50’s (my dad’s best guess—it was a library book)
Physical description of book: blue cloth hardcover
Illustrations: he remembers an illustrative motif of cranes, like on chapter headings maybe
Some books he claims it is NOT that I’ve found:
- Loot of the Flying Dragon (by Kenneth Payson Kempton)
- The Pink Porcelain Pipe (by Pauline Scott)
- The Overcoming of the Dragon (by LC Sturgis)
- The Last Dragon (by Dan Totheroh)
Many thanks for whatever you can do! I’ll at least know I tried my best after gnawing this bone for decades.
I definitely remember the crane motif. My Grandmother was a 6th grade teacher and she got the book when the school was making room for newer books at the library. She thought I’d like it and she was spot on. I sought it for a long time.
We found it! He remembered a LOT of details wrong, but the title is Ching-Li and the Dragons, by Alice Woodbury Howard, illustrated by Lynd Ward, published 1931. The book size was somewhere between a novel and a picture book, and has full page color plates every few pages