Hugh Lofting 
Doctor Dolittle’s Post Office 

Doctor Dolittle helps to capture a slave trader’s ship, then organizes the postal service of a small African kingdom, Fantippo, ruled over by King Koko. Mobilizing migrating birds to carry people’s mail from continent to continent, Doctor Dolittle effectively anticipates the 20th Century invention of air mail. Over the course of later chapters, he discovers a hidden island populated by prehistoric creatures …