Doctor John Dolittle, the veterinarian who can actually talk to animals, sets sail on the high seas for new adventures! Accompanied by his young friend Tommy Stubbins and the beloved animals of his household – Polynesia the parrot, Jip the dog, and Chee-Chee the monkey – the good doctor is off to forbidding Spider Monkey Island to examine the rare jabizri beetle. But the mysterious island holds another, darker secret: The famous Indian naturalist, Long Arrow, has mysteriously disappeared – and Doctor Dolittle urgently needs to speak with him. Doctor Dolittle and his friends brave a shipwreck, find the floating island, and meet the incredible Great Glass Sea Snail – the keeper of the greatest mystery of all

When he discovers that animals from all over the world want to communicate with each other, Dr Dolittle has the wonderful idea of setting up the Swallow Mail, the fastest postal service ever. Doctor Dolittle establishes a swallow mail service for the animals when he discovers that they have their own way of writing

The doctor needs money to pay off a voyage to Africa, so he joins the circus with the pushmi-pullyu as his attraction. He enlightens a circus owner who cares little for animals, fights against the practice of fox hunting and helps other creatures such as a circus seal and cart horses too old to work

Doctor Dolittle’s Garden is structurally the most disorganised of Hugh Lofting’s Doctor Dolittle books. The first part would fit very well into Doctor Dolittle’s Zoo, which this book follows. The rest of the book forms a reasonably coherent narrative. Doctor Dolittle’s assistant, Tommy Stubbins, reports on Professor Quetch, curator of the Dog Museum in the Home for Crossbred Dogs. Meanwhile, the doctor has learnt insect languages and hears ancient tales of a giant race of insects. Fascinated, the doctor plans a voyage to find them — but before he does so, one arrives in his garden

Doctor Dolittle’s Return is lighter and more comic than other Dolittle books. Tommy Stubbins waits for Doctor Dolittle’s return from the Moon. When the Doctor returns he is anxious to write of what he has experienced. This proves more difficult than expected. The poignancy of the doctor’s lunar experiences is juxtaposed with his hilarious attempts to be put into jail so he will be free of all responsibilities and will be able to write his book

The charming story of Pippinella, the green canary, as told by Pip herself to the Doctor. Although much of the material had been printed originally in 1924 for the Herald Tribune Syndicate, Lofting planned to complete the story in book form but never finished before he died. Lofting’s wife’s sister, Olga Michael, completed the book and it was published posthumously in 1950. Everything except the first and last chapter are by Lofting. Much of the material in this book is repeated from the earlier novel Doctor Dolittle’s Caravan and tells the story of the Doctor’s friend Pippinella the Green Canary, in slightly greater depth