A picture book biography of fantasy author J. R. R. Tolkien focuses on the power of his imagination from childhood through adulthood and his successful writing career. After losing his mother when he was 12, John Ronald’s imagination helped him through difficult times living with an unwelcoming aunt, and later while serving in World War I. It was during his tenure as a teacher at Oxford that he wrote his first line about a hobbit, which he eventually expanded into stories to entertain his children. The dragons that John Ronald loved as a child populate the pages of his life story, and an illustrator’s note describes the care Wheeler took to bring fantasy elements into a historical biography. (Ages 5-9)