Long ago a man named Gulliver had some astonishing (that is, fabulous) adventures with a strange set of people who were considerably smaller than he. Robert Lawson reverses that fable by telling what happened to Peter Peabody Pepperell III when he grew so small that he could use Gus the Gull for an airplane.

By the time Peter was thirteen years old he had grown down to a height of about four inches. He really had a wonderful time growing down; it is doubtful whether anyone ever had more fun growing up. When he was about ten inches tall a big rangy rabbit became his special friend and trusted steed. His father made him a small Western saddle, a real pair of cowboy chaps, and even a couple of beautiful little six-shooters to scare away hounds. In this array Peter led a whole army of animals, the most spectacular of which were the Mephitis Old Guards, whose brilliantly striped tails, proudly arched, tossed like plumed shakos in perfectly aligned ranks.

But the luckiest thing for Peter was the kind of father he had. When he wasn't being a high official of the State Department, Mr. Pepperell was a very handy man. The Pepperell Central Railroad, fully equipped and so extensive in its operations that it threatened to outgrow the workshop, which already occupied a whole wing of the house, suited Peter's size to a T. So did the ship models, of every rig and design, from Old Ironsides to the latest submarine. It was on one of these that Peter took up sailing, and it was through sailing that he met Gus—a meeting that was to have a great influence on his future and on the future of the world, as you will find out in the story of Peter's FABULOUS FLIGHT.

From the dust jacket

Peter Pepperell abruptly stopped growing at the age of 7, after which he started getting smaller. But while his body became tinier, his mind got bigger and so did his sense of adventure. When he learns of an overseas madman who's threatening the world with a compact but powerfully destructive weapon, the 4-inch-high boy climbs on the back of a friendly seagull and heads for Europe to disarm the evil scientist — and to do a little sightseeing along the way.

From the Dover paperback edition