Great Picture Books Featuring Man's Best Friend

In honor of the Westminster Kennel Club's 135th Dog Show (roughly 945 dog years), here's a list of some of my favorite picture books starring our lovable friends.

1. Best in Show: How could I not pick The Poky Little Puppy, the bestselling children's book of all-time. Sure, it had a headstart on the other contestants, seeing how it was published in 1942, but it remains a favorite among  children today. This adorable pooch repeatedly escape troubles until his siblings see that he gets caught in the end. What child hasn't gotten away with something for a little too long before getting caught with his hand in the cookie jar? A great book from Janette Lowery and the folks at Simon & Schuster.




2. Best of Breed: Clifford the Big Red Dog. I don't know what breed he is. Looks like an Irish Setter that swallowed a Saint Bernard, but he's certainly the best of his breed. Norman Bridwell's dog, star of the printed page and the small screen, is a giant among pups.

3. Biggest Litter: Go, Dog, Go. Dogs in cars. Dogs in trees. Dogs racing everywhere, and in crazy hats. P.D. Eastman found plenty of fun things for his cartooned canines to do in this energetic early reader.

4. Best Trick: Martha Speaks. It's a common trick. Teach your dog to speak. Maybe a deep woof or a high-pitched yap. But in this series, Martha speaks in complete sentences and is willing to explain the big words to you. Susan Meddaugh brings the joy of words and self-expression to little readers who hope they can teach their four-footed pals to "Speak!" like Martha.

5. Best Behaved: City Dog, Country Frog. Okay, so this picture book has more than just a dog, but City Dog learns a lot from Country Frog: friendship, fun, patience, loyalty. Great qualities for man's best friend, in real life or on the page. Intricate watercolors from John Muth really capture the simple words of Mo Willems, who takes a serious turn for a change.

6. Most Playful. How Rocket Learned to Read. Another book featuring interspecies friendship. Rocket is just that -- a ball of energy bursting to play, until an imaginative bird teaches him the joy of reading by creating stories around Rocket's adventures. When the bird flies south for the winter, Rocket learns to read on his own. Tad Hills' playful pup just might give your youngster the confidence to read on his own, too.

No surprise, there are just too many great dog books to name in a simple post -- Nick Bruel's Poor Puppy, Mark Teague's LaRue series, and on, and on. If you have a favorite, please add it below. But first... a bonus pic!

Johnny K, 8 months old & trying to figure out Clifford.

Hope to add my own to this list someday. Thanks for reading!

5 Great Bedtime Stories for Your Young Reader

I’ve seen several newspaper articles that say bedtime stories are dead. Passé. You know, like newspapers. Or picture books. I don’t know. I have my doubts. Yes, I’ve largely stopped reading them to my 7 year old, who generally reads on his own at bedtime, but from ages 2 to 5 it was a nightly ritual.

 

Back then, it was all Thomas all the time. Thomas the Tank Engine books, stories I recapped from the series, and original stories as they came into my head. I also read plenty of Dr. Seuss, Clifford the Big Red Dog, and even my own rough drafts of children’s books (plenty of my picture books were born while putting Johnny K to bed).

 

So, do you still read bedtime stories to your children, or is The Baltimore Sun, et al, right?

 

5 Great Bedtime Stories

 

1.      Dinosaur vs. Bedtime by Bob Shea – a dinosaur defeats everything from spaghetti to pajamas, but he can’t beat sleep. Complete with a tiring *yawn* at the end, this funny picture book reminds your young dinosaur they have to sleep some time.
 

2.      Harold and the Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson – Harold goes on plenty of dreamlike, moonlit adventures before returning home to the comfort of his own bed for a goodnight’s sleep.

3.      Don’t Let the Pigeon Stay Up Late by Mo Willems – sure the pigeon does what every child does – fights to get away with staying up late, but the more he protests, the more tired he gets until zzzzz…

4.       Harry and Horsie by Katie Van Camp – Harry gives up going to bed to play with his best friend Horsie, the stuffed animal he sleeps with every night. They undertake an out-of-this world adventure captured in retro art right out of a 1950s comic book or the Sunday funnies.

 5.      Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown – OK, so this is the all-time classic kidlit goodnight. Rich artwork, simplistic story, and a child who says goodnight to everything. What’s not to love? A reminder throughout that bedtime is coming (and pair this with Peggy Rathmann’s Good Night, Gorilla for a funny ending…)

Hard to recommend 5 books when you want to list 50. I tried to stick to largely contemporary works, though Goodnight Moon and Harold were just too good to pass up. That said, I also love Maurice Sendak’s brilliant Where the Wild Things Are or the pastoral works of Kevin Henkes. Consider folktales filled with Jerry Pinkney’s wonderful watercolor, the traditional stories of Hans Christian Anderson, the long-winded but delightful works of Oscar Wilde…

 

So many great stories to put your little one to sleep. So what are your favorite bedtime stories? What tales do you remember best?