Harry the Dirty Dog by Gene Zion, illus. by Bloy Graham. HarperCollins, 1956.
Such a sweet story!
Harry the dog doesn’t like baths so he runs off and gets dirtier and dirtier until he’s no longer a white dog with black spots, but a black dog with white spots. His own family doesn’t even recognize him until he races inside, up the stairs and jumps into, of all places, the bathtub.
The text is simple, the illustrations childlike and happy and the twist at the end—Harry has his scrub brush hidden again—gives a smile. Children will see themselves in Harry and will enjoy his escapades while finding comfort in his finally coming home.
I first "met" Karlin when she asked to do an author interview on the release of my first book, Halloween Good Night. Of course I had to follow suit (i.e., steal her excellent idea!) to celebrate the release of her second book, An Extraordinary Ordinary Moth.
Poetry Month is coming to a close, and with it I'll share five Zolotow picture book classics. Books like these are "out of style" in current publishing, which is a shame. I'd much rather read Flock of Birds over and over than books about crazy hair or farting dogs.
As we continue to celebrate poetry, I continue to study picture books. I don't think I could count how many I've absorbed in the past years. Oodles? Oodles of oodles? A lot.
In honor of National Poetry Month, I'll be sharing some of my favorite poetic picture books. Beautiful, vivid, delightful reads. Here are five by Cynthia Rylant, an amazingly prolific author with an insane diversity of titles to her name.
Alicia’s Best Friends and Simon and Molly Plus Hester by Lisa Jahn-Clough are two of my favorite picture books and here's why...
Our family loves books. And I mean LOVES books. So below I've compiled a short list of our personal favorites. The books we have read and re-read until the covers fell off, then bought new copies to read again. Some are classics, ones I grew up with. Others are new.
All the cutest Valentine's Day picture books! Ok, a few of the cutest. First up, Shape of My Heart. Valentine's Day and shapes. I enjoyed the illustrations immensely and liked the educational content. This would be a household favorite, I think, though I found myself wishing...
In this delicious interview, discover Sandra Nickel’s forthcoming book Nacho's Nachos, which tells the true story of Ignacio “Nacho” Anaya, who invented one of the world’s favorite snacks.