August 26 – National Dog Day

Happy Dog Day!

It seems like we have a lot of these throughout the year. And, no wonder… no other creature is close enough to be called ‘man’s best friend’.

So, in honor of the DOG and the DOG DAYS OF SUMMER, I offer you a few more picture books about man’s best friend.

Dog Days Starring Otis written and illustrated by Amanda Harvey (2003)

Poor Otis, Lucy and her sister come home with a new kitten and completely forget all about him. He didn’t get his breakfast, he didn’t get brushed, he didn’t even get his bed shaken out. So Otis takes off on his own. But he noticed right away, that all the other dogs had people who took care of them. He wondered if they had to compete with kittens in their homes. At the end of the day, Otis runs home to Lucy’s open arms. She hugs him, feeds him, shakes out his bed, and reads him a story from his favorite book, Great Dogs in History. Then she reminds him that he is the greatest dog of all. Otis plans to teach the kitten how to open the fridge door the next day.

Puddle Pug written by Kim Norman and illustrated by Keika Yamaguchi (2014)

Percy is a pug who loves puddles! He loves all kinds of puddles and even made himself a map to show him where to find all the best puddles. Yet, even with all the puddles Percy knew about, they were only nearly perfect… Percy wanted to find the perfect puddle. Then Percy found the pigs’ puddle. It was ‘puddle paradise’. But the pigs didn’t want Percy around. Percy looked and looked, but no other puddle was a good as the pigs’ puddle.  The next day, a giant storm cracked a tree right in the middle of the perfect puddle. Mama Pig was frantic, she couldn’t find one of her piglets. Percy used his map to locate the perfect puddle for a tiny piglet and rescued the piglet, bringing her home to her Mama. Mama Pig was so thankful, that Percy was allowed to wallow in the perfect puddle whenever he wanted.

Cowpoke Clyde and Dirty Dawg written by Lori Mortensen and illustrated by Michael allen Austin (2013)

Told in rhyme with cowboy humor, Cowpoke Clyde does everything he can think of to wrangle his ornery dirty Dawg into a tub. But Dawg escapes the rope, isn’t fooled by the bone, and avoids the trick ‘ride in the wagon’ ploy. It seems like Dawg has won, and Clyde decides to use the tub himself. He filled the tub with warm water and soaked himself beneath the moon. Just as he started singing a song, old Dawg splashed in the tub and howled right along with him!