Dog Stories
Friday, February 8, 2008 at 9:30AM 
When youngest son was in grade 7, one of the novels read aloud to the class was Where the Red Fern Grows. As a discussion question before she introduced the book, the teacher asked, “What makes a dog story good?”
My son’s answer? “The dog dies at the end.” She thought he was being a smart aleck and reprimanded him, but he says he was dead serious. You have to admit that he had a point. If a story breaks your heart, will you ever forget it?
In a pleasing piece of irony, the same teacher, reading aloud to the class, had to call in the principal to finish the last chapter of Where The Red Fern Grows for her because she couldn’t stop crying. I bet that’s an incident and a dog story that’s forever etched in her memory.
What are some memorable dog stories that you read as a child, that you have read to your children, or that your child has read? If you aren’t yet an adult, why not tell me what dog novels you love?
I’m asking for your help in compiling a list. Let’s make this one a list of chapter books and save the picture books for separate list some other day. Add your dog books in the comments and I’ll move your additions up to the body of the post.
If you wish—and I hope you do—tell a little bit about your experience with the book as well. Why did you like or not like it? Have you read it to your children? Did they enjoy it? Feel free to add your comments about someone else’s addition to the list, too.
I’ll start by listing two books, and I’m leaving the rest up to you.
- What else? Where the Red Fern Grows, Wilson Rawls. I read it as a teenager, I think. I’ve also seen the movie. I couldn’t tell you a whole lot about the plot, but I do, of course, remember that the dog died in the end.
Update: Threegirldad adds that this book “is set in the part of the country where I’m from (the 1974 movie was filmed in and around my home town, and I have relatives and friends who were extras), so naturally I think it’s a great story.” - Ginger Pye by Eleanor Estes. I read this book to youngest son and he was squirmy-yet-riveted as only a seven year old boy can be. Simple story; happy ending. It’s a long book for the age group targeted—300+ pages—but the prose is charming and perfect for reading out loud. And it doesn’t hurt that it is illustrated by Louis Slobodkin. Update: Leslie says Ginger Pye “was on our read-aloud list for this school year. We all enjoyed it. My kids were so concerned about who took Ginger that they couldn’t wait for our reading time!”
- Leslie remembers crying to both Where the Red Fern Grows and Old Yeller. We can’t leave out Old Yeller by Fred Gipson, can we?
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Hannah, Leslie’s daughter adds Henry and Ribsy by Beverly Cleary to the list of good dog books. I’d have to agree. Any book that included Henry was a big thing at our house. And it’s illustrated by another Louis—Louis Darling.
- Leslie suggests True Dog Stories: “It’s a bunch of stories about dogs who were heroes.” (This seems to be a series of books, so the link will take you to a page with more than one True Dog Stories on it.)
- And one more from Leslie: Follow My Leader by James Garfield, which is “about a young boy who is blinded in a firecracker accident and has to learn how to live with and love his seeing-eye dog.”
- Karen adds the classic Lassie Come-Home, which she read in sixth grade, to our list.
- Pam tells us that Shiloh by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor was a favorite of her boys.
- Also recommended by Pam, for older readers who love dogs: Marley and Me by John Grogan
- Pam’s favorite from her youth? The Call of the Wild by Jack London.
- And one more from Pam: The Old Man and the Boy by Robert Ruark, which she says is “a classic among hunters” and “an excellent read about the relationship of a grandfather and grandson.”
- Sherry, who really knows kid’s books, suggests Cracker by Cynthia Kadohata. She tells us “it’s a great story about a boy, young man, who is sent to Vietnam as a dog handler and about his dog, Cracker.”
- Threegirldad adds several to our list: White Fang by Jack London,
- Sounder by William H. Armstrong,
- The Incredible Journey by Sheila Burnford,
- James Herriot’s Dog Stories,
- Kavik the Wolf Dog by Walter Morey and
- Sasha, My Friend by Barbara Corcoran. About these last two books Threegirldad says, “Both of these books won the William Allen White Children’s Book Award when I was in grade school, so they have a special place in my heart.”
- Also from Threegirldad: The Cruelest Miles by Gay Salisbury and Laney Salisbury, “which commemorates the amazing 1925 serum run to Nome, Alaska,” and
- Greyfriars Bobby by Eleanor Atkinson, which, “although it embellishes and alters the actual event quite a bit…is still a poignant and heartwarming read.”
- Brandon adds Lad: A Dog, by Albert Payson Terhune.
- Candyinsierras remembers reading “a neat story about Gary Paulsen running the Iditarod.” I think that would be Woodsong.
- And while we’re on the subject of Gary Paulsen books, how about Dogsong, too?
- How could we get this far down the list without Big Red? Candyinsierras says her mother gave her this book when she was a kid.
