THE BEAT OF 16 DOG-GONE FEET (part 1)
WILLOW, my beloved 6-year-old yellow lab. My loyal companion, comforter, snuggler and listener. A trickster, rock climber, and strong swimmer with boundless energy. Willow is my best friend and embedded in my heart.
This blog, part 1 and part 2, will feature four books highlighting dogs that will melt your heart: Officer Buckle and Gloria, This Old Dog, Can I Be Your Dog? and Dog Heaven. Gloria, Old Dog, Arfy and Angel Dog, often in hilarious illustrations, teach us about life.
Officer Buckle and Gloria
Written and illustrated by Peggy Rathmann 1995
This favorite dog story has humor and heart, and is timeless. It won the Caldecott Medal in 1996 for Ms. Rathmann’s colorful, hilarious illustrations. In 2007 it was listed by the National Education Association as one of its “Teachers’ top 100 Books for Children”.
Officer Buckle tries to teach safety tips to anyone who will listen, but nobody does. The Police Department buys a police dog named Gloria, who Officer Buckle takes along on his safety tip talks. Tips such as NEVER stand on a SWIVEL CHAIR and NEVER leave a THUMBTACK where you might SIT on it. While he lectures, Gloria pantomimes safety tips behind his back. Everyone pays attention to Gloria’s antics, falls in love with her, but learns the rules. Officer Buckle’s feelings are hurt when he views the tape of his lecture and realizes children love watching Gloria, not him. When Gloria attempts to go solo, everyone is sad and bored, including Gloria. After “the biggest accident” at school, Gloria and Officer Buckle realize they are needed as a team, and they need each other. Officer Buckle comes up with safety tip #101, “Always stick with your buddy”.
Safety tips populate the inside overs, such as NEVER EAT MAYONAISE THAT’S BEEN SITTING IN THE SUN and NEVER PLAY IN FRONT OF THE MICROWAVE OVEN.
Margaret Crosby (Peggy) Rathman,is an author and illustrator of children’s books:
- Ruby, the Copycat 1991
- Good Night Gorilla 1994
- Officer Buckle and Gloria 1995
- 10 Minutes Till Bedtime 2001
- The The Day the Babies Crawled Away 2003
Peggy Rathman attended several colleges, then settled down and received a degree in psychology. She said that she “wanted to teach sign language to gorillas, but after taking a class in signing, I realized what I’d rather do was draw pictures of gorillas.” She eventually ended up in a children’s writing and illustrating class. She describes an embarrassing incident here that led to her first published book, Ruby, the Copycat.
This seems a bit unbelievable, but Peggy writes that she spent the first three weeks of her writing class copying characters from her classmate’s stories. Her teacher convinced her that she could create her own character. In her next story, her protagonist became a little girl with a passion for plagiarism. To avoid embarrassment, Peggy made the character look like her sister.
Peggy Rathman’s wit and sense of humor are displayed in the funny but meaningful stories she writes for childre
Officer Buckle and Gloria COLORING AND ACTIVITY PAGES on Pinterest
https://www.pinterest.com/search/pins/? q=officer%20buckle%20and%20gloria&rs=typed&term_meta[]=officer%20buckle%20an d%20gloria%7Ctyped
“Little Dog’s Rhapsody in the Night
(Percy 3)
by Mary Oliver
He puts his cheek against mine
and makes small, expressive sounds.
And I’m awake, or awake enough
he turns upside down, his four paws
in the air
and his eyes dark and fervent.
Tell me you love me, he says.
Tell me again
could there be a sweeter arrangement? Over and over
he gets to ask it.
I get to tell.
This Old Dog
written by Martha Brokenbough
illustrated by Gabriel Alborozo
Martha Brockenbrough wrote This Old Dog as a tribute to her own little girl and her much beloved old dog. It sweetly tells of the special bond between old dog and a little girl; between old and young.
Old dog is a gray and shaggy old mutt whose “bones are sore” but whose “heart is strong.” Since the baby was born, life goes at a fast pace. Old Dog wants to sniff each blade of grass and to hear leaves tell what it is like to be a tree. “His heart thumps, his tail does not.
One day the little girl begins to walk,and walks right to him. They walk side-by-side, sniff the grass and roll down hills. She places a leaf on Old Dog’s head, as a crown. That night they meet in a dream and walk side-by-side through the world.
Gabriel Alborozo uses “fine-lined warm-toned water color ink.” His illustrations are cartoon-like and show the tremendous personality of Old Dog. The dog’s tiny eyes are full of expression. The blur of his tail is the only fast thing about him.
Author of This Old Dog:
Martha Brockenbrough is an award winning author of fiction and non fiction books for children and adults. She is on the faculty at Vermont College of Fine Arts and is the founder of National Grammar Day (every March 4th). She’s written game questions for Cranium and Trivial Pursuit. Her work has been published in the New York Times and she is a former editor of MSN.com.
Her debut book, Devine Intervention, was one of Kirkus Reviews Top 100 books for teens in 2012. She won a Pacific Northwest Association award and a Washington State Book Award for her novel The Game of Love and Death.
Books by Martha Brockenbrough
- It Could Happen to You 2002 (diary of her 1st pregnancy)
- Things That Make Us (Adult) 2008
- Devine Intervention 2012
- The Dinosaur Tooth Fairy 2013
- The Game of Love and Death 2015
- Shark Week: Everything You Need to Know 2016
- Back to School with Bigfoot 2017
- Love, Santa 2017
- Alexander Hamilton, Revolutionary 2017
- Unpresidented, A Biography 2018
- Cheerful Chick 2019
- Big Foot Wants a Little Brother 2020
- This Old Dog 2020
- Into the Bloodred Woods (coming in fall 2021)
Illustrator of This Old Dog:
At 15, Gabriel Alborozo was contributing gag cartoons to various UK magazines. In his twenties he produced background paintings for various animated features and series. He also worked as an archeological illustrator.He writes that his first love is illustrating children’s books “in order to bring as much joy and humor as possible into worlds that readers visit.”
Listed below are books that Mr. Alborozo has written and illustrated:
- Let’s Paint 2013
- Let’s Play 2014
- The Colour Thief 2014
- Good Night, Firefly 2015
- The Mouse and the Moon 2016
- Come On, Tiger Tom 2016
- Flora’s Tree House 2019
- No Elephant’s Allowed (coming in 2023)
He has illustrated many picture books.
A Boy and His Dog
