[.ca] The Digging-Est Dog (ISBN 0394800478)

The Digging-est Dog:
There are many reasons why I believe this book, "The Digging-est Dog" is a great book for kids. One of the reasons are because of the type of words it uses. This book uses wonderful words kids would be able to understand. When I was a kid I just loved this book because of the adventure in it. That is another reason why "The Digging-est Dog" is a good book. It tells a story of a dog digging to many places and it goes to the most unusual places a normal dog would dig too. This book is a great book for kids and I would recomend it to anyone. When I was litte I would cry when it came to the part when the little boy didnt want the dog anymore because it dug to, to many places and got in trouble so the master of the dog sent him back to the store and the dog was depressed and unhappy all day long. In this story the kid was happy that the dog tried to dig because before he didn't know how and none of the other dogs wanted to play with him because he couldn't dig. This book shows a good example because the dog never gave up and tried his hardest to reach his goal and achieved it.

Franz Kafka meets Dr. Seuss:
I read this book to my daughter once, then I threw it out. We have some other books by Perkins, and they are nice. But I found this one to be terrible. The dog is taken home from the pet shop, where he is not happy, by a little boy. The dog is something of an outsider among the neighborhood dogs because he can't dig. He then gets the knack of digging, and finds himself ostracized _because he digs too much_. At one point, the little boy actually threatens to return the dog to the loathsome pet shop! The plot's focus on ostracism, and the implicit theme of conformity, are bad. Just wrong for little kids. If you want to get one of Perkins's books, get "I'll Teach My Dog 100 Words".

Digging-est Dog:
I remember this from when I was little (born in 66) and loved it. I had to buy it for my daughter and now it's her favorite too. He learns from scratch how to dig and then gets a little too enthusiastic. Once he realizes his damage, he digs it all back in place. Also bought- The Five Chinese Brothers. One of my other childhood favorites. Though seemingly a little out of sorts with political correctness, it's a good story about quintuplets who get a wrongly accused brother out of trouble by using each of their great talents. One can hold his breath for a long time, one can stretch his legs extra long, etc.

Cute picture belies content of book:
The moral of this story is that if you make a mistake, you will be punished. The dog in the story is adopted from the pound by a seemingly sweet boy. When the dog can't dig like the other dogs, the boy is sad so the dog learns to dig. He digs and digs and digs up things he shouldn't. The boy is mad and tells the dog he's taking him back to the pound. It isn't until the dog digs down and almost drowns, then fills in the ditches that he's dug that the boy is happy and decides to keep the dog. The way in which the dog is threatened is awful. Not a story for young kids.

4.5 stars:
Poor Duke the dog had spent his whole life on 'a bare, hard floor of stone', until the day Sammy Brown decided to buy him and take him home to his farm. Duke was overjoyed to be out of the pet store, or at least he was until Sammy called the neighbor hood dogs over and they started digging. Since Duke had spent all of his life on a stone floor, he couldn't dig, and when the dogs disowned him felt as if he had let both himself and Sammy down. The next day Duke tried again, and he managed to dig! He was so excited that he started digging, and digging, and digging. "\oHe\c dug up the fence. \oHe\c dug up the gates. \oHe\c dug up the garden of Mrs. Thwaites." Duke only stopped digging when he found Sammy looking down on him. Sammy wasn't pleased, and told Duke that he was going back to the pet store. To escape Sammy and the other dogs (who had come with Sammy) Duke dug straight down, creating a well, from which the dogs helped to rescue him. As soon as he was out of the well, he ran back and fixed the mess he made in the town. Now Duke still lives with Sammy, and he does the plowing. One really neat thing about this book is how the pictures express the mood of the page. The pet-store is a boring brownish color and Sammy's place is bright and cheerful, except when the dogs disown Duke-then it is all slightly bluish. Duke's face is also really expressive. The story is told in rhyme, and flows well. It is also told from Duke's perspective. If possible, I would give this book four and a half stars because while the story is cute, the book just seems to lack a charm that some other books have in abundance. Loggie-log-log-log