No Desserts for You!

The Poky Little Puppy
By Janette Sebring Lowery, Illustrated by Gustaf Tenngren
Simon and Schuster, 1942

This book was one of the first 12 Little Golden Books published in the early 1940s. According to Publisher's Weekly as of 2001, it was the all-time, single best-selling children's book in the English language. (Selling nearly 15 million copies.) I can understand the appeal. After all, it's about puppies and dessert! Two of my favorite things.

In this story the poky little puppy is always lagging behind his disobedient siblings and is somewhat rewarded for his tardiness because he is able to gobble up the desserts that the others were forbidden after their hole digging naughtiness.

Here's a great quote:
"I hear something!" said the poky little puppy.

The four puppies listened, and they could hear it, too. "Chocolate custard!" they cried. "Someone is spooning it into our bowls!"

I love that the puppies are that excited to eat dessert. I didn't even know what rice pudding or chocolate custard were as a child but they seemed exotic and delicious and what puppy or child wouldn't want that? Still they seemed to have a remarkable disregard for following the rules!

Finally his poky behavior caught up with him.
This is one sad little puppy to have missed the strawberry shortcake!