Author: Al Perkins
Title: The Digging-est Dog
Illustrator: Eric Gurney
Publisher: Beginner Books
Year:1967
Genre:Easy to Read
Format:Hardcover
Reading level:Early
Interest level: pre-k, early elementary
Topics:Dogs, pet store, owners,& rhyming
Summary: This book is about a dog in a pet store. The dog is brown and has been in the pet store for quite some time; no one wants the dog. Finally a young boy named Sammy Brown comes into the pet store and purchases the dog. He names the dog Duke and brings him to his farmhouse where Duke will live. Duke is even given his very own doghouse. Duke meets Sammy's other dogs and feels very welcomed until he finds out he can not do something that the rest of the dogs can. He finds out that he does not know how to dig like the rest of the dogs do. Duke feels bad about him self. Sammy Brown is upset with Duke, since he cannot dig holes like the rest of his dogs. Duke decides to practice all night, he finally learns how to dig. To please his owner, Sammy Brown, Duke digs up holes everywhere, from Sammy's house to the neighbor's house, to the highway and then right into town. When Sammy finds out about this, he is VERY mad at Duke! Duke does not understand why Sammy is upset- he learned to dig! Sammy is happy his dog can dig but not happy that he dug up the whole town. At the end Duke fixes the town by digging up everything he ruined, so it was back to its normal state. Sammy felt happy after this and so was Duke. This book uses a lot of cool colors, along with hot-bright colors that creates a variety of moods.
Extension Activity: Since this book is about dogs, the extension activity would be about animals to broaden the subject. Have kids pick what their favorite animal is and then have them draw that animal on paper that would be provided. Kids would be instructed to color their drawn picture with markers which would also be provided. On the back of the colored animal, children would need to write a problem that would be associated with the animal they drew, just like Duke had a problem with digging holes.
