My Dog, Trip
Deborah Kogan Ray, author and illustrator
1987, Holiday House

Trip got to be my best friend in the whole world. He help me with my chores. And he always want to play with me. Every day, he's waitin' for me when the school bus lets me off.

A picture book about a little girl and her beloved dog, and how he disappears one day.

I hate books with a southern flair for the coal mines. I loathe them. All the authentic voice and good old-fashioned workin' man values make me squirm. It's not that I long for yet another book set in Manhattan with an upper-middle-class protaganist, but I grew up blue-collar and I can't help suspecting that the author is faking it with all the 'hollers' and 'ain't's and dropped g's everywhere. And that said, I like this book. The illustrations are beautiful, the story is simple and just right, and the ending is satisfying.

Trip - mix, looks like a small setter/hound/retriever mix

Author Info
Ray was educated at Philadelphia's venerable art school, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.

Author Website