Old Arthur
Liesel Moak Skorpen, il. Wallace Tripp
1972, Harper & Row
It was Old Arthur's job to wait for William while William was at school. That old dog was very good at waiting. He had waited all his life.
An old farm dog, unwanted by his owner because he's too old to continue herding the cows and guarding the henhouse, finds a new home with a little boy.
Wagging that woolly tail was the most important job that that old dog did.
A sweet, old-fashioned story of an unwanted dog who faces harsh rejection only to find love with a little boy who, unusually, appreciates the very qualities that others disliked. The illustrations add punch to the story, and ably demonstrate how the love between boy and dog makes the old dog beautiful.
Other books by Liesel Moak Skorpen
All The Lassies
His Mother's Dog
We Were Tired of Living in a House
Outside My Window
Charles
"Good-bye, little fellow," the man said.But he said it so softly that his wife and children could hardly hear him - let alone Sassafras, who was already inside the building.
Sassafras, a six-month-old Irish Setter, is left at a kennel while his family goes on a weeklong trip.But when a car accident kills his master during the trip, the widow decides the pup's return home will be too sharp a reminder to their children.She pays the kennel to keep him indefinitely, leaving the poor dog in eternal limbo.The gentle setter never fogets his beloved Home, but takes pity on the homesick dogs around him, comforting and protecting them.
An incredibly sad story, told from the point-of-view of Sassafras, who understands human speech enough to realize that his owner is dead, speaks with his fellow inmates and retains a memory so strong of his home and people that when he sees the kennel owner clean away old bones
Sassafras stopped chewing on his old bone because he did not want it taken away.It spoke to him of home.Instead he carefully put it to one side where he could always look at it.
A horrendously manipulative tear-jerker.And, horribly, based on a true story of an Irish Setter left at a boarding kennel for 13 years. The woman as a shallow monster who leaves the dog in limbo may have been completely true to life, but it stirs up ugly echoes of those old-school dog tales where men are the only gender truly fit for the loyalty and faith of a canine companion, because women are too concerned with clean floors.
Other books
The Hayburners
The Winner - juvenile horse novel (1970)
Nonfiction
When The Cheering Stopped (bio of Woodrow Wilson)
Still Quiet On The Western Front: Fifty Years Later
The Shattered Dream: Herbert Hoover In The Great Depression
Maximilian And Carlotta (bio)
Lee and Grant (bio)
High Crimes & Misdemeanors: The Impeachment of Andrew Johnson
American Gothic: The Story of America's Legendary Theatrical Family
