Harry the Dirty Dog

Harry the Dirty Dog By Gene Zion and Illustrations by Margaret Bloy Graham

This was a cute book about a dog named Harry who doesn't like baths so when his family was about to give him one, he runs away and he comes even dirtier by playing in coal, and mud. He starts to miss his family so he goes back home, but he is so dirty that they don't recognize him. He realizes the only way for them to identify him again is if he takes a bath so that he is back to his normal fur color, so he grabs the brush that he hid in the yard and goes inside so he can get a bath. After he is clean, his family realizes it is him, and Harry decides he doesn't hate baths as much any more. I liked the idea of this book because at some point I think every kid decides to run away from home because they don't like something or are scared of something. Then they end up missing their family and not making it very far so they come back. So Harry the dog could easily by a human character also. I didn't really care for the pictures in this book. The book is kind of old, it was published in 1956, and the pictures only use the colors green, black, white, yellow, and grey which makes them kind of boring in my opinion. The family that Harry belongs to is your typical family, especially during the time that this was published. There are two kids, a boy and a girl, the mom has an apron on and a mop in her hand and the dad is dressed up in a suit. The pictures are stereotypical but the story was cute, and its main character was a dog so I'm sure kids would like this book.