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The Joys of ‘The Poky Little Puppy’
America’s all-time bestselling picture book tells a modest story of a dawdling dog. How has it held its own against flashier books?
You might think America’s bestselling picture book would be a crowd-pleaser like Where the Wild Things Are or If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, both preschool favorites for decades.
In fact, the honor goes to The Poky Little Puppy, according to its publisher and Publishers Weekly. Other sources have made a similar claim for The Tale of Peter of Rabbit. But Beatrix Potter’s classic first appeared in England and The Poky Little Puppy in the United States. So it seems safe to say that the American title holder is Janette Sebring Lowery and Gustaf Tenggren’s Little Golden Book about a dog who loves to dawdle.
First published in 1942, The Poky Little Puppy was one of the original 12 Little Golden Books that sold for 25 cents. Like other Golden Books, this one retains the distinctive design elements of the series: the nearly square format; the patterned golden spine; and the space on the inside front cover for children to write their names after the words: “This Little Golden Book belongs to …”
The unusually lightweight paper has benefits: It makes the book easy for children to carry and helps to keep…
