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Possibly my favorite book from early childhood. Mama read this to me Lord knows how many times before I was able to read it myself. I just reread it now (2/23/16) since I discovered I've never reviewed this book that played such a crucial part in my literary development, and I made another discovery. My nieces and nephews have scribbled all in the book. Oh well. Thank goodness it wasn't my own childhood copy which is safely stored elsewhere. (I know they're destructive little beasts, so I got a separate book for them a few years ago).

This is a book that apparently stirs strong emotions. Another reviewer on here gave this one star, and she explains why she didn't like it. There's a feminist bend to it, but to each their own. However, here are two of the responses to her review:

"Yes, it is a classic you heartless cunt. It's a children's book."

"You are a dirty skank ho bitch."

... And just when I thought I'd seen all the way down to the depths of human incivility. In spite of this being a childhood fave, I'm not that passionate about my love for the book. But apparently I'm that passionate in my hatred for Hemingway which, believe it or not, relates to this review. More on that in a minute.

This possibly has the best climax ever written in a book, and that's the dog party in the tree at the end. I remember spending ages just looking at that and seeing what each dog was doing and driving my poor mother bonkers by describing it all. It sure was exciting reading up to that point knowing what was coming. And I got to see them drive their cars! Oh, it was the best thing in my life at the time. (It was pretty exciting again tonight during my latest reread).

And then there are the hat scenes! Those are fantastic, and I discovered P. D. Eastman's inspiration for them after extensive research. It's high time that information was made public, so I'm going to leave it here.

If you've ever made the mistake of reading The Sun Also Rises you'll likely recall the unforgettable scene where this ninny goes on and on about her hat. She keeps asking dude if he likes it. He keeps saying yes. She, being the most insecure chit in all of Europe, doesn't let up for a long time. Eastman read this and was as frustrated and infuriated by it as I was, so he wrote his take on that kind of situation which originally went like this. (This occurs after the third time the dog was asked about the hat):

"Do you like my hat?"



Eastman was so pleased with this part that he could barely contain his joy when he went show it to his publishers later:



But it wasn't meant to be. Seeing the impropriety of including this kind of violence against women in a kid's book (no matter how much she deserved it; shut up about the goddam hat), the editors convinced Eastman to make the other dog answer the constant query with another simple "no," and then they had the audacity to make him answer the final question with a "yes!" Eastman then wrote Die, Editor. Die! and Are you My Hostage?, but neither of those ever made it to print as part of the Beginner Books series.

I swear all this is true, or my name isn't John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt.