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June 5, 2012 by Betsy Bird

Top 100 Picture Books #28: Go, Dog, Go! by P.D. Eastman

June 5, 2012 by Betsy Bird   6 comments

#28 Go, Dog, Go! by P.D. Eastman (1961)
56 points
My just-turned 6-year old read this to me in it’s entirety last week! First book ever she read all the way through. What a terrific book! – Angela Gillette
This one is a masterpiece of humor, wordplay, and just plain words. But mostly it’s a masterpiece of dogs—all kinds of dogs doing doggy (and human) things with slightly ironic expressions. The ongoing routine, “Do you like my hat?” makes an oddly pleasing narrative thread even as it resembles an Allen and Burns routine. Kids are riveted by what the dogs are up to on each page, and if they happen to learn to read a few words along the way, so much the better. – Kate Coombs
We’ve already seen one Eastman make it onto this list with his Are You My Mother?  But honestly, when you want to talk about the Eastman title that
The plot as described on Anita Silvey’s Children’s Book-a-Day Almanac reads, “In a mere seventy-five words, Eastman manages to portray a group of dogs engaged in high-speed activities and madness. ‘Dogs in cars again./Going away./Going away fast./Look at those dogs go./Go, dog. Go!’ These dogs drive around in cars and finally meet at a party. Three times a pink poodle asks a yellow dog, ‘Do you like my hat?’ And he doesn’t! Then on her fourth try, the dog adores the poodle’s outrageous party hat—and they drive off into the sunset together.”
The timing on this post is particularly well-timed since just yesterday I conducted a panel at Day of Dialog (hosted by SLJ) of picture book authors and illustrators.  Jon Klassen, creator of I Want My Hat Back and This Is Not My Hat spoke a bit about his influences and of Mr. Eastman in particular.  Though his personal favorite was always Sam and the Firefly (Eastman’s first easy reader) it’s Go, Dog, Go! that strikes home as well.  “I just don’t know what makes Go, Dog, Go! go,” he said.  I know the feeling.
He’s not the only picture book creator to be influenced by it.  In Everything I Need to Know I Learned in a Children’s Book, former National Ambassador of Young People’s Literature Jon Scieszka gave proper props to this book.  He says, “At school I was trying to learn to read by deciphering stories featuring two lame kids named Dick and Jane. They never did much of anything exciting. And they talked funny. If this was reading, I wondered why anyone would bother.  Then I found Go, Dog. Go! . . . The book seemed so much more real to me (so much more like my family of five brothers) than the books about those strange kids with funny speech patterns. And that hat. That hat may mean more than we ever know.”

  • When the book came out in Nook app form it was a little controversial thanks to the price.
  • My favorite mash-up came when someone created a little book called Godot, Dog, Godot! But I am unable to relocate it at the moment.

So I had to sate my curiosity on this one.  How exactly do you go about adapting this book to the stage again?  I’m hoping they set up a tragic love story between the dog with the hat and the one who repeatedly tells her that it’s just not good enough.



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Filed under: Best Books, Top 100 Picture Books Poll

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Go Dog Go!P.D. Eastman

About Betsy Bird

Betsy Bird is currently the Collection Development Manager of the Evanston Public Library system and a former Materials Specialist for New York Public Library. She has served on Newbery, written for Horn Book, and has done other lovely little things that she'd love to tell you about but that she's sure you'd find more interesting to hear of in person. Her opinions are her own and do not reflect those of EPL, SLJ, or any of the other acronyms you might be able to name. Follow her on Twitter: @fuseeight.

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About Betsy Bird

Betsy Bird is currently the Collection Development Manager of the Evanston Public Library system and a former Materials Specialist for New York Public Library. She has served on Newbery, written for Horn Book, and has done other lovely little things that she'd love to tell you about but that she's sure you'd find more interesting to hear of in person. Her opinions are her own and do not reflect those of EPL, SLJ, or any of the other acronyms you might be able to name. Follow her on Twitter: @fuseeight.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Amy says

    June 5, 2012 at 4:25 am

    I ended up not including this in my top 10, but it hurt me to cut it from the list because we love it so much. So I’m glad it not only made it but that it is #28!

  2. rockinlibrarian says

    June 5, 2012 at 1:40 pm

    I saw a stage version of Go Dog, Go! on a preschool field trip once! (As a chaperone, not a preschooler. It was about six years ago). It was high-energy, very minimalist– wooden boxes were trees– and involved a lot of audience fill-in-the-blank interaction. The hat conversations were pretty straight-forward, no undercurrents of romantic backstory.

  3. Lisa says

    June 6, 2012 at 2:02 am

    This was one of my kids’ favorites!

  4. Sondy says

    June 8, 2012 at 2:31 pm

    Oops! Hey, Betsy, just a note: You accidentally labelled several of these Picture Books as Novels in this particular string.

    • Elizabeth Bird says

      June 9, 2012 at 2:41 pm

      Did I? I’ll try to find them. Can you tell me which ones, Sondy?

  5. Sondy says

    June 8, 2012 at 3:03 pm

    Oh, I love, love, love Go, Dog. Go! That’s another one that as soon as you say the title, phrases from the book start playing in my brain. Especially:
    “A dog party! A big dog party!
    Big dogs, little dogs,
    Red dogs, blue dogs,
    Green dogs, yellow dogs,
    Black dogs and white dogs
    Are all at a dog party!
    What a dog party!”
    Oh, I see you’ve listed that page. The only thing I got wrong was the order of green dogs and yellow dogs, and I left out the Oxford comma on black dogs. (What was I thinking?)
    I did, I admit, vote for Are You My Mother? instead of Go, Dog. Go! That was because of remembering my mother purchasing it for me. We already owned Go, Dog. Go! at the time, and it was much more beat up from the usage of my older brother and sister. Reading it to my boys solidified my love for Go Dog. Go! But this love definitely began in my early reading youth. Oh, the drama with the hat! Oh, the wonder of going to a party in a tree! How I longed to be part of that party!
    “Where are they going so fast in those cars?
    What are they going to do?
    Where are those dogs going?
    To the tree! To the tree!
    Up the tree! Up the tree!
    Up they go to the top of the tree.
    Why?
    Will they work there?
    Will they play there?
    What is up there on the top of that tree?”
    SEE the drama?! FEEL the tension?! Oh my goodness, I love that book.
    “And now do you like my hat?”
    “I do. What a hat!
    I like it. I like that party hat.”
    “Good-by again.”
    “Good-by.”

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