WOOF! All About Dogs

ASTRONOMICAL DOGS

	For dog-loving astronomers, Sirius – our sky’s brightest star (after the Sun) – is also known as the Dog Star. See Sirius for history, mythology, science, and viewing how-tos.
	Check out Orion the Hunter and Sirius the Dog Star.
	Sun dogs – also called parahelia or mock suns – are caused by the refraction of light from ice crystals in the upper atmosphere.
	See 5 Cool Dog Constellations.
	For more resources, see Astronomy.

FAMOUS AND HISTORICAL DOGS

	Check out Dog Stories From History.
	Frank Murphy’s George Washington and the General’s Dog (Random House, 2002) is the story of a little-known incident from the Revolutionary War in which Washington finds and returns British General Howe’s lost dog. (Included is the actual letter Washington wrote to Howe.) For ages 5-8.
	Roland Smith’s The Captain’s Dog: My Journey with the Lewis and Clark Tribe (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2008) is the story of the Lewis and Clark expedition as told by Seaman, Lewis’s Newfoundland dog. For ages 10 and up.
	Ann Bausum’s Stubby the War Dog (National Geographic Children’s Books, 2014) is the story of a little stump-tailed terrier, smuggled by his owner to the Western Front during WWI, who became a war hero. (Today, Stubby, now stuffed, is in the Smithsonian.) For ages 10 and up.
	Susan Orlean’s Rin Tin Tin (Simon & Schuster, 2012) is the story of the German shepherd puppy who was rescued from a World War I battlefield and went on to become a Hollywood star. A fascinating read for teens and adults.
	Virginia Woolf’s Flush (Mariner Books, 1976), originally published in 1933, is the biography of poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s cocker spaniel, Flush. It’s based both on poems Elizabeth wrote about her dog and correspondence between her and her husband, poet Robert Browning. For teenagers and adults.

MATH AND DOGS

	In Louise Yates’s Dog Loves Counting (Knopf, 2013), Dog can’t sleep and counting sheep isn’t helping – so, after consulting his books, he sets off to find more creatures to count, collecting en route a three-toed sloth, four-legged camel, and so on up to a ten-legged crab. For ages 3-6.
	If your dog was a person, how old would he/she be? Figure it out with the Dog Age Chart.
	From MakingLearningFun, Math Ideas for a Pet Theme has many activities involving dogs for preschoolers and early-elementary-level kids, variously involving counting, money, and graphing.

DOG POEMS

	Amy Schmidt’s Loose Leashes (Random House, 2009) pairs 16 short poems with great (and funny) color photos of cheerful dogs (by Ron Schmidt) – wearing glasses, perched in toy cars, rowing boats, and more. Also, in the same vein, see Amy and Ron’s Dog-Gone School (Random House, 2013). For ages 5-8.
	Dave Crawley’s Dog Poems (Wordsong, 2007) is a catchy cartoon-illustrated collection including such verses as “Oodles of Poodles,” “Wolf Dog,” and “Almost Human.” For ages 6-12.
	In Sharon Creech’s Love That Dog  (Perfection Learning, 2003), Jack – a student of the incomparable Ms. Stretchberry in Room 105 – is, in spite of himself, learning to love poetry.  The book – entirely written in free verse – begins with Jack’s objections to all things poetic (“I don’t want to/because boys/don’t write poetry./Girls do.”), continues through his strictures on famous poets (“I think Mr. Robert Frost/has a little/too/much/time/on his/hands”), to his discovery of a poem by Walter Dean Myers (“Love That Boy”) that strikes a chord – and helps him deal with the heartbreaking loss of his yellow dog, Sky. For ages 8-12.
	See Resources for Love That Dog.
	Mary Oliver’s pen-and-ink-illustrated Dog Songs (Penguin Press, 2013) is a lovely collection of 35 dog-themed poems (and one essay).  For all ages.
	By Francesco Marciuliano, I Could Chew On This: And Other Poems by Dogs (Chronicle Books, 2013) is a wonderful collection divided into four parts (Inside, Outside, By Your Side, and Heavy Thinking). “Inside” is introduced with the “Dog Dictum:” “We were wolves once/Wild and wary/Then we noticed you have sofas.” Delightful for a range of ages.
	From the Poetry Foundation, Dog Poems is a long list, including selections by Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Pablo Neruda, Delmore Schwartz, and many more.
	I love Judith Viorst’s Mother Doesn’t Want a Dog. (“Mother doesn’t want a dog/She’s making a mistake/Because, more than a dog, I think/She will not want this snake.”)