Puppy Mudge Strives to Find What Has Been Lost

My dog Mokey has a blanket that she loves to death. It's folded up in the bottom of her kennel in a snuggly sort of way, and that's where it stays except for those occasions when we pull it out to run it through the wash. She does not have a portable blanket. But Mudge does in Puppy Mudge Loves His Blanket.

Cynthia Rylant, author of many series of children's books including Poppleton, Mr. Putter and Tabby and the original Henry and Mudge series, of which Puppy Mudge is a spin-off, writes this simple tale of a dog's devotion to a well-worn blanket, and Isidre Mones illustrates in the cartoonish style of Sucie Stevenson, who illustrated most of the Henry and Mudge books.

The books in this series are a pre-level 1 on the Ready-to-Read scale, which means that they are intended for children who are just learning how to read. The sentences are simple and only one or two to a page, and there is repetition aplenty. Throughout the 25 pages, for instance, the word "blanket" appears six times and is referenced with the word "it" on another four occasions. Once Rylant establishes how much Mudge adores the titular object, the rest of the book focuses on him trying to find the blanket, as it has gone missing, which evidently is a recurring problem.

Mudge is an enormous dog, so even as a puppy he dwarfs Henry, the happy-go-lucky red-headed boy who shares all his adventures. We also see Henry's parents, Dad with his bushy brown hair and mustache, Mom with her golden locks. But they don't come into the story much. The bigger star is the house, which Mudge explores thoroughly, hoping his blanket will turn up around the next corner.

Puppy Mudge Loves His Blanket is another cute installment in the Puppy Mudge series that will strike a chord with anyone who knows what it's like to have a deeply cherished possession.

Yummy Puppy Mudge Story Gives Youngsters Something to Nibble On

Lately I've been enjoying the series by Cynthia Rylant about Henry and Mudge, a likable red-headed kid and his great big drooly dog. When I came across the Puppy Mudge series, I had to snatch up a few of those books too. Though Mudge is identified as a puppy, he looks just as big as ever to me.

The only thing smaller about this series is the number of pages - and sentences and words. While the Henry and Mudge books are a level 2 on the Ready-to-Read scale, indicating that they are intended for independent readers, the Puppy Mudge series is pre-level 1, "recognizing words". This series is for children who are just beginning to learn to read.

In Puppy Mudge Has a Snack, Mudge is hungry. Henry has something yummy with which to occupy himself, but poor Mudge has nothing. Henry knows what Mudge wants, but he is reluctant to relinquish his snack to his hungry young dog. Surely, though, he can get Mudge a snack of his own...

This is a very simple story. With a single exception, there is only one sentence per page, if that. The bulk of the 26-page book focuses on Mudge's varied attempts to get something crunchily delicious out of young Henry. Isidre Mones' illustrations are in the style of Sucie Stevenson, who furnished cartoonish pictures for most of the Henry and Mudge books. Though we don't see either of Henry's parents in this book, Henry is well realized, and Mudge is always entertaining, jumping up on Henry's lap, drooling and trying to look cute.

Puppy Mudge Has a Snack is a great starter story for preschoolers just becoming familiar with the written word, and once they've graduated to more complicated reading material, nearly thirty Henry and Mudge books await.

Puppy Mudge Loves Everything... Except Baths

Mudge is a great big dog, and he doesn't like baths. Not at all. Fans of the Henry and Mudge series by Cynthia Rylant, the prolific author of the Poppleton and Mr. Putter and Tabby series and several others, might well already know this, as Rylant addresses the issue in Henry and Mudge in the Green Time, the third book starring the affable dog and the boy who loves him. In that book, Henry hoses Mudge down outside, despite the slobbery pooch's best attempts to avoid the drenching.

In Puppy Mudge Takes a Bath, Mudge doesn't look a whole lot smaller to me, but evidently he is small enough to be bathed in a tub - though Henry may want to re-think the logic of this arrangement, since in his desperation to get away, Mudge tracks mud all over the house, and once Henry does manage to pin him down in the water, the bathtub becomes a muddy cesspool. The tub is such a mucky mess, in fact, that I find it hard to believe Mudge could get any cleaner in there and even harder to believe that the previously clean Henry, who hops in with his dog, could. Maybe it is the mess caused by this bathing attempt rather than Mudge's size that leads to the outdoor bathing practices.

Henry and Mudge in the Green Time is more involved that Puppy Mudge Takes a Bath because the latter is only a pre-level one on the Ready-to-Read scale, while the former is a level 2. The Puppy Mudge series is written specifically for the most inexperienced of readers; this book is 26 pages long and consists of very short sentences, one or two per page.

The illustrations by Isidre Mones are in the style of Sucie Stevenson, who provided pictures for most of the Henry and Mudge books. These are cartoonish and amusing, especially the pictures of Mudge doing his absolute best to keep away from the boy with the power to get him all wet and soapy. I appreciated the fact that although they do not appear in the text, Mones shows us Henry's parents at one point, and I got a kick out of a little twist near the end that ought to provide some extra giggles for youngsters.

Every experience I've ever had with dog-bathing has been somewhat disastrous, so I find Puppy Mudge Takes a Bath to be both funny and true-to-life. Preschoolers who are fond of dogs are likely to fall in love with cheerful Mudge and sympathize with his plight, even as they allow themselves a laugh at his misfortunes.