Friday, October 10, 2014

Scholastic Fest: #16, The Highly Trained Dogs of Professor Petit


  • Title: The Highly Trained Dogs of Professor Petit
  • Author: Carol Ryrie Brink (1895-1981)
  • Illustrator: Robert Henneberger
  • Publisher: Scholastic Book Services
  • Year: First printing, November 1964
  • Excerpt:
    "The courtroom was crowded when Willie and the four dogs entered. Willie had carefully brushed and groomed the dogs and put on their costumes, so that they would look their best in honor of their master. They came down the aisle behind Willie, wagging their tails and hanging out their tongues, for they confidently supposed that this was some new sort of performance. The people in the courtroom all turned around and craned their necks to see. Some jostled and others stood on tiptoe to look at the marvelous dogs."
  • Notes: The Highly Trained Dogs of Professor Petit was first published in hardcover in 1953 by Macmillan. This 143-page paperback edition (which cost just 45 cents!) was published more than a decade later, through an arrangement between Macmillan and Scholastic Book Services. ... Author Brink wrote more than 30 books in her career and won both a Newbery Medal and the now-defunct Lewis Carroll Shelf Award for 1936's Caddie Woodlawn. ... Brink was sadly orphaned at age 8 following her father's death from tuberculosis and her mother's suicide. After that, she was raised by her grandmother, whose storytelling skills helped to inspire Brink to be a writer. ... The 1953 Kirkus review of The Highly Trained Dogs of Professor Petit begins: "Humdrum nineteenth century life in the town of Puddling Center changes for the better in a humorous story of people and animals." ... The book's dedication reads: "For Anne and Scotty, and their dogs, Tiger and Troubles, with love."

No comments:

Post a Comment