THE DOG WHO THOUGHT HE WAS A BOY

Ralph is a very shaggy dog. Because he lived with the Popperson family in an apartment building and never saw any other dogs, he assumed that he was a person. He insisted on sharing all of Peter Popperson's activities but the catch was that he had to attend school. When Ralph started bragging about his superior marks to Peter, Peter got angry and wrote Ralph a note: ""You are a dog."" Ralph moped for a while but quickly adjusted when he learned that he wouldn't have to go back to school. This is in exactly the same vein as Henry's Dog Henry (1965. p. 235, J-73) and at the same level of little boy humor but this book comes off a bit better. The story is a little too contrived after the opening, but the green on coral line drawings of the shapeless, but expressive, people and Ralph against the Boston setting, done in a sophisticated, childish scrawl, will amuse both children and adults. For anyone who, like the boy in the dedication, has over thought he was a dog.