Picture Book Pick of the Week - Harry the Dirty Dog

I chose a book about cats for my last 

Picture Book Pick of the Week.

My dog was feeling slighted by this choice, so this week I decided to feature a cute book about his kind --

in particular, a book about a dog that likes to get dirty.  

A dog quite like my pet, Sammy.  
He especially loves to roll in anything stinky!  Sigh.   

The title of todays' book choice is 

Harry the Dirty Dog by Gene Zion.

I'm linking this post to Deanna Jump's
Let's Talk Books linky party.  
You may want to pop by there for more book ideas later! 

But on to the story!
Now Harry was a dog that didn't like to have baths.
So much so, that on bath day he'd hide his scrub brush by burying it in the yard!

One day he decided to leave his home to go have an adventure.
He went to all kinds of places.
And he got dirtier.. 

and dirtier...

...until he was no longer a white dog with black spots.
  Now he was a black dog with white spots!

Harry began to miss his family, but when he returned home, he was so dirty that no one knew who he was!

In a panic, Harry tried all kinds of tricks to get his family to recognize him.  
But nothing worked!

So Harry came up with a plan.
He dug up his scrub brush and ran upstairs with it.

The children saw that the "stray dog" wanted a bath.

So they obliged.  And guess what happened?

When Harry got out of the bath, his family recognized him!
Now Harry was happy to be all clean!

But he still hid his scrub brush under his pillow!

I read Harry the Dirty Dog when we were doing a pet unit (and of course showed the children a picture of my dirty dog at the same time!)

This book could also be great combined with a little lesson on hand washing and germs, a unit on health, or just for no reason at all! 
 Books about pets are always fun to read!

Since we're on the topic of dogs, I couldn't resist sharing the poster below ( originally posted by Q107 Toronto).  

I definitely see myself in this progression!

Does this sound familiar to anyone? :)