Mister Dog

#13. Child's creepiest toy...

I'm not sure the boys have any creepy toys. So I'm taking this one in a little different direction. I find their book, Mr. Dog, by Margaret Wise Brown to be fairly creepy. I'm just not a fan of the book at all. It was given to Hunter for his 1st birthday from Grandpa because it happened to be one of Perry's favorite books when he was little, though he doesn't remember this.

In the book, Crispin's Crispian is a dog that belongs to himself. He takes a walk one day and runs into a little boy. He then takes the boy home and invites the little boys to live with him. Crispian makes the boys supper and then they go to bed. I read this book to the boys, solely because they love it. I don't love it. I don't like that Mr. Dog walks around with a pipe in his mouth throughout the book. I know, this book was written in 1952 when that was acceptable. But I don't like to see it in children's books. I find it quite creepy that this boys just met the dog, and is now going home to live with him. Which isn't okay either....where are this boy's parents?! Did I mention that this dog looks like a bum? Yeah, he has his own "two story doghouse", which happens to be in someones backyard, but the book makes him look homeless. Have you seen his hat?

Maybe I'm just reading into the book a little too much, but if given the choice, I would probably make it disappear. Because the kids love it, and can't see what I see, it'll remain on the bookshelf for a bit longer. Or until one of them points out that he is smoking...