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The Poky Little Puppy

The Poky Little Puppy was one of the original twelve Little Golden Books published in 1942, and went on to become the bestselling picture book of all time. The story of a curious puppy, who digs holes under fences and who has to go to bed without any strawberry shortcake, has delighted families for generations. it is, quite simply, an icon.

The Poky Little Puppy is one of the best-selling books of all time with more than 15 million copies sold.

Here is the full text of the book:

The Poky Little Puppy by Janette Sebring Lowrey

Five little puppies dug a hole under the fence and went for a walk in the wide, wide world. Through the meadow they went, down the road, over the bridge, across the green grass, and up the hill, one after the other. And when they got to the top of the hill, they counted themselves: one, two, three, four. One little puppy wasn’t there. "Now where in the world is that poky little puppy?" they wondered. For he certainly wasn’t on top of the hill. He wasn’t going down the other side. The only thing they could see going down was a fuzzy caterpillar. He wasn’t coming up this side. The only thing they could see coming up was a quick green lizard. But when they looked down at the grassy place near the bottom of the hill, there he was, running round and round, his nose to the ground. "What is he doing?" the four little puppies asked one another. And down they went to see, roly-poly, pell-mell, tumble-bumble, till they came to the green grass; and there they stopped short. "What in the world are you doing?" they asked. "I smell something!" said the poky little puppy. Then the four little puppies began to sniff, and they smelled it, too. "Rice pudding!" they said. And home they went, as fast as they could go, over the bridge, up the road, through the meadow, and under the fence. And there, sure enough, was dinner waiting for them, with rice pudding for dessert. Bur their morher was greatly displeased. "So you’re the little puppies who dig holes under fences!" she said. "No rice pudding tonight!" And she made them go straight to bed. But the poky little puppy came home after everyone was sound asleep. He ate up the rice pudding and crawled into bed as happy as a lark. The next morning someone had filled the hole and put up a sign. The sign said: "DON’T EVER DIG HOLES UNDER THIS FENCE!" BUT... The five little puppies dug a hole under the fence, just the same, and went for a walk in the wide, wide world. Through the meadow they went, down the road, over the bridge, across the green grass, and up the hill, two and two. And when they got to the top of the hill, they counted themselves: one, two, three, four. One little puppy wasn’t there. "Now where in the world is that poky little puppy?" they wondered. For he certainly wasn’t on top of the hill. He wasn’t going down the other side. The only thing they could see going down was a big black spider. He wasn’t coming up this side. The only thing they could see coming up was a brown hop-toad. But when they looked down at the grassy place near the bottom of the hill, there was the poky little puppy, sitting still as a stone, with his head on one side and his ears cocked up. "What is he doing?" the four little puppies asked one another. And down they went to see, roly-poly, pell-mell, tumble-bumble, till they came to the green grass; and there they stopped short. "What in the world are you doing?" they asked. "I hear something!" said the poky little puppy. The four little puppies listened, and they could hear it, too. "Chocolate custard!" they cried. "Someone is spooning it into our bowls!" And home they went as fast as they could go, over the bridge, up the road, through the meadow, and under the fence. And there, sure enough, was dinner waiting for them, with chocolate custard for dessert. But their mother was greatly displeased. "So you’re the little puppies who will dig holes under fences!" she said. "No chocolate custard tonight!" And she made them go straight to bed. But the poky little puppy came home after everyone else was sound asleep, and he ate up all the chocolate custard and crawled into bed as happy as a lark. The next morning someone had filled the hole and put up a sign. The sign said: "DON’T EVER EVER DIG HOLES UNDER THIS FENCE!" BUT... In spite of that, the five little puppies dug a hole under the fence and went for a walk in the wide, wide world. Through the meadow they went, down the road, over the bridge, across the green grass,

Book information:
Reading age: 3+
Word count: 1117
Number of pages: 24
Year: 1942
Sales (millions): 15
Links: Amazon, Wikipedia, YouTube, Goodreads, LibraryThing, Common Sense Media, Printables, Lexile

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See also:
Classic Children Books
Classic School Age Children Books
Classic Books for Teenagers
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Best-selling Books of All Time
The Benefits of Reading for Kids
Why Learn English Language?
Shortest Books
Shortest Books (unique words)
Longest Books
Best way to learn English
How NOT to Learn English!
CVC Words
What you need to know to learn a new language?
Why I forget what I learned?
Vocabulary Size
More...

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