The Poky Little Puppy is a book for children of ages 3 years and above. The book, "The Poky Little Puppy" by Janette Sebring Lowrey is an all-time bestseller children’s book with over 15 million copies of the hardcover book sold by 2001. The book’s illustrations are by Gustaf Tengrenn and it is among the twelve Little Golden Books in the Simon & Schuster series of the. The Poky Little Puppy’s first publication was in 1942 by the Western publishing company. The reason for choosing this book is that it has some lessons that children can learn about and from the behaviors that the puppies and their mother clearly depict through illustrations and writing. This essay will focus on analyzing The Poky Little Puppy and what lessons it has for children aged three years and above while discussing the theoretical perspectives behind the manuscript. It will also focus on the gender stereotypes perpetuated, if any, in the themes and characters and finally give an opinion on whether this book is recommendable to other people.
The Poky Little Puppy analysis begins with a summary of the story. The book’s main character is the little puppy that is poky and different from his brothers and sisters. The story tells of five little puppies that dig a hole in the fence so that they can go and see the wide world. The author through vivid pictures illustrates their expedition by describing the scenery, “Through the meadow, they went, down the road, over the bridge, across the green grass, up the hill, one after the other (Lowrey, 1986).” Once they get to the hilltop, the puppies count themselves and find out that they are four and wonder where their brother is. They start looking for him to find out if he is going downhill or coming up and the only thing they can see is a fuzzy caterpillar and a green lizard respectively.
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However, upon close inspection, they see the poky little puppy near the bottom of the hill at the grassy place, running around, and round with his nose to the ground. They decide to find out what the poky puppy is doing by going downhill to ask him. After inquiring about his actions, the little poky puppy tells them that he can smell something and sure enough, it is rice pudding. Upon this realization, they run back home through the dug hole under the fence. However, their mother is displeased and scolds them for their action of digging a hole, denies them the rice pudding dessert, and sends them to bed without having any. All of them go to bed except the little poky puppy that arrives home late, eats the rice pudding dessert, and goes to bed happy as a lark.
The story continues the following day with the puppies continuing with the same actions as the day before. Digging the filled hole at the exact place, and a sign put up saying “DON’T EVER DIG HOLES UNDER THIS FENCE (Lowrey, 1986).” The puppies ignore the sign and head off to the wide world again. On returning home after hearing the chocolate custard, they find their mother upset again. On retiring for the night, the poky puppy returns home as usual and enjoys the chocolate custard. However, on the third day, the events take a turn around. The poky little puppy returns home to find the covered hole they dug by the other puppies after realizing that they cannot enjoy the strawberry shortcake prepared by their mother. Once they did this and their mother saw them, she rewards them with the dessert. The poky little puppy is late for dinner, has to squeeze himself through the fence, and finds there is no dessert. He goes to sleep while hungry and apologetic or regretful for himself upon finding his siblings licking the last morsels of the strawberry shortcake.
The Poky Little Puppy is a storybook that I enjoyed as a child and is one of the main reasons I chose to analyze it. The illustrations are vivid and nostalgic from the early childhood days. The author depicts the scenes of their explorations, the sign over the fence and the puppies and their poky little brother in a rich setting. Additionally, the colors of the puppies’ blankets are full of color while the poky little puppy’s is full of patchwork. Despite this, there are lessons that children in this age group can learn from this book. One of them is the fact that actions have consequences. When the puppies dig a hole under the fence and go to the wide world to explore, they disregard their mother’s rules and instructions. Therefore, they find their mother displeased and do not get to eat the pudding and dessert. This is a great lesson for children as they reflect that being naughty and disobedient will have negative consequences. Disobedience leads to punishment while rewards are for the compliant and dutiful children.
Additionally, children at this age will learn how to count and use prepositions. This book is full of such clear depictions and studious material. For example, the author describes that “they got to the top of the hill, they counted themselves: one, two, three, and four. One little puppy wasn’t there (Lowrey, 1942).” For children at this stage of development, the poky little puppy is an educational and fun book with an array of lessons and perspectives of young children and their learning processes. This storybook describes what is good and bad, right and wrong all in a fun and enjoyable setting.
Despite the meaning and understanding of the book from its writing and illustrations, The Poky Little Puppy has some theoretical perspectives attached to it in relation to developmental psychology. Among them is the psychoanalytic perspective by Sigmund Freud. Freud argues that personality develops during childhood. His emphasis dictates that human behavior is a result of the connections among three parts of the mind that is the id, the ego and the superego. The id involves the part of the mind relating to the instant gratification of basic physical needs and urges while the superego relates to morality or the conscience. However, the ego produces equilibrium between the id and the superego as it is more logical and rational in our personalities. This theory relates to this book because it is crucial for children at these stages of growth and development to distinguish between what is right and wrong, the superego. Additionally, it is important as it educates children that what is fun is not always good and so is instant gratification. For example, the children ignore their mother’s warning about digging a hole under the fence to go and see the wide world and return home to a displeased mother who scolds them. Therefore, a balance is vital to their personal development since these conflicts are always present in our minds and eventually determine who we are as adults.
Another developmental theory perspective is the cognitive stages of development by Jean Piaget. This viewpoint asserts that there are four different stages of development in children through to adulthood: sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational and formal operational. These stages describe intellectual development like thought, knowledge and judgment. The book, The Poky Little Puppy is for children of ages three years and above. Therefore, they are under the preoperational and concrete operational stages of intellectual development. For example, by use of clear illustrations, numbers and prepositions, the author clearly targets this age group because, at this stage of development, children learn more efficiently through experimenting and observations. Additionally, at these stages of development, children are able to think logically about certain events and using concrete terms to relate particular situations to certain logic and general principles.
The information processing theory is another distinctive approach that children can learn to use from this book during their development. The information processing theories argue that our brains continue to expand as we grow older and so do the strategies we use in problem-solving. For example, the brain and processing strategies expand as the child grows and so do their cognitive processes like memory retention. When children learn rules and regulations that they should abide by, as they grow older, they acquire tendencies to come up with different problem solving and memory retention strategies. This book, The Poky Little Puppy, is a good example to teach children what is right and from the punishments, rewards and lessons they learn, it increases their cognitive abilities and helps them broaden their minds.
In conclusion, The Poky Little Puppy is an educational and fun book for children between the ages of three years and above. In its simplistic and illustrative format, children both learn and enjoy the lesson the author describes. Additionally, it is an essential book in development psychology of children as the cognitive, information processing and psychoanalytic perspectives clearly show. I believe it is a good recommendable book that allows children to learn through pictures, and vivid colorful words and symbols since it allow them to create a clear mental picture that is not easily forgettable.
Reference
Lowrey, J. S., & Tenggren, G. (1986). The Poky Little Puppy . New York: Golden Book.
