What do you think?
Rate this book
Junket: The Dog Who Liked Everything "Just So"
Play script adapted by Aurand Harris from the novel by Anne H. White. Spirited modern comedy, about three children and a dog. One set. Contemporary costumes. 2 F, 2 M, 3 children, 1 dog.
"It smells funny," says Michael when his family moves to the country. "There's nothing to hear," says Montgomery, "and no stores with candy and ice cream." "Where do you skate?" says Margaret. "There's nothing to do." Then they meet Junket, an enterprising Airedale dog, who leads them on a trail of exciting experiences. Unfortunately, Father has ruled "Positively No Animals Allowed" - - and the children are hard put to justify their new friend, until Junket takes the entire matter into his own hands.
"It smells funny," says Michael when his family moves to the country. "There's nothing to hear," says Montgomery, "and no stores with candy and ice cream." "Where do you skate?" says Margaret. "There's nothing to do." Then they meet Junket, an enterprising Airedale dog, who leads them on a trail of exciting experiences. Unfortunately, Father has ruled "Positively No Animals Allowed" - - and the children are hard put to justify their new friend, until Junket takes the entire matter into his own hands.
160 pages, Hardcover
First published March 28, 1955
1 person is currently reading
85 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
June 21, 2025
Junket is a wonderful book published in 1955. It is about an Airedale who likes everything “just so.’ When he is out on a vacation, his family moved away after finding homes for all the other animals. When Junket returns there is a new family with a father that says, “No Animals.” Over the course of the book the family finds clever ways to bring the animals back.
As I have most of my life been a big city boy, it is fun to fantasize about having a farm. I know live in a city that still has a lot of farms around. I have a lady I go to get fresh eggs. In addition to a wide variety of chickens, she also has horses and goats. (And a nice Ayatollah Shepherd/Great Pyrenees mix dog who watches over the goats.) I love the old books where people in farms was more common and the different place and time you get reading them.
As usual, I will provide excerpts from the book to give you a feel for it and give you something to enjoy even if you don’t have time to read the book.
‘This is the story of a dog named Junket, who knew how to live in the country, and it is the story of a family who did not know how until Junket taught them. Junket was a very large and very busy Airedale. Some people thought he was a great deal too busy, but these people did not understand him. Junket got his name from his habit of junketing around his home acres in order to see that everything was going on that should be going on, and that anything that should not be going on was stopped from going on at once.‘
‘In two respects he was not like any dog that you or I have ever known. He always had a great deal to say, and he liked everything “just so.” What is more, he considered it his duty to see to it that everything was kept “just so.” Sometimes his sense of duty was very useful to the people he lived with, and sometimes it was a great nuisance. People are used to arranging a dog's life for the dog, but they are not used to having a dog arrange their lives for them. That is what Junket did for Mr. and Mrs. Dougal McDonegal and their children, much to the McDonegals’ benefit, and much to his own surprise.’
Before his owner moved away, Junket took care of the animals on the farm. Hope you get a chance to read the book to find out how he took care of them. There was Pollyanna, the pony. There was Dorinda, Duchess of Dorset who supplied the house with ‘wonderful thick cream, delicious milk, fresh butter, and, with some assistance from the kitchen, scrumptious ice cream.’ Then there was the ‘Fuss and Feathers Federation’ who never stopped contributing eggs. Then there was Clarissa, who was so fat and sedentary and ‘thought of nothing except food, sleep, and scratching her bristles against the sides of her pen.’
Then there was a couple more:
‘There were also Jack and jill, the geese, and Miss Milliken. Jack and Jill thought they owned the entire place and liked to argue the point with Junket. Junket did not much care to take them both on at once. Those bills of theirs had astonishing power behind them. Miss Milliken he was definitely fond of. Not as amusing as she had been when a little white kitten of a thing, she was, however, worthy of respect. Miss Milliken had developed a wicked right and left to an undefended nose. She frequently had kittens, and Junket carried them around for her and let them play with his tail and with his ears. The ears were a special privilege, but Junket was quite silly about kittens, He frankly adored them.’
The father likes his books, which he refers to as “his fine old fellows” that are in Greek and Latin and sometimes reads them to his family. His thoughts on a garden are funny:
‘McDonegal, being a city man, had never had a vegetable garden or any other kind of garden where gardens are likely to be. He had had gardens in his dreams, in his imagination, and on paper, but never before in the earth. He did not realize that a garden in the earth has to be coaxed and coddled to come up out of the earth, and, after it has come up, it has to be encouraged to stay up. He had no idea, poor man, what a lot of time and patience and know-how all this coaxing, coddling, and encouraging demanded He had thought that the children could supply the time he would supply the patience, and the know-hoy, would just blow in on the summer's breeze.’
The mother is first described in this paragraph:
‘Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for the McDonegal children depended very much on their mother's success in finding an Agreeable Subject. As only she could recognize such a subject when she saw one, her family could not help her in her search. They could only cross their fingers and pray that her eyes would fall upon something bursting with irresistible Agreeableness. Otherwise, they knew, she would fall back upon her Sweet Reliables — her own family, singly or in pairs or all together. Mrs. McDonegal was not a hasty, slapdash painter at all. She was a tireless painter and took ages to finish each picture.’
I liked when Junket came back and first met the children. They were asking him to respond to some typical dog commands while he was still in the throws of understanding his situation without his animal charges. This is how he responds:
‘He knew how to handle this situation. He had done it many times before when his Jellicot family wished to show him off and he had other things on his mind. Instead of waiting to be asked to do something and wasting valuable time, Junket ran through all his tricks as fast as possible. Then, having done everything anyone could possibly want him to do, he felt free to dash off about his own business. So now he stood up, kowtowed, said his prayers, begged, showed how tall he was, rolled over, died for his country, and did a sitstand four times very fast, as one would do setting-up exercises with two minutes to go before breakfast.’
Junket other than his other actions, gets a chance to the obligatory saving the day do thing but it was made reasonable from something a little different:
‘“Come on, Junket. Come find the little boy,” Montgomery repeated, and moved off, the sweater in his hand. Junket jumped to his feet and was suddenly overcome with excitement and relief. He understood what was wanted of him! It was that old pair-of-slippers trick, where he had to smell a slipper or a glove in one place, then go to another place and find the other one. It was simple enough, and all done with his good trusty nose.’
One part I wanted to call out is what seems like a typical lunch to the children:
‘Accompanied by Junket, they went into the kitchen, where they found the sandwiches and milk and fruit that their mother had left for them. To this they added a platter of cold lamb, a dish of cold creamed potatoes, some peas, and a rather bare steak bone. There were no cakes, cookies, or pies in their mother's kitchen.’
That last sentence has a purpose as sweets come into the story. It plays into something from this excerpt:
‘Mr. McDonegal, truth to tell and unbeknownst to his family, was a nibbler, a muncher, a cruncher, a snacker, and a tidbitter. He was always hungry, and as there was very seldom a satisfactory snack supply in the kitchen he bought his own supply whenever he went to town, and kept it behind the books. He was partial to peanuts, toffee, gumdrops, caramels, peppermints, and creams. He did not want his wife to see the bags because he was afraid that she would think it was her fault that he was always hungry, and he did not want to make her unhappy. He did not want his children to know about them because they were very small paper bags and his children had very large appetites.’
You may be able to guess how hiding bags of sweets turns into one of the animals coming back to the farm. And with that animal came little ones. Love the visual of a few of them being brought back:
‘They were all very busy eating breakfast when Junket arrived with his last load. He was never able to resist showing off just a little when he was called upon to do an errand, so he swaggered into the dining room, pretending to drop the precious basket and then catching it just in time. Three terrified kittens were crying loudly as they clung to the rim. The McDonegal family stopped eating and stared.’
So, a very sweet and fun story. The only negative was that I had to read it in a paperback book.
As I have most of my life been a big city boy, it is fun to fantasize about having a farm. I know live in a city that still has a lot of farms around. I have a lady I go to get fresh eggs. In addition to a wide variety of chickens, she also has horses and goats. (And a nice Ayatollah Shepherd/Great Pyrenees mix dog who watches over the goats.) I love the old books where people in farms was more common and the different place and time you get reading them.
As usual, I will provide excerpts from the book to give you a feel for it and give you something to enjoy even if you don’t have time to read the book.
‘This is the story of a dog named Junket, who knew how to live in the country, and it is the story of a family who did not know how until Junket taught them. Junket was a very large and very busy Airedale. Some people thought he was a great deal too busy, but these people did not understand him. Junket got his name from his habit of junketing around his home acres in order to see that everything was going on that should be going on, and that anything that should not be going on was stopped from going on at once.‘
‘In two respects he was not like any dog that you or I have ever known. He always had a great deal to say, and he liked everything “just so.” What is more, he considered it his duty to see to it that everything was kept “just so.” Sometimes his sense of duty was very useful to the people he lived with, and sometimes it was a great nuisance. People are used to arranging a dog's life for the dog, but they are not used to having a dog arrange their lives for them. That is what Junket did for Mr. and Mrs. Dougal McDonegal and their children, much to the McDonegals’ benefit, and much to his own surprise.’
Before his owner moved away, Junket took care of the animals on the farm. Hope you get a chance to read the book to find out how he took care of them. There was Pollyanna, the pony. There was Dorinda, Duchess of Dorset who supplied the house with ‘wonderful thick cream, delicious milk, fresh butter, and, with some assistance from the kitchen, scrumptious ice cream.’ Then there was the ‘Fuss and Feathers Federation’ who never stopped contributing eggs. Then there was Clarissa, who was so fat and sedentary and ‘thought of nothing except food, sleep, and scratching her bristles against the sides of her pen.’
Then there was a couple more:
‘There were also Jack and jill, the geese, and Miss Milliken. Jack and Jill thought they owned the entire place and liked to argue the point with Junket. Junket did not much care to take them both on at once. Those bills of theirs had astonishing power behind them. Miss Milliken he was definitely fond of. Not as amusing as she had been when a little white kitten of a thing, she was, however, worthy of respect. Miss Milliken had developed a wicked right and left to an undefended nose. She frequently had kittens, and Junket carried them around for her and let them play with his tail and with his ears. The ears were a special privilege, but Junket was quite silly about kittens, He frankly adored them.’
The father likes his books, which he refers to as “his fine old fellows” that are in Greek and Latin and sometimes reads them to his family. His thoughts on a garden are funny:
‘McDonegal, being a city man, had never had a vegetable garden or any other kind of garden where gardens are likely to be. He had had gardens in his dreams, in his imagination, and on paper, but never before in the earth. He did not realize that a garden in the earth has to be coaxed and coddled to come up out of the earth, and, after it has come up, it has to be encouraged to stay up. He had no idea, poor man, what a lot of time and patience and know-how all this coaxing, coddling, and encouraging demanded He had thought that the children could supply the time he would supply the patience, and the know-hoy, would just blow in on the summer's breeze.’
The mother is first described in this paragraph:
‘Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for the McDonegal children depended very much on their mother's success in finding an Agreeable Subject. As only she could recognize such a subject when she saw one, her family could not help her in her search. They could only cross their fingers and pray that her eyes would fall upon something bursting with irresistible Agreeableness. Otherwise, they knew, she would fall back upon her Sweet Reliables — her own family, singly or in pairs or all together. Mrs. McDonegal was not a hasty, slapdash painter at all. She was a tireless painter and took ages to finish each picture.’
I liked when Junket came back and first met the children. They were asking him to respond to some typical dog commands while he was still in the throws of understanding his situation without his animal charges. This is how he responds:
‘He knew how to handle this situation. He had done it many times before when his Jellicot family wished to show him off and he had other things on his mind. Instead of waiting to be asked to do something and wasting valuable time, Junket ran through all his tricks as fast as possible. Then, having done everything anyone could possibly want him to do, he felt free to dash off about his own business. So now he stood up, kowtowed, said his prayers, begged, showed how tall he was, rolled over, died for his country, and did a sitstand four times very fast, as one would do setting-up exercises with two minutes to go before breakfast.’
Junket other than his other actions, gets a chance to the obligatory saving the day do thing but it was made reasonable from something a little different:
‘“Come on, Junket. Come find the little boy,” Montgomery repeated, and moved off, the sweater in his hand. Junket jumped to his feet and was suddenly overcome with excitement and relief. He understood what was wanted of him! It was that old pair-of-slippers trick, where he had to smell a slipper or a glove in one place, then go to another place and find the other one. It was simple enough, and all done with his good trusty nose.’
One part I wanted to call out is what seems like a typical lunch to the children:
‘Accompanied by Junket, they went into the kitchen, where they found the sandwiches and milk and fruit that their mother had left for them. To this they added a platter of cold lamb, a dish of cold creamed potatoes, some peas, and a rather bare steak bone. There were no cakes, cookies, or pies in their mother's kitchen.’
That last sentence has a purpose as sweets come into the story. It plays into something from this excerpt:
‘Mr. McDonegal, truth to tell and unbeknownst to his family, was a nibbler, a muncher, a cruncher, a snacker, and a tidbitter. He was always hungry, and as there was very seldom a satisfactory snack supply in the kitchen he bought his own supply whenever he went to town, and kept it behind the books. He was partial to peanuts, toffee, gumdrops, caramels, peppermints, and creams. He did not want his wife to see the bags because he was afraid that she would think it was her fault that he was always hungry, and he did not want to make her unhappy. He did not want his children to know about them because they were very small paper bags and his children had very large appetites.’
You may be able to guess how hiding bags of sweets turns into one of the animals coming back to the farm. And with that animal came little ones. Love the visual of a few of them being brought back:
‘They were all very busy eating breakfast when Junket arrived with his last load. He was never able to resist showing off just a little when he was called upon to do an errand, so he swaggered into the dining room, pretending to drop the precious basket and then catching it just in time. Three terrified kittens were crying loudly as they clung to the rim. The McDonegal family stopped eating and stared.’
So, a very sweet and fun story. The only negative was that I had to read it in a paperback book.
September 9, 2018
One of my very favorite animal books from childhood. Unforgettable illustrations (just look at that dustjacket), by the stupendous Robert McCloskey. A ye olde book-1955. Kids today will still love it.
July 31, 2017
I remember this book from my childhood, but I never read it then. Can't think why. I'm glad I finally read it now because it's awfully cute. Anne White created such special, unusual pets and quirky families in her books. Though old (written in 1955), this story is still an enjoyable and pleasant read. Recommended.
July 8, 2021
Junket is an Airedale terrier who lives on a farm with a nice farming family and a decent collection of livestock including a pony, a cat, geese, and a cow, and a hired hand who didn't mind being managed by a dog. He is a very exact dog with a fondness for schedules and things being "just so." If Junket had a family crest, just so would be his motto. And he got his name from his habit of daily "junketing" about the farm to make sure everything was exactly as it should be, exactly just so.
But Junket is an extremely independent dog, and every year he trots off on a longer junket around the county and neighboring areas, to make sure that everything beyond the farm is just so, or perhaps to take a break from his constant mental activity of managing things. And one year when he gets home, he finds that his family is no longer there. Worse still, the animals and the farmhand are gone, too, and the family that has moved in are fresh from the city -- meaning that absolutely nothing in Junket's universe is just so anymore.
The McDonegal family is the worst family ever to move onto a farm overseen by a persnickety and opinionated Airedale. Their absent-minded mother considers herself an artist and at all times would far rather be painting. Their father is an extremely scholarly and bookish type who is, well, not exactly absent-minded, but always elsewhere-minded. He is far more interested in his "fine old fellows," which is what he calls his collection of leatherbound classics, than he is his children, and they moved from the city onto the farm just for peace and quiet. (Perhaps this book struck a chord with me around 1996 when we moved into the least populous Ohio county so we didn't have to hear the freeway anymore.)
Then there are the three children. One of them is Montgomery and I don't remember the other two because my copy of Junket has been packed away with the rest of my books for four years. Anyway, it's the three bored children whom Junket comes across first, and, not a dog to waste time, he immediately begins prodding them into setting the farm to rights. In the meantime, the family learns valuable lessons about relationships, familial and friendly, and the benefit of keeping things just so.
It is a charming and handsome little book, well-written with memorable characters and a delightful premise, and goes along with my addiction to the unusual narrator -- all right, the book isn't narrated, but it is told largely from Junket's perspective. It is laced with dry humor, and the farmhand is one of the most charming side characters to appear in a book.
This was the book responsible for making me think an Airedale would be cool. It harkens back to a simpler, more comfortable time when children played outside instead of developing nearsightedness, and I'd say any kid -- from 9 to 90 -- ought to consider it required reading.
But Junket is an extremely independent dog, and every year he trots off on a longer junket around the county and neighboring areas, to make sure that everything beyond the farm is just so, or perhaps to take a break from his constant mental activity of managing things. And one year when he gets home, he finds that his family is no longer there. Worse still, the animals and the farmhand are gone, too, and the family that has moved in are fresh from the city -- meaning that absolutely nothing in Junket's universe is just so anymore.
The McDonegal family is the worst family ever to move onto a farm overseen by a persnickety and opinionated Airedale. Their absent-minded mother considers herself an artist and at all times would far rather be painting. Their father is an extremely scholarly and bookish type who is, well, not exactly absent-minded, but always elsewhere-minded. He is far more interested in his "fine old fellows," which is what he calls his collection of leatherbound classics, than he is his children, and they moved from the city onto the farm just for peace and quiet. (Perhaps this book struck a chord with me around 1996 when we moved into the least populous Ohio county so we didn't have to hear the freeway anymore.)
Then there are the three children. One of them is Montgomery and I don't remember the other two because my copy of Junket has been packed away with the rest of my books for four years. Anyway, it's the three bored children whom Junket comes across first, and, not a dog to waste time, he immediately begins prodding them into setting the farm to rights. In the meantime, the family learns valuable lessons about relationships, familial and friendly, and the benefit of keeping things just so.
It is a charming and handsome little book, well-written with memorable characters and a delightful premise, and goes along with my addiction to the unusual narrator -- all right, the book isn't narrated, but it is told largely from Junket's perspective. It is laced with dry humor, and the farmhand is one of the most charming side characters to appear in a book.
This was the book responsible for making me think an Airedale would be cool. It harkens back to a simpler, more comfortable time when children played outside instead of developing nearsightedness, and I'd say any kid -- from 9 to 90 -- ought to consider it required reading.
March 16, 2012
It's impressive when children's books show that adults can admit their errors and change. This is one of my all time favorite animal books.
February 11, 2023
I really enjoyed this charming story. Very sweet and humorous with wonderful illustrations. Will be on the lookout to acquire my own copy.
July 20, 2022
I read this book when we were stationed in Japan. I checked it out from the bookmobile that came to our school on base and after checking it out four times in a row, the librarian barred me from checking it out anymore. I LOVED IT!
April 3, 2022
I really enjoyed this book. It was the type I used to read when I was in elementary school. Three kids move out to the country and Junket, an Airedale terrier, adopts their family. Junket proceeds to help them arrange things to meet his (and the children's) expectations, much to their father's initial chagrin and eventual acceptance. This would be a great read aloud for elementary students.
October 10, 2017
A charming story about a dog who has to train the humans to understand animals and some of the humans, thankfully, learn. Junket for President!
October 7, 2020
B. fiction, children's fiction, grade 3, animal story, from stash, keep
January 4, 2023
I hadn't read this since I was a kid, but came across it on my shelves while searching for a book for my granddaughter. What fun!
September 18, 2023
Wasn't bad, just wasn't good. Though I suppose a child would have found it a bit more entertaining. Overall in was short and sweet and at times kind of funny
December 5, 2024
This was one of my favourite books from childhood, and when I came across a copy I had to reread it. Still an excellent story even with childhood far behind me.
May 22, 2025
Perfectly delightful children's book that so well written it's completely enjoyable for adults as well.
January 26, 2023
Absolutely loved this book as a read aloud with my 10 year old dog obsessed daughter. I wasn't familiar with the Airedale dog before this. This book is hilarious, I chuckled many times. A family from the city try living in the country for a time and the dog that belonged to the previous residents instructs the new family as to how things should be. The father of the family is most emphatically not an animal lover which makes the situation amusing. The illustrations are a solid 5* and very enjoyable. Definitely a keeper in our home library.
March 4, 2015
Read aloud to the family. A fun story about a city family moving to a farm and being taught the ways of the farm by the dog Junket. There is a bit of repetition in the middle as the family acquires different animals.
July 19, 2015
My copy is falling apart! I loved this book as a child and have reread it more than once as an adult. Love it! Love Junkets attitude and view of his world. Childhood favorite.
June 22, 2016
It's been too long since I was able to reread this favorite. Thanks Melissa!
June 2, 2020
What a delightful book for an Airedale lover and owner. But, I assume any animal lover would enjoy this book. It’s a really great kids book. What a fun find!
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews