Beautiful pencil drawings show us the story of a young girl whose father brings home an orphan puppy from the mine. The puppy is the only one of it's family left and they doubt it will survive. The little girl cares for the puppy and they become very attached.
The rest of the story is wonderfully told and written in dialect which helps bring this alive.
If you ever need a good read-aloud book to teach students about variations on standard English, this is a good place to start. Not only is the dialogue in a clear dialect, but so is the narration. It would be fun to pair this with a Cajun book and one from New England as well. Rats... now I have to go find those in order to have a full set for a literature circle....
This was my absolute favorite book as a child. I must have checked it out a hundred times from our public library. This book sparked my love of reading and dogs.