The Gingham Dog and the Calico Cat

by Eugene Field, J Westerman (Illustrator)

Spooky pencil drawings and touches of offbeat humor highlight a new edition of the nursery favorite, with the famous dueling dog and cat fighting it out to the bitter end. By the author of The Sugarplum Tree.

Genres: Picture Books, Poetry, Cats, Childrens, Dogs, Classics, Fiction

32 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1945

Reviews

[Phyllis]

One of my favorite books as a wee child.

[Cheryl]

Not sure which edition I loved as a child... I think it was mostly pink and blue, and extra-tall, maybe even a board book... I know I learned the lesson even though I also laughed!
....
Found it! Uploaded the photo. Gosh, I remembered it fairly well, eh?
...........
Well, unfortunately, that one, illustrated by Helen Page, is not the one my library shipped. And this one, Johanna Westerman's, is a fail, imo. B&W? Played for straight adventure while hiding the moral lesson? Why!?

[Valerie]

I've never actually seen this as a stand-alone--it's usually found in collections. So I can't speak to the quality of this edition.

In The Space Child's Mother Goose, there's a version of this poem that begins:

The hydrogen dog and the cobalt cat
Side by side in the armory sat
Nobody thought of fusion or fission
Everyone spoke of their peacetime mission...

And by the end, all that remains are the radioactive decay products of the 'codrogen dog and the hybalt cat'.

Too many people don't seem to grasp that this is a cautionary tale about the culture of blood-feud. Neither cat nor dog survives this conflict--both are literally disintegrated.

This warning is far from outdated: if anything, it's even more pertinent in present times.

[Siskiyou-Suzy]

I love this poem and its nonsensical nature. The illustrations in this version of The Gingham Dog and the Calico Cat are nice, generic, but I kinda wish they weren't in black-and-white. I do like the little eyes added to various things as they observe the fight-to-end-all fights. I imagine this will be a hard one to read to children as the language is old-fashioned, but it's simple (and fun) enough that I'd like to try anyway.

[J R]

I was recently listening to the music of Chuck Mangione and found his 1973 album, Land of Make Believe. I loved this title song on the album and was curious about the history behind the album.

I discovered that The Land of Make-Believe originated as a 1931 book of poems by Eugene Field.

Eugene Field Sr. was born on September 2, 1850 and died on November 4, 1895. He was an American newspaper writer who wrote humorous essays. But, he was famous for his children's poetry and was known as the "poet of childhood".

I can’t help but compare Field with my favorite childhood poet, Dr Seuss and wonder who inspired who with their entertaining poetry.

One of my favorite poems from Land of Make-Believe was, Dream Ship:

And some are dreams that thrill with joy,
And some that melt to tears;
Some are dreams of the dawn of love, And some of the old, dead years.
On rich and poor alike they fall,
Alike on young and old,
Bringing to slumbering earth their joys
And sorrows manifold.

The king shall be a beggarman, The pauper be a king.
In that revenge of recompense
The Dream-Ship dreams to bring.
So ever downward float the dreams
That are for all and me, And there is never mortal man
Can solve that mystery.

I know I’ll be reading and introducing these beautiful poems to my Darling Daphne.

Good read indeed

[Kali]

As someone else said, this story does have a message - which is essentially along the lines of the old adage "when you plan revenge, bring two shovels" but more in terms of blood-feuds or endless battling. Regardless, while the message is technically a good/important one, it seems a little too dark and fatalistic for a children's picture book with such bright, colorful pictures (I'm reviewing the edition with artwork by Janet Street, which has delightful full-color illustrations). Perhaps the black and white illustrations other reviewers have mentioned in other editions would "fit" the story better in my eyes... but I still think I'd find the message a little too dark for children.

[Cynthia Egbert]

This is another of those books that I have been trying to get my hands on for years but copies were always prohibitively expensive. (Why do I have SO many books that I want to add to my collection that are out of print?) I finally located a copy that I could afford and I am so glad I did. I cannot wait until next month when I can read this one aloud with my grandson. I adore Eugene Field's work and this one is priceless. There are a number of different editions of this one but I think I got the one with the perfect illustrations for this poem. If your library has this one or you happen upon a copy somewhere, I cannot recommend it highly enough.

[Roger]

I borrowed this version of the poem from the library mainly to check out the artwork. I was disappointed the drawings were all black and white. I don’t think it would appeal to many children.

[Grandma M]

Nice rhyme. Story's a little dark. My copy is really worn.

[Sherry]

Revisiting my childhood.

[Justice]

I really want to get my hands on a copy with the original illustrations by Johanna Westerman. These illustrations are weak (sorry Janet).

[Wild-Rogue-Rose]

My actually copy is a rejected cast-off from my elementary library. The author is Eugene Field, but the gorgeous, full-colour, illustrations are done by Helen Page.
Also included in the copy is the short poem, The Dinkey-Bird.

[EJP]

A fun, rhyming story.