By Gene Zion
A little dog hates baths so much he runs away and gets so filthy his own family doesn't know him.
Harry is a white dog with black spots who cannot stand baths. So the day the tub gets filled, he grabs the scrubbing brush, buries it in the backyard, and runs off to have a filthy good time. He plays everywhere a dog shouldn't, gets grubbier and grubbier, and comes home a black dog with white spots, so dirty that his own family looks right at him and has no idea who he is.
It's been in children's hands since 1956 because it gets something a small child feels in their bones: the urge to run off and be gloriously, deliberately dirty. Harry does exactly that, and the little scrape he lands in, not being recognized, comes right the moment he lets himself be washed. For a dog-lover who's a touch too big for board books, it's a warm, funny picture book with a happy bath waiting at the end.