By Cynthia Rylant
Lonely only-child Henry asks for a dog and gets Mudge, who grows to 180 pounds, and the two become inseparable.
Henry has no brothers or sisters, and no other children live on his street, so he asks his parents for a dog. He gets Mudge, a puppy who keeps growing until he weighs 180 pounds. They do everything together. Then one day Mudge catches a smell and wanders off, Henry can't find him, and the worry sits there for a while before the two of them find each other again.
It reads like a real chapter book. There are seven little chapters and one story that runs all the way through, but each chapter is short enough for a child just starting to read on their own. This is a good one for taking turns: you read a chapter, they read a chapter.