William Rossa Cole (1919-2000) was best known as an editor and anthologist. He was editor or author (or co-editor or co-author) of about 75 books, 50 of them anthologies. Three of his books were honored by the ALA: I Went to the Animal Fair in 1958, Beastly Boys and Ghastly Girls in 1964, and The Birds and Beast Were There in 1965. He was an editor for Simon & Schuster and Viking, and a columnist for the Saturday Review. He died in summer 2000, at the age of 80.
I loved this book and so did my students. We loved the seldom mentioned (in other books) Irish Wolfhound, Bony, and the Bull Terrier that was hiding on so many pages! The illustrations are eye-catching as well. ❤️
The best thing about this book is illustrator Margot Apple's funny white trash cartoon character of a lady and all the dog expressions. William Cole on the other hand has written the most banal text about each of sixteen dogs. It consists of a couplet per dog mostly focusing on their species and the name of each pooch. Lines include the likes of "Needle-nose is my speedy whippet. / Wanna race her? No thanks -- skip it!" How inane!
I liked how the book talked about a variety of dogs. It put the name of the dog with picture of the dog. It is a simple book with a story line that is easy to follow.