Finders Keepers: A Rollicking Story for Children (Ages 4-7) About Two Dogs and One Bone

by William Lipkind, Nicolas Mordvinoff

Two dogs find one bone and have difficulty deciding which of them owns it. “Here is a perfect combination of rollicking story and pictures that have strength, life and humor in every line.”-- The Horn Book

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens, Animals, Dogs, Fiction, Friendship, Juvenile

32 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1951

About the author

Anthropologist who published young adult novels and a thesis under his own name, and children's books under the pseudonym "Will" in collaboration with artist Nicolas Mordvinoff.

Reviews

[Calista · Rating 2 out of 5]

This might be the first Caldecott that I absolutely hate the art. The story is alright on the other hand. I hate how he uses one color to paint the entire picture almost and just draws over it. The first picture is all gold with a little white highlight and it’s hideous. I get this is an experimentation they are going for. They are trying something new, but not all experimentation is worth giving a medal too. Some things are simply for the artists growth.

2 dogs find a bone and they keep asking people who it belongs too. Most of the people and animals they ask don’t care. The end is pretty cute.

The kids weren’t crazy about this book either. The niece gave it 1 star and the nephew gave it 3 stars. He thought their haircuts were very funny they got.

[Kathryn · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this as part of our Caldecott project over in the Children's Book Group. I'm really surprised it won the Caldecott but perhaps I just don't appreciate this style of art. It was very unattractive to me and the characters even looked a bit scary at times; that said, my fifteen month old son was easily able to identify the dogs.
I also wasn't a fan of the dogs fighting rather violently at the end of the story. There's definitely a "moral to the story" but overall it just wasn't my cup of tea. I'm curious now to read some of the Honor books from this year to see how they compare.

[Brigette · Rating 3 out of 5]

Oh, my goodness. I love the illustrations in this book. They are bright and vibrant. The actual images are rough, but the style of drawing is awesome. I feel like it might encourage young kids to draw without being perfect in their representations. I'm not saying that a kindergarten child could draw this well, but I think that the more drawing styles they see, the more they'll realize that things don't have to look like a photograph like the illustrations do in many other books (like Tuesday). I'm now wondering if I should look for more old books like this for my future classroom. My only opposition to this book is that the two dogs only found a solution to their conflict after beating up another dog. I can't imagine reading this in school just because of that one page. it was overall a good book, but I don't want my kids to beat up another kid just to get their toy back.

[Katt Hansen · Rating 1 out of 5]

I really do hate giving out one-star reviews and avoid them as much as possible. But the more I think about this book, the less I like it. First of all, like many others here, I just don't get why it won the Caldecott for that year. Makes me really want to look and see what it was up against. The conclusion of the story I found disturbing. I liked that the dogs shared, but could have done without the dogfight.

[Joe · Rating 1 out of 5]

dafuq.

[Taylor Petersen · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is one of the two Caldecott books that I read for my RDG 291 class for a project in Children’s literature. This book I thought was very cute and very appropriate for a younger child. This book was published in 1951 and in 1952, won the Caldecott award. The summary of this story is that there are two dogs who found a bone and they both think that they found it, so they ask passers for some help on deciding who gets the bone. This is a really cute and fun book for young children and there is also an important lesson in here for children to learn.

When looking at the pictures within the book, you have to remember when this book was published. Back when this book was first published there were not many resources out there and so they were very limited when producing picture books. For example there is a lot of the color red, yellow, black and white. I’m sure they didn’t many color options to choose from. I would put these pictures/illustrations that are on each page under the cartoon art. They were very fun and interesting. The type of interaction between the pictures and the text would be symmetrical interaction. The reason I would say that this is symmetrical interaction is because the words and the images throughout the book matched 50/50 with each other and the pictures were just showing what the words were saying. When I first read this book and was thinking to myself, “how did this book win this award?” But then I also had to go back and remember when this book was published and try to think how amazing and cool it was for children to be able to read and see the bright inviting colors to read a cute book about two dogs and their adventure.

[Aly Gutierrez · Rating 5 out of 5]

• Book summary
-There were two dogs that dug up a bone. They argued, and both thought the bone was theirs. To find out the owner of the bone, they decided to go ask everyone on the farm. They asked the farmer, and some of the animals with no luck. Everyone they asked did not care about the bone; they had better things to do. The dogs helped everyone they asked before they walked away. Eventually they asked a bigger dog, who asked to look at it. The dogs agreed and let him. The big dog tried to run away with their bone so they took it back. The two dogs agreed to share the bone after their run in with the big dog. They realized they should not be selfish.

• Caldecott Medal

• Grade level, interest level, Lexile
-K-2

• Appropriate classroom use (subject area)
-During story time, this book will benefit children when learning about sharing.

• Individual students who might benefit from reading
-Children that enjoy books about animals will enjoy this fun story.

• Small group use (literature circles)
-Students can discuss things that must be shared, or that they should share.

• Whole class use (read aloud)
-Students can take turns talking about the things they have to share. For example, the games at their home, with their siblings.

• Related books in genre/subject or content area
-“The Egg Tree” by Katherine Milhous tell a story that also teaches children to not get discouraged with what you do not have. Do not look at others and see that they have something you wish you had. Appreciate what you have.

• Multimedia connections
-This book is available in paperback.

[John · Rating 2 out of 5]

Caldecott Medal, 1952

Favorite illustration: page 11

Favorite line: "The first person they met was an apprentice barber. He was just learning how to cut hair and couldn't find anybody to practice on."

It's a bizarre book!

[Shannon · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was pretty funny, until the dogs got their bones back by beating the crap out of another dog. Normally I'm not ultra-opposed to violence in books, but this was absurd.

[babyhippoface · Rating 2 out of 5]

Caldecott winner? Really? The illustrations are fine, but... the most distinguished of the year? Must've been a slow year. Story wasn't too original, either, but wasn't bad. Overall, just...okay.

[Connor Ashcraft · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book Finders Keepers is a lovely little tale that teaches a twisted way of looking at the concept of priorities and what’s really important. Also I believe it covers the message of don’t trust those who use you. In this story the two main characters are dogs by the name of Nap and Winkle. The argument is based on who gets this bone they dug up if one saw it first but the other touched it first. After looking for a while they came across a farmer who said he would give his opinion on who gets it if they help him get his cart out of a ditch. Once the cart was out the farmer had given them a pile of hay instead of an answer, thus was the first time they were tricked into doing something without getting an answer in return. Then a goat came by offering the same answer for the hay so that he could eat. But instead the goat just offered advice, basically making a threatening comment that unless their teeth are sharper than his horns it would be a bad idea to chase him down. Then they get tricked into letting a barber give them a haircut but afterwards leaves them with an unhelpful comment that if they look as good as he made them look then who needs a bone. After being unbelievably frustrated they then ask a bigger dog that passes them for advice but this dog just says that it is too big for only one to handle so he took it from them and went his way. The book then takes a turn that I was not expecting with the whole vibe that it was giving off before. Nap and Winkle attack this bigger dog in order to get their bone back. One dog takes the back and the other the head until the bigger dog was too injured to defend himself and walked away, leaving the bone for Nap and Winkle. In the end they decided that the bigger dog did have a point and that the bone was too big for just one of them to have. So they decided to share it in celebration that they finally made a very obvious decision but only because of what they went though as friends did they realize it was just much easier to share the bone.

[Delicia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Genre: fiction, picture book
Topic: dogs, bones, mean dogs, barbers, farmers,
Themes: cooperation, sharing, justice,
Illustrations: the illustrations are monochromatic. They only feature shades of red, tan, black, and white. They are highly supportive of the text. They appear to be pastel drawings.
Reading Level: strong transitional
Use: read aloud, independent reading, guided reading
Literary Elements: repetition

Thoughts:

Two dogs each claim a bone they have found and ask passersby for help in deciding ownership.

One primary theme in the book Finders Keepers is cooperation. The very first page of the book shows Nap and Winkle, the two primary dogs in the story, digging a hole together. After finding a bone in the hole, they work together to determine whose bone it is. When they run into a farmer with a cart stuck in a rut, the farmer, the horse, Nap, and Winkle all work together to get the cart out of the rut. They work with the hairtrimmer, allowing him to practice his techniques while trimming their fur. During the climax of the story, Nap and Winkle join together to fight the big, mean dog. Finally, Nap and Winkle share the bone and work together to eat the bone.

Finders Keepers is a book for strong transitional words. The words move around on the page and they are black text on dark colored backgrounds. There is also multiple lines of text on each page. The words are mostly all high frequency words with one or two syllables. The illustrations are highly supportive of the text.

[Cassandra Gelvin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Maybe just stop asking jerks for advice.

It's kind of irritating. It almost reminds me of an Aesop's fable.

There's two dogs who find a bone. They argue about who should get the bone. They can't come to a decision, so they ask a farmer. The farmer says, "Help my with my cart first." So they help him, and then the farmer's like, "Psych! Not gonna help you out at all! Have some hay!" And then a goat shows up. And they ask for help with the bone, and the goat says, "Okay, let me eat the hay." And then he eats the hay, and then says, "Psych! Not gonna help you out!" The same thing happens with a haircutter, who cuts their hair and then says he doesn't care about their bone. Then a big dog comes, and the big dog says, "Why don't you show me the bone?" and then they show it to him, and the dog says, "I'll just take it." So they attack the dog as he tries to take it. And at the end, they just share the bone between the two of them.

They could have come to that conclusion earlier, by themselves, but they needed to ask other people for advice. The other people offered to give them advice, as long as they helped them with something, but then as soon as they finished being helped, the other people went back on their word, which is stupid. Basically, the message is, "Don't trust other people to give you advice, because they just want something for themselves." But if everyone acted that way, society would crumble.

Message: Everyone's in it for themselves.

For more children's book reviews, see my website at http://www.drttmk.com.

[Dorothy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is bout two dogs that are brothers. They both find a bone and one of them saw it first and the other touched it first so they set out on an adventure to see who should actually get the bone. They ask a farmer along the way who should get the bone but the farmer doesn't care about the bone, he only cares about getting his cart and his horse out of the mud. Which is does with the help of the two dogs. This becomes the theme of the book, the dogs wander around asking people and animals who should get the bone and they all just care about what they want not about who should get the bone. Until they encounter another dog who wants to see the bone before deciding which one of them should get the bone. The bigger dog tries to steal the bone from the two of them and they gang up on the bigger dog to get the bone back. This is when they decide that the bone is big enough to share.

My thoughts: I really liked this book. It was a really cute book. These two dogs will literally do anything for somebody else to decide which one of them should get the bone. So much so that both of them end up with HORRIBLE haircuts. I also think that it's a good lesson in conflict resolution. They were able to resolve their conflict when they believed that neither one of them would get it. Which reminds me of when I was growing up and my brothers and I would fight over something up until my mom said that she would take it away so none of us could have it. Then all of a sudden we were willing to share with each other.

Use in classroom: I would use this book as a book for read-aloud time.

[Dennis Graham · Rating 2 out of 5]

#1 Finders Keepers is a Caldecott award winning children's book of 1951 which is about two dogs who find a bone and compete to figure out who it belongs to. They go on a challenging adventure asking random characters opinion on who should receive the bone, but the characters are only concerned about their self interest. The dogs eventually come to the realization that they should share the bone, so we can infer that the moral for children may be that sharing is caring.

#2 The illustrations were in cartoon form and abstract in some ways. The illustrations were simple while only using the colors black, white, gold, and red. The colors were abstractly drawn outside of the characters form not staying in the lines. It created a unique free feel to the pages. Sometimes simplicity is necessary and with this story it was wise because the text and moral are what should have stood out to the audience.

# 3 It is clear why this story would have won an award through the plot and illustrations throughout. However, the artist’s illustrations make it slightly outdated compared to a children's book of today. Simply from the style you can tell that it was drawn by hand without the aid of a computer. The images from 1951 help to create the proper atmosphere for a children's book of the time. The plot and theme of the story taught the valuable lesson of sharing.

[Sailor Jenkins · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Finders Keepers" is a children's book that encompasses the message to share. This book begins by introducing two dogs: Nap and Winkle. When they begin to dig a hole, they discover a bone.
"'That bone is mine,' said Nap. 'I saw it first.'
'It's mine,' said Winkle. 'I touched it first.'" (no pg. #).
Throughout the remainder of this book, Nap and Winkle encounter animals/people to ask: "Who's bone is it?". Nap and Winkle are unable to receive an answer from the animals/people that they asked. However, this conflict is eventually resolved and the dogs decide to share the bone.
This book received a Caldecott medal in 1952. From the lens of today, I would rate it as a decent book. In addition, I had a few mixed feelings about the illustrations. Honestly, some of the characters creeped me out (EX: the big dog). However, I liked some of the geometric/edgy illustrations for a few of the characters (EX: the goat). Overall, it was a good book and I would use it within a classroom.

[Tiandra Dodd · Rating 4 out of 5]

Finders Keepers by William Lipkind is about two dogs who find one bone. They had a difficult time deciding who gets the bone. In order to find the owner of the bone, they ask everyone on the farm, but sadly no luck. They end up deciding to share the bone. I love this book because it can teach young students about sharing. I would definitely use this book in my classroom because it would express how to share and the right ways to go about it. Also, the illustrations in this book are too cute. I love how bright the pictures are. As I was reading this book, I noticed how eye-catching they were and I could not stop looking at them. Overall, this book would be great for young students to read because it works with the theme of fairness and kindness which I think all teachers should find ways to incorporate into their lesson plans.

[Maria Rowe · Rating 3 out of 5]

• 1952 Caldecott Winner •

It’s hard to go wrong with a book that has dogs as the main characters. Nap and Winkle are two dogs that dug up a bone at the same time and can’t agree on whose it is. I like the moral that arguing over something so trivial is a waste of time, and that it’s better to share. However, their arguing lead them on a series of (mostly) fun adventures so I don’t really get that. It kind of makes arguing look fun. Hm, I’m not sure this would have been my choice as the Caldecott Winner in 1952, but it’s not bad either.

Materials used: unlisted
Typeface used: unlisted

[Meltha · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was one of the most difficult of the Caldecott winners for me to find. Several libraries didn't have it available, and after reading it I'm pretty sure I know why. Unfortunately, it's not especially good. The colors are very basic, though that's par for the 1950s, but the artwork isn't even particularly engaging. The plot seems to be that the two dogs in question are a pair of nitwits. At one point, a larger dog tries to con them out of their bone, and their reaction is to slash him up, which is obviously charming. Must have been a slow year. This is more a 1 1/2 star.

[Jennifer (JenIsNotaBookSnob) · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm not sure if the illustrations look dated or retro. The bright colors help, but, the palette is heavy on reds and yellows like the cover. It is sort of fun, two dogs discover a bone and one touched it first and the other saw it first and they can't decide whose it is. They ask multiple characters and finally ask a big dog who tries to steal it, they fight him off together and then decide to share it.

If there's a lesson to be had in this book, it isn't particularly obvious other than dogs will fight over a bone. My daughter would enjoy it for the haircuts the dogs get in the middle.

[Jasmine Stocker · Rating 5 out of 5]

Winkle and Nap look to the people and animals around them to help decide who’s bone it really is. But nobody is interested in helping them. In the end, they decide quickly when a big dog tries to take the bone away. They decide to share. The perfect book to show young children what it means to share and that fighting over something isn't worth it. It's meant to be a funny story in which students will stay interested in the story for a long time.

[Hannah McKinney · Rating 3 out of 5]

Finders Keepers is not one of my favorite books. The illustrations were creative, easy to follow, and gave me a good visual image of the characters. The moral of the story is easy to pick out but it's just not my taste.
As an educator this would be the perfect book to teach about sharing. The pictures and language of the book would be easy for lower grade students to understand but I feel the story line is meant for older elementary aged students.

[Rhonda · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book would be good for Kindergarten through 2nd grade. I like how some of the illustrations have unique solid colored backgrounds. Sometimes its red, gold and even black. This is a good book to use for conversations about sharing and team work .

[Gina · Rating 1 out of 5]

I read this for a challenge. Probably one of my least favorite Caldecott winners. The illustrations aren’t really that great and, frankly, the story is kind of violent. It’s about 2 dogs who have dug up a bone and fight about it. That’s it! Nothing much to the story either. 1 star.

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

1952 Caldecott Winner
Aesop style chain of events story about 2 dogs who ask others to decide who gets the bone that one found and the other sniffed out;
different style of illustration from other stories; Join Nap and Winkle for their discovery of friendship and fairness

[Robert Davis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Splendid 1950's "modern" illustrations are the highlight of this story about learning to share. The story is simple, but imaginative.

[Brandy T · Rating 1 out of 5]

It is a very wordy book, not great for younger readers. I am personally not a huge fan of the illustrations either.

[Kat · Rating 3 out of 5]

Surprisingly violent at the end and there was a lack of reason to each of the characters the dogs encountered. It was a pleasant read.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

1952 Caldecott. Unique illustrations, but I like them. Fun color palette.

[Joan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nap and Winkle are digging in the yard where they find a bone; Nap says the bone is his because he saw it first but Winkle says the bone is his because he touched it first. The dogs cannot decide which one is right, so they ask a farmer, a goat, an apprentice barber, and a big dog. The farmer, the goat, and the barber all say, “Who cares about a bone?” and the dogs don’t get an answer.

But when they ask the big dog, he asks to see the bone.

What will happen when Nap and Winkle take the big dog to see the bone? And what will Nap and Winkle do?

=========

The target audience for this picture book is the primary grade reader, ages four through seven, kindergarten through second grade. The story is, for the most part, positive. But the ultimate solution in which the two dogs team up for a violent confrontation with the other dog may not be the right message for young readers as the best example of problem-solving.

The story creates a learning opportunity for young readers to discuss ways to solve problems without resorting to violence. And, in the case of the farmer, the goat, and the barber, why these people did not help the dogs solve their problem. Helping others solve a problem is another way to support teamwork.

However, the Caldecott Medal-winning pictures make this book extraordinary. Using only red, yellow, black, and white and often drawing against a single color background, the distinctive illustrations superbly support the narrative.

Recommended.