A Lucky Dog: Owney Rail Mail Mascot April 10th 2011

So I ventured up to Old Forge this weekend, and had a near perfectly relaxing weekend. We went into the town general store, which ended up having almost everything including two back rooms full of books. Of course I wandered over to the children's section as it is usually where I feel most fit ( :) ), and I found this book about Owney the mail dog. I sat down right in my place and began reading as it combined two of my passions: dogs and geography!

Dirk Wales wrote and retold the famous story, set in the late 1800's, is about this mutt that loves to sniff mail bags, and feels a connection for the local postal office in Albany. At night he would wander in and sleep on the mail bags, and by day he was traveling all over the county in the mail trains. People eventually got to know this dog and became very fond of him. A postal carrier in the office one day asked who the dog was, and since a postal man named Owen often played with the dog and fed him every once in a while, they decided to name the dog Owney after his friend. The story goes on to some of the adventures that Owney goes on and as well as the bumps on the track, and eventually we learn that Owney had traveled more than mostly anyone had in the given time period, and he becomes an international traveler nonetheless. The best part of the story is that it is based on a real life story, and I believe in one of the books they show an old photograph of Owney with a few of the Postal Service men!

I would use this as a perfect rainy day story, as it is heart-warming and endearing, and you definitely can obtain a sense of joy from Owney. Also it doest incorporate national and world geography with map tracking points so the readers can view the paths which he traveled upon. The art work is absolutely beautiful, and you can't help but feel the antiquity of the time period when flipping through the pages ( props to Dianne Kenna!). I would definitely recommend this book as a classroom library must. The comprehension could be clear enough for a 4 year old to understand, and I think the older students could place a greater value of the time period and the special character traits of Owney. For that, I would gear a lesson on this story based on comprehension and story components with plot, setting, characters, conflict and solution. As a pre-activity we could have students predict what the story of a mail dog may entail, and then after reading the story they could see how accurate their predictions were in creating a story map.

Have a great week everyone.
Andie