by Moe Zilla

Created on: May 29, 2010

In 1951, a 35-year-old Beverly Cleary had published her first book, "Henry Huggins." Over the next 10 years, she'd write its first four sequels, but in 1961, she turned her attention to an illustrated children's book. "Two Dog Biscuits" tells the story of two four-year-old twins named Jimmy and Janet. "Janet always has Jimmy to swing with her on the glider," Cleary writes, "and Jimmy always has Janet to sit on the other end of the teeter-totter…"

Cleary worked as a librarian after earning a Library Science degree, according to Wikipedia, and she identified with children who said they wanted a book about their own lives. So "Two Dog Biscu0its" starts by listing out simple joys of childhood that the two twins have discovered. "They can pump themselves up high in their swings, and they can swat flies."

The book's simple but lively colored-pencil sketches let the readers use their imagination, but illustrator DyAnne DiSalvo-Ryan strikes a happy tone. The children's house is tinted with sunny yellow, while the autumn leaves outside are bright orange. Cleary is telling a realistic story, so the book's drawings also offer realistic depictions of their neighborhood and the people who live there. He draws their neighbor, Mrs. Robbins, wearing a garish daffodil-covered apron as she gives the children two dog biscuits when they come to visit her dog.

That's where the book's strange plot begins, since the children don't want to feed the biscuits to Mrs. Robbins' dog. ("He has a big bag of them," they explain to their mother.) This means that their mother is constantly stumbling across her twins' precious dog biscuits - on the couch, on the kitchen table, and in the pockets of their clothes.

"We'll go for a walk and find a dog that would like two dog biscuits," says the exasperated mother - but then she discovers that her children are particular about which dog to feed! ("I don't want to give my dog biscuit to a big dog," says Janet - and Jimmy doesn't want to give his biscuit to a dog that's brown!) They meet a little poodle - the illustrator draws it wearing a pink bow - but unfortunately, it starts yipping, and the children conclude that it's not a nice dog after all.

It's a charming little story, which feels true to life while also being funny. And I absolutely adore the way that the two children resolve their situation. They conclude that all the dogs in town must have dog biscuits already, so they finally give the biscuits to an animal that's never had one before. A cat!

The children are delighted to know something their mother doesn't know, though the book's last page takes the joke a little too far. The mother rushes to have the children back at the house when their father finally comes home - presumably from his job. And when he finally turns up - on the book's last page - he comes off as a bit of jerk. "Your mother didn't know a cat would eat dog biscuits!" he says to their two children.

"What a big joke on mother!"

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