Dirk Wales

This book is about a little dog that is out in the rain and he is cold and wet. He finds a building where the door is open and it’s warm inside. The place he ends up going inside is the postal office. The men working there find the dog and this guy named Owen keeps the dog and calls him Owney. Owney ends up going everywhere with Owen and the rest of the workers. Owney becomes a really famous dog by traveling all over the world for the Postal Service. He ends up becoming the Rail Mail Mascot. Owney gets a lot of medals and rewards from being the mascot. The workers all say he is a lucky dog.

Relating to this book is kind of hard, but the way I think lots of kids or anybody could relate to this book, is by having a big imagination. Some kid’s think their dog can do really cool tricks and is the coolest dog in the world.

In the classroom, the class could talk about their pet if they have one. Also, the kids could use their imagination and pretend their dog or animal does something really great.… (mais)

Wales, Dirk. (2003). A lucky dog: Owney, U.S.Rail Mail mascot. Chicago: Great Plains Press.
This is the true story of a stray dog who became a world traveler with the Rail Mail Service from 1888-1896. He wandered into the Albany post office one cold night. He was very protective of the mail bags. He traveled with the Rail Mail service between cities. The men in the Albany post office asked that others add a tag to his collar wherever he visited so they could see where he'd been. He eventually took a 132 day trip around the world on a steam ship collecting tags and momentos of his travels. Also, a map of his travels is included throughout the book as a primary source document. I enjoyed the muted watercolor illustrations. This is a great book to read to students and extend into social studies lessons about this time period.… (mais)

This story was about Owney, a dog that became mascot of the United States postal service. Owney was once an abandoned dog until the rainy, cold night he enter the Albany, NY post office. The mailmen took him in. Owney began riding in the mail wago and eventually began riding on the postal trains across the country. Owney even rode with the mail around the world!!!

This story was really cute. I always love stories about animals, especially about dogs.

Classroom extension: 1) From the story, teachers could guide a research activity with their students to find out more infomation about Owney. 2) Teachers could also teach student about the process of delivering mail and more information about the United States Postal Service.… (mais)