Children's Book - Part Time Dog

Animals love Ted.  Our timid little part time cat hides under a car in the parking lot until Ted comes out.

These photos were taken looking down out of our kitchen window.

Our little neighbor, in the apartment below ours, says the Neko went that way.

We don't know where Neko-chan goes after eating at our house. 

Our part time cat reminded me of a book that I had as a child called Part Time Dog about a lost dog that shows up in a neighborhood of people who are too busy to have a dog, but eventually three families end up taking care of it part time.  Ted remembered a book about a cat called Thomasina. Feeling kind of nostalgic, I googled the names of both books and found them! Part Time Dog was written by Jane Thayer and is available in a newer edition since the one I remembered. Thomasina by Paul Gallico has also been out in several editions over the years and was made into a Disney movie.  A new copy of the 1957 version of the book sells for $155.44 on amazon.com.

I couldn’t help looking up other favorite books. I loved A Gift Bear for the King by Carl Memling. If you read it, you will remember “He won’t stop for anything”, but he did.

I thought of The Five Chinese Brothers (by Claire Hutchet Bishop) as superheros, even though I didn’t know the term superheros.  I also didn’t know there was a controversy about this book back then over the ethnic stereotyping.  I was fascinated by a man who could suck up the ocean and another who could hold his breath forever.

You don’t even have to know the title.  I looked up “ghost mouse summer house children’s book” and “Ping” and found the books I remembered, Gus was a Friendly Ghost by Jane Thayer and The Story About Ping by Marjorie Flack. 

Did you read any of these children’s books as a child (or as an adult)? Not being able to read Japanese has made me more aware of the difficulties of being illiterate. I can't imagine growing up, not reading these and other books.