Tweetspeak Poetry

  • Home
  • FREE prompts
  • Earth Song
  • Every Day Poems—Subscribe! ✨
  • Teaching Tools
  • Books, Etc.
  • Patron Love

Children’s Book Club: “The Original Adventures of Hank The Cowdog”

By Megan Willome 2 Comments

John R. Erickson
Why, when September
blows in do I crave a book
that’s a bit crime-y?

When September rolled around, I found myself reaching for The Original Adventures of Hank the Cowdog. It’s an autographed copy, and if you ever have the chance to hear John R. Erickson in person, pull on your boots and skedaddle over to hear him read and sing and play his banjo. You’ll let out a hearty yeehaw by the end.

I’ve written about the power of Hank the Cowdog before. And about his creator, John R. Erickson, who originally sold his books out of the back of his pickup truck. These semi-mysterious tales of a woebegotten dog who works as head of ranch security at a remote spot in the Texas Panhandle were favorites in our home.

But I don’t think I truly understood Hank’s magic until my husband began reading this book to a friend in his 70s who was recovering from surgery. This man had never had anyone read aloud to him. He never had children, so he had never read aloud to anyone himself. So perhaps the first paragraph he ever heard read to him was this:

It’s me again, Hank the Cowdog. I just got some terrible news. There’s been a murder on the ranch.”

The murder of a chicken, one of Sally May’s hens. And there are coyote tracks. Hank is on the job!

But the joke is that Hank is terrible at his job — throughout the entire series. He would never be part of a K-9 police or military unit. He’s what my Panhandle family members would call “just a dog-dog,” a no-count mongrel who means well but is always in the way. And yet by the end of every book somehow it all comes around right.

The Hank the Cowdog series consists of seventy-four books, and Erickson is still writing. The books are written at a middle-grade reading level, and they can be read in any order or none at all. Next month Erickson will release an illustrated history titled Finding Hank: The Most-Often Asked Questions about Hank the Cowdog. After selling more than nine millions books, there are second- and third-generation Hank fans who want to know his origin story. I am one of them.

But sadly, Erickson’s illustrator for forty-one years, Gerald L. Holmes, passed away about three weeks ago. Erickson said his collaborator’s illustrations “deliver the blessing of innocent laughter.”

Our friend who heard his first Hank book? He laughed and laughed and laughed. And he got better. I have to believe Hank had something to do with it. Because no matter how often he blows it, the head of ranch security always manages to get one thing right:

You make the world a little safer, a little better.”

For Discussion

1. Series are standards in the children’s book world. Which ones did you or your kids enjoy?

2. Crime and mystery stories are the second-biggest category in fiction (the first is romance). These sorts of tales are available for kids too, in a variety of levels of intensity — some more about solving the puzzle, some more focused on the crime. What have been some favorites in your house?

3. Who is your favorite fictional dog?
_______________

The next Children’s Book Club will meet Friday, November 8. We will read Dotty, by Erica S. Perl and illustrated by Julia Denos. Get your special string ready!

Erica S. Perl

Photo by Forsaken Fotos, Creative Commons, via Flickr. Post by Megan Willome.

Browse more Children’s Book Club

rainbow crow front cover outlined
5 star

“Megan Willome has captured the essence of crow in this delightful children’s collection. Not only do the poems introduce the reader to the unusual habits and nature of this bird, but also different forms of poetry as well.”

—Michelle Ortega, poet and children’s speech pathologist

  • Author
  • Recent Posts
Megan Willome
Megan Willome
Megan Willome is a writer, editor, and author of The Joy of Poetry: How to Keep, Save & Make Your Life With Poems and Rainbow Crow: poems in and out of form. Her day is incomplete without poetry, tea, and a walk in the dark.
Megan Willome
Latest posts by Megan Willome (see all)
  • Perspective: The Two, The Only: Calvin and Hobbes - December 16, 2022
  • Children’s Book Club: A Very Haunted Christmas - December 9, 2022
  • By Heart: ‘The night is darkening round me’ by Emily Brontë - December 2, 2022

Filed Under: Children's Authors, Children's Book Club, Children's Stories

Try Every Day Poems...

About Megan Willome

Megan Willome is a writer, editor, and author of The Joy of Poetry: How to Keep, Save & Make Your Life With Poems and Rainbow Crow: poems in and out of form. Her day is incomplete without poetry, tea, and a walk in the dark.

Comments

  1. L.L. Barkat says

    October 11, 2019 at 12:16 pm

    Oh, how I love the part about your husband reading to your ailing friend. There should be more chances for people to have the experience of being read aloud to, face to face. (I do love what Tina Miller Howard’s tea place is doing in this regard. Community readalouds.)

    “the blessing of innocent laughter”

    This also feels like the heart of what we do here. What a wonderful phrase I am feeling thankful for being introduced to.

    Reply
    • Megan Willome says

      October 11, 2019 at 12:30 pm

      So true–innocent laughter is a huge part of Tweetspeak.

      Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Take How to Read a Poem

Get the Introduction, the Billy Collins poem, and Chapter 1

get the sample now

Welcome to Tweetspeak

New to Tweetspeak Poetry? Start here, in The Mischief Café. You're a regular? Check out our May Menu

Patron Love

❤️

Welcome a little patron love, when you help keep the world poetic.

The Graphic Novel

"Stunning, heartbreaking, and relevant illustrations"

Callie Feyen, teacher

read a summary of The Yellow Wallpaper

meet The Yellow Wallpaper characters

How to Write Poetry

Your Comments

  • Glynn on World War II Had Its Poets, Too
  • Sandra Fox Murphy on World War II Had Its Poets, Too
  • Glynn on Poets and Poems: Kelly Belmonte and “The Mother of All Words”
  • Bethany R. on Poets and Poems: Kelly Belmonte and “The Mother of All Words”

Featured In

We're happy to have been featured in...

The Huffington Post

The Paris Review

The New York Observer

Tumblr Book News

Stay in Touch With Us

Categories

Learn to Write Form Poems

How to Write an Acrostic

How to Write a Ballad

How to Write a Catalog Poem

How to Write a Ghazal

How to Write a Haiku

How to Write an Ode

How to Write a Pantoum

How to Write a Rondeau

How to Write a Sestina

How to Write a Sonnet

How to Write a Villanelle

5 FREE POETRY PROMPTS

Get 5 FREE inbox poetry prompts from the popular book How to Write a Poem

Shakespeare Resources

Poetry Classroom: Sonnet 18

Common Core Picture Poems: Sonnet 73

Sonnet 104 Annotated

Sonnet 116 Annotated

Character Analysis: Romeo and Juliet

Character Analysis: Was Hamlet Sane or Insane?

Why Does Hamlet Wait to Kill the King?

10 Fun Shakespeare Resources

About Shakespeare: Poet and Playwright

Top 10 Shakespeare Sonnets

See all 154 Shakespeare sonnets in our Shakespeare Library!

Explore Work From Black Poets

About Us

  • • A Blessing for Writers
  • • Our Story
  • • Meet Our Team
  • • Literary Citizenship
  • • Poet Laura
  • • Poetry for Life: The 5 Vital Approaches
  • • T. S. Poetry Press – All Books
  • • Contact Us

Write With Us

  • • 5 FREE Poetry Prompts-Inbox Delivery
  • • 30 Days to Richer Writing Workshop
  • • Poetry Prompts
  • • Submissions
  • • The Write to Poetry

Read With Us

  • • All Our Books
  • • Book Club
  • • Every Day Poems—Subscribe! ✨
  • • Literacy Extras
  • • Poems to Listen By: Audio Series
  • • Poet-a-Day
  • • Poets and Poems
  • • 50 States Projects
  • • Charlotte Perkins Gilman Poems Library
  • • Edgar Allan Poe Poems Arts & Experience Library
  • • William Blake Poems Arts & Experience Library
  • • William Shakespeare Sonnet Library

Celebrate With Us

  • • Poem on Your Pillow Day
  • • Poetic Earth Month
  • • Poet in a Cupcake Day
  • • Poetry at Work Day
  • • Random Acts of Poetry Day
  • • Take Your Poet to School Week
  • • Take Your Poet to Work Day

Gift Ideas

  • • Every Day Poems
  • • Our Shop
  • • Everybody Loves a Book!

Connect

  • • Donate
  • • Blog Buttons
  • • By Heart
  • • Shop for Tweetspeak Fun Stuff

Copyright © 2025 Tweetspeak Poetry · FAQ, Disclosure & Privacy Policy