Happy Birthday P.D Eastman
To the tree! To the tree! Up the tree!
Up the tree! Up they go to the top of the tree.
Why? Will they work there? Will they play there?
What is up there on top of that tree?
A dog party! A big dog Party!
P.D. Eastman, Go, Dog. Go!
When I was little, the idea of a big party on top of a tree was magical. I totally believed that one day I would have a tree house, and party like the dogs in Go, Dog. Go! (or the ewoks in Return of the Jedi). I have always had an overactive imagination, and P.D. Eastman’s simple but fun books and illustrations were some of the first books that I learned to read. I love that there is so much to wonder about on any given page. Now I know that it was because he limited himself to using only 75 different words in Go, Dog. Go!, but back then I just had a lot of questions like, Why are there that many dogs in one bed? Or, Why doesn’t he like that hat? I can’t tell you how many times I read this book with my siblings, children I babysat, and to my own daughter, and it always resulted in requests for another reading.
Philip Dey Eastman, better known as P.D. Eastman, was born on November 25, 1909 in Amherst Massachusetts. He is best remembered for, The Best Nest, Are You My Mother?, and of course, Go, Dog. Go! Before becoming a children’s author, Eastman worked doing production design and animation for Disney Studios, at Warner Brothers cartoons, and even for the United States Military. In 1943 he enlisted in the army and worked for the Signal Corps Film unit, which was headed by none other than Theodor Geisel, later known as Dr Seuss. There they made training films for the American military which featured a character named Private Snafu who was the worst soldier in the army. Private Snafu’s constant blunders were used to teach soldiers basic lessons about proper military behaviour and protocol. The films were top secret, but are now part of the public domain, and they can be found on YouTube. Some are included as bonus material on the Looney Tunes Golden Collection DVDs.
After the war, Eastman worked for several years at United Productions of America, where he helped develop the Mr Magoo series, and worked on the adaptation of Theodor Geisel’s children’s record Gerald McBoing Boing into a short film, which won an Academy Award in 1951. He moved on to freelance work in 1952, as a writer and story board artist. When Theodor Geisel created the Beginner Books Series at Random House, he approached Eastman to write a book, and in 1958 his first children’s book, Sam and the Firefly was published.
Eastman passed away January 7, 1986, but he left behind some wonderful classics for beginning readers. Over his career he wrote and/or illustrated 18 children’s books, most of which are still in print. There is even a cute Go, Dog. Go! themed party kit available to download for free from Random House Kids so you can have your own dog party.
2 thoughts on “Happy Birthday P.D Eastman”
I have the fondest memories of these books which were the first books I learned to read on my own.
All these years (decades!) later, I think Go Dog Go was worthy of a Pulizter.
I totally agree 🙂