Clifford the Big Red Dog

Clifford hasn't lost his appeal since he first appeared over 35 years ago.

Author: Norman Bridwell Illustrator: Norman Bridwell Pages: 32 Publisher: Scholastic Inc. Published Date: 01/01/1963 Genre: Fiction - Family Life PB Price: $3.50 Publisher's Recommended Reading Level: Ages 4-8 Read Aloud: 2-6 Read Alone: 6-8

Common Sense Note

Parents may enjoy the dry humor of the text and the simple story. Children giggle over the childlike drawings of a huge dog and his escapades.

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Common Sense Review

Reviewed By: Jennifer Gennari

Dry wit for children is unusual in these days of over-the-top silliness and bathroom humor. But Norman Bridwell knows how to tickle a child's funnybone without pandering. He accomplishes this by juxtaposing blandly flat textual setups with expressive drawings that act as a punch line on each page.

Clifford is huge. It's a seemingly simple premise, but Bridwell is able to ring endless variations on the theme, and young children lap it up. Clifford is so big that Emily Elizabeth has to give him a bath in a swimming pool. When he sits up and begs she has to give him his treat from a second-story window. When she throws a stick, he returns with a policeman's nightstick--with the police officer still attached.

As one might expect in a book where the pictures make the story, Bridwell's are charming. Simple lines and colors are combined with clever cropping and a delightful range of expressions for the goofy Clifford. His sneaky tiptoeing when playing hide-and-seek, his look of surprise to find his ears propped up with sticks to make a tent, and his one-eyed glare at a burglar who's after Emily Elizabeth's piggybank, all keep kids chortling--and reading.

From The Book

I'm Emily Elizabeth, and I have a dog. My dog is a big red dog. Other kids I know have dogs, too. Some are big dogs. And some are red dogs. But I have the biggest, reddest dog on our street.

Plot Summary:

Emily Elizabeth has the biggest, reddest dog in the neighborhood. She has extra fun with such a big dog, but extra problems too. Silly solutions shown in the cartoonlike illustrations delight young children. The good-natured Clifford has not lost his appeal since he first appeared more than thirty-five years ago.