Our family has been acquainted with the Hank the Cowdog series, by John Erickson, for about 5 years. With most of my husband’s family a mere 5 hour drive (with “good” Chicago traffic), we are always on the lookout for audio books that will make the drive easier on everyone. We heard Hank long before we ever read him. My husband even goes so far as to request a Hank when I am making the pre-trip library run.
My husband and 10 year old son are his biggest fans, although the girls sometimes find a giggle or two escaping without meaning to. As soon as my son could read chapter books, he went through all the books the library had. We were excited to see Maverick books on the list of Crew vendors this year.
The books, all 53 in the series, tell of the mis-adventures of what is quite probably the most foolish dog you’ve ever met. He serves as what he calls “Head of Ranch Security” with a group of cowboys whose intelligence is just slightly above his own. While he may be a bit rough around the edges, he is harmless, and has often served as an object lesson in our home of the fool who doesn’t learn from his mistakes. For families who are sensitive to calling people names, this series may cause some concern, as “Stupid” and other such words are used but not excessively. Each book ends with Hank admitting, somewhat reluctantly, but always owning up that he was mistaken. Hank, intentionally or not, illustrates many of the Proverbs about fools.
Along with the book and a CD of Hank story excerpts and songs sung by the author, we reviewed the game “Tornado” which is loosely based on one of the stories. The game is travel sized and packaged for trips, with all the pieces fitting inside the plastic game board when it is folded. Similar to Sorry and Trouble, the pieces move around the board, attempting to get back to “Slim’s Tree” without landing on a tornado and being sent back spaces. My older son isn’t all that excited about the game, although he willingly plays it with the younger ones. My two girls play it almost everyday. It doesn’t take long, especially when only two are playing. Even our 3 year old plays along, learning to count. The only problem I’ve found with it is the spinner is not easy to spin, sometimes only moving one number when it is spun.
We don’t usually purchase the Hank books, since my son devours them so fast it doesn’t seem worth it. Our local library has a sizeable collection. Even though he is beyond these books in his reading level, he often picks up one or two, just for fun.Like all things, moderation is in order. But we have allowed Hank as a harmless source of humor. We tend to be a serious family, but Hank provides light-hearted moments, especially on long road trips. For boys who may not enjoy reading or are getting started with reading and need something with high-interest, humor, and cowboys, I often recommend the Hank books.
