This is the true story of a dog that goes from being a stray, to the best traveled dog in the world. This true story is almost unbelievable. Owney is truly one lucky dog.
I thought the book was well written and the pictures were great. I had never heard of this amazing dog before this book.
There is a great old map in the back of the book that would be fun for students to see. The students could track where Owney traveled and compare the old map to a modern map. You could also do a study on how the U.S. postal service got started and how it works.

One dark cold night in Albany, New York a puppy wandered into a mail station to stay warm. The puppy was found sleeping on a mail bag by the workers the next day. A worker named Owen decided to keep the pup. The pup became a lucky charm for the mail carriers that rode the trains. Owney traveled all over the world on the rails. Accidents were very common on the rails back then, but Owney’s trains never had an accident while he was on them. Owney also traveled over 143,000 miles by steamship and train for 132 days. Owney rode the rails from 1888-1897, he loved nothing better than to stick his nose out the doors and sniff all the scents that sped by. Owney was a well traveled adventurous lucky dog.

This was a wonderful biography to read. I enjoyed that it was a story about a wonderful animal and mascot. I usually find biographies terribly tedious and boring to read, but this book was a big change from what I’m used to. Overall a great book!

An extension idea for this book could be to use it as an introduction to a History lesson. This book has maps of the old rail lines. Students could look at the map and discuss how different the postal system is today.

This was a magnificent book! It is definitely going into my library at home. The illustration were great the story was great and children love any type of animal, especially dogs. This lovely book was about a dog that sought warmth and safety in a post office one night and was found lying on a bag of mail the next morning by the postman. Owney was what they called him and he became the mascot for the post office. Owney began riding the postal rail mail train and went all around the world. Along his journeys he collected different tags of where all he had been.
This book would be in my writing curriculum every year. I would use this book for letter writing. It would be a great prep for students to read when getting ready to cover letter writing to anyone. ( )

"In 1887, on a cold rainy night in Albany, New York, a postal worker takes pity on a shivering dog that has taken shelter in the depot....One day, the dog jumps aboard the mail train and discovers he likes riding the rails....A satisfying tale..."
NoveList from Booklist11-15-2003, p 604