Hank the Cowdog by John R. Erickson

Summary: One night on the farm, there was a murder. A white chicken was killed by the chicken house. Hank the Cowdog, the head of security, and his helper Drover tried to solve the case. Hank got sprayed by a porcupine. So the next night they had a stake out, and another chicken was killed. Hank was found the next morning with feathers all around him because he had eaten the chicken that was murdered. Loper and Sally May found him and tied the chicken head around his neck and hollered at him. Hank got upset so he ran away to be wild. He joined the coyote clan and lived with them. Then the coyotes decided to have a raid on the farm and kill Drover and all the chickens. As soon as they got to the farm, Hank joined Drover and they started fighting against the coyotes. Loper came out and shot his shotgun in the air twice and all of the coyotes ran off. Loper and Sally May were so excited that Hank came back the farm and Hank and Drover went back to running the security department at the ranch.

I loved this book as a little kid. I read every single one in the series over and over and over again! As a kid, I loved this book because everything took place on a farm or in the wild. I love the country and on our farm we had so many cowdogs, I felt that I related to this book. Because the book is narrated by Hank, it’s like you are there in the story the entire time. I laughed and laughed when I was rereading this book. Now that I have reread this book, I saw so many things that I didn’t pick up on as a little kid. One of my new favorite part of the book starts on page 96. Hank and two coyotes, Rip and Snort, were going carousing and they went to the silage pit. Silage is fermented and they were eating it all day, and they got drunk! It talks about how they were running down a cow path and it “kept wiggling around” and Hank had “a devil of a time trying to stay on it.” I thought it was pretty funny! I loved this book when I was in elementary school, and now that I’m in college I still love it just as much!