John R Erickson Gerald L Holmes Popular Books

John R Erickson Gerald L Holmes Biography & Facts

Hank the Cowdog is a long-running, ongoing series of children's books written by John R. Erickson and illustrated originally by Gerald L. Holmes, and later by Nikki Earley. The books follow Hank, a dog who views himself as the "Head of Ranch Security". Hank suffers a superiority complex, and thinks he is smarter than everybody else. His intelligence is limited to that of the average dog. In each book Hank and other characters must deal with several events, issues and mysteries that occur at their Texas Panhandle home in Ochiltree County. The name of the ranch is never mentioned in any of the stories. The series began in 1982, with a couple of short stories about Hank and his friends; since then, 80 printed books and seven audio-only books have been published. Hank the Cowdog was previously published via Maverick Books, with Puffin Books holding the current American publishing rights in English. Each book features songs that Erickson performs on the audiobook editions. The series has received awards and critical acclaim, and the books have sold more than eight million copies worldwide. It has been published in several languages including Spanish, Danish, Persian, and Chinese. In the 1980s, the first book was adapted into an animated segment for CBS Storybreak. Teaching programs are available for the series via Maverick Books and a story entitled The Case of the Dancing Cowboy was serialized in 2002, in several American newspapers. Characters Hank: Hank is the main character and narrator of each story in the Hank the Cowdog adventures. Hank is the only character to appear in every single story in the series. Hank claims to be a "purebred top-of-the-line blue-ribbon cowdog", and that may in fact be true. According to the official Hank The Cowdog Website, Hank is based on a real Australian Shepherd named "Hank". He styles himself as the "Head of Ranch Security" and conducts security sweeps and nightly patrols. However his real task is to serve as the assistant to Slim and Loper in herding cattle. Hank has a superiority complex which causes him to have an inflated sense of his own intelligence, strength, courage and attractiveness. As a result of this, Hank frequently finds himself in sticky situations, usually of his own creation. Much of the humor of the series comes from Hank as narrator shamelessly attempting to make himself seem more competent with hindsight than he really was, but the reader is rarely fooled. Despite his flaws Hank is deeply loyal to his family and the ranch community and usually rises to the occasion at the moment of true crisis. The dog is based on an Australian Shepherd named Hank that was owned by a neighbor of Erickson's when he was managing a ranch in Oklahoma. The neighbor wanted to use the dog to help with the cattle but the dog was not trained and proved a hassle. Drover: Drover is a younger dog who lives on the ranch with Hank as his best friend. Hank refers to him as his assistant, or as a "little mutt" when Hank is angry with him. Unlike Hank, Drover has no delusions of grandeur and enjoys spending most his time staying out of trouble and sleeping (16 hours a day according to Hank), often engaging in useless tasks he invents for himself. Drover is lazy and tends to be wimpy and not helpful when it comes to helping Hank with tasks. In The Case of the Car-Barkaholic Dog, for example, Hank observes that while he is helping the cowboys with the cattle herding, Drover spends the afternoon chewing on an old horn, buries it, and then promptly forgets where it is buried. He is also unashamedly timid, and frequently avoids "the call of duty" by pretending to have a bad leg. Drover has a great deal of curiosity and often asks Hank obscure questions such as "Why does the moon rise in the evening and set in the morning?" Hank rarely knows the answer to these questions, but this doesn't stop him from providing ones. Drover often appears to have more common sense than Hank, which allows him to avoid getting into many of the same catastrophes Hank creates for himself. However, he is not very smart, frequently taking figures of speech literally, and misunderstanding the military jargon which Hank often uses. Drover appears in every story in the series, with the exception of A1: The Homeless Pooch. Sally May: Sally May is the wife of High Loper and the mother of Little Alfred and Baby Molly. She is a housewife who enjoys parties and often serves as a civilizing check on her cowboy husband. She is often high-strung, particularly in "The Case of the Killer Stud Horse" and "The Phantom in the Mirror", when she has company coming over. Pete the Barn Cat is her favorite pet and she is affectionate towards both him and Drover. She dislikes Hank, however, and frequently gets angry at him for coming into her yard, her house or fighting with Pete. Her most common response when angered is to try to hit him with her broom. Despite this Hank often seems to think that Sally May secretly respects him. In reality, her feelings fluctuate between disgust and temporary respect as Hank usually follows up his shenanigans with an act of heroism. High Loper: Owner of the ranch, High Loper (his last name is never given) is an old-fashioned cowboy who enjoys roping, riding and working his ranch. While Loper never wants to leave the ranch and is loath to go out of town, he is far from a workaholic, settling for shoddy workmanship on many of his projects and pawning the dirty work onto his ranch hand, Slim Chance. His more anti-social cowboy instincts have been tamed by his wife, who he loves. However, in some episodes he expresses nostalgia for the times when he was just a simple cowboy. In "Murder in the Middle Pasture" when Sally May is giving Slim a lecture on how he will understand the importance of social events when he is married, Loper mouths the words "no you won't" behind her back. While Loper makes fun of Hank frequently and is often angry at him, he also relies on Hank to help with the cattle herding. In "Every Dog Has His Day" Hank saves Loper from some quicksand, proving his loyalty to his master. He is shown to be stubborn. He often refuses to listen to the advice of Slim Chance, which usually ends with some type of incident occurring which Slim had tried to warn him about. Little Alfred: Loper and Sally May's older child. Little Alfred (middle name Leroy) likes Hank and often participates in adventures with him. Some of these are harmless, though in "The Case of the Hooking Bull" Alfred deliberately tricks Hank into going into the dryer and then turns the machine on, showing he has a mischievous streak. Most of the story "Lost in the Dark Unchanted Forest" revolves around Hank's search for Alfred when he goes missing in the woods. In this story and a few others Alfred is shown to have the ability to talk to animals, although in later stories he does not appear to have this ability. It is revealed that the older a child gets, the more their ability to und.... Discover the John R Erickson Gerald L Holmes popular books. Find the top 100 most popular John R Erickson Gerald L Holmes books.