ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses animal representations in popular picture books, and aims to identify the visual and textual strategies that inform child readers' ideological position with respect to pets and their own place in society. Mister Dog is not just a humanized dog; he is also a conservative. While adult readers will understand the political connotations of term, the text explains to child reader how Mister Dog likes everything at right time and at right place, implying that conservative is organized, prefers a structured lifestyle, and goes to great lengths to achieve this. When Mister Dog takes him home, he initiates the socialization process and puts the boy on the right track to becoming a well-behaved conservative like himself. That the boy has no significant others in his life beside Mister Dog is implied by the final image: it shows a portrait of another dog hanging beside Mister Dog's bed, while there is only an empty nail by boy's bedside.
