The Poky Little Puppy is a children's book written by Janette Sebring Lowrey and illustrated by Gustaf Tenggren.

As of 2001, The Poky Little Puppy was the single all-time best-selling hardcover children's book in the U.S., having sold nearly 15 million copies.

[1] While the book has outsold many other famous books such as Dr. Seuss' Green Eggs and Ham, Lowrey herself (who also wrote stories about children in her home state of Texas) remained in relative obscurity until her death.

[2] The Poky Little Puppy lags behind to explore while his siblings sneak out to play.

When his siblings are caught for digging holes under the fence, the puppy escapes punishment by being away.

This pattern then repeats itself, only with chocolate custard for dessert instead of rice pudding.

He eats up the chocolate custard withheld because of the fence digging incident.

Then they sneak out of bed, make up for their mistake, and fill in the hole they'd dug under the fence.

The Poky Little Puppy not only arrives too late to get any strawberry shortcake, but is forced to squeeze between the fence boards since the hole has been filled in.

The book concludes with Poky Little Puppy having to go to bed without a single bite from the shortcake, gets a taste of his own medicine, and (since he is forced to go to bed while he watches his siblings eat strawberry shortcake) feels "very sorry for himself".