Customer Reviews

Beautiful Joe a Dog's Own Story (1893)

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This was one of my favorite books as a child, and I am sure it at least partially started my interest now in the care of abandoned and abused animals. A must for all parents who want their kids to grow up being thoughtful of their pets.

A Christmas present from my grandfather back in the late '60s. Talk about being disappointed. I wasn't into reading much at the time, but being an animal lover, when I did pick up a book it was almost always about animals. Needless to say, after a few months I finally began reading "Beautiful Joe" and was I greatly surprised. From a very cruel beginning, Joe is later adopted into a very loving family and numerous adventures, that should keep even your 21st century technologically advanced children amused.

My husband read this book over and over as a child and now we are reading the book as a family. It is a sweet tale about a dog who has his ears and tail chopped off by a dog abuser. He ends up with a lovely family who takes good care of This is a very good book for boys to learn how to treat and how not to treat a dog.We are currently reading the book and are enjoying his adventures.

I read this book when I was 9 or 10. I believe that along with Black Beauty, Beautiful Joe turned me into an animal lover by showing me an animal's point of view. I made my sons read it at about the same age, and after some initial protests (I gave them my original copy, which looked old and uninteresting in their eyes) they quickly became engrossed in Joe's story. This book needs to be read in schools. It is one of the rare books that shapes you as a human being. Maybe if Michael Vick had read this book he would have been a more humane person to animals and would not be in the mess he has made for himself.

My great aunt gave me this book when I was about 11 years old. It had that old smell, kind of a mixture of mildew and cedar with some mothball thrown in. I am now 47 and I still treasure this book and keep in my collection. It is a touching story of a sweet dog that started life with an inhumane master that mutilated poor Joe. Soon, however things turned around for the couragious canine. Buy this book for yourself or for a young reader. It is a wonderful story that will warm anyone's heart.

Published in 1893, Beautiful Joe was the first Canadian book to sell a million copies and was extremely popular in America, too (selling almost a million copies by 1900). A work of fiction told from the dog's point of view, it is based upon the true story of an abused dog (in the tradition of 1877's Black Beauty). It reflects many of the unfortunate realities of society in those days, but it had an incredible impact upon the Western world's ideas about humane treatment of animals. Interestingly, it is still published with the author listed as Marshall Saunders. In fact, it was written by Margaret Marshall Saunders, and published using her middle name since it was felt that no one would want to buy a book written by a woman. (She was in fact the first woman to write a book which sold a million copies!)

Every animal shelter, humane society, and rescue organization owes a debt to beautiful Joe, who suffered terribly but started the process of change.

There's also a website about the real beautiful Joe at beautifuljoe dot org.

I just bought this book as a Christmas gift for my daughter. However, it is a book for all ages. Get a box of tissues while reading Beautiful Joe because it will bring you to tears. Animals love thier humans so much and yet man can be so cruel and ugly. Beautiful Joe was an ugly mutt whos mama was killed by an abusive owner. Even though he started his life unwanted and abused. He went on to live with a wonderful family and this is the story of his life and the other animals and humans that he shared his life with. I originally had this book when I was a child and read it all the time and I am sure my daughter will do the same.

Although the abusive parts of this book are hard to read, it's much more happiness throughout the book than misery, and I'm sure the abuse is there to remind us that there really are cruel humans walking among us.

Written so long ago, yet it's today's many lessons for all of us to learn, both young and old. It brings to life THE life of a good dog, and such a good dog was Beautiful Joe. The way Mr. Saunders captured this darling animal's thoughts on paper is a magical ride throughout his adventures.

I hope the beloved animals do make it to Heaven; and if they are there, I'm betting Mr. Saunders is surrounded by loads of them. I so loved this book; thank you, Amazon, for recommending it. Mr. Saunders hit this one out of the park!!

Like the great book Black Beauty, this is an outstanding book for a child and an excellent choice to read to young boys. It demonstrates the horror of abuse and the hope of overcoming evil and finding good in life. I read it over and over as a child and still love it today. It is one of the great children's classics.

This is a re-read, of course. I think I first read Beautiful Joe well over 50 years ago. My only beef with Beautiful Joe, reading it now as an adult, might be its rather heavy-handed preaching about cruelty to animals and about the need for kindess in general. Consider, for example, this gentle diatribe from a traveler Miss Laura encounters on the train: "Think of the cattle on the western plains. Choked with thirst in summer and starved and frozen in winter. Dehorned and goaded on to trains and steamers. Tossed about and wounded and suffering on voyages. Many of them dying and being thrown into the sea. Others landed sick and frightened. Some of them slaughtered on docks and wharves to keep them from dropping dead in their tracks. What kind of food does their flesh make? It's rank poison. Three of my family have died of cancer. I never eat meat." Maybe some of this "preaching" can be explained by the book's publisher, The American Baptist Publication Society. But no matter, really. It's still a good book, even for this old grey-haired geezer. If you like dogs and if you like a good story, then you'll like this book. And if your kids or grandkids should read it and like it, then dig out those old Jim Kjelgaard Big Red books, or Albert Payson Terhune's Sunnybank collie books, or maybe some of Jack O'Brien's Silver Chief books or James Oliver Curwood's Kazan and Baree. They're all still good reads, fifty, sixty or a hundred years later. Marshall Saunders probably still had that "new" book about Black Beauty freshly in mind when this book was written. It's a canine version of BB, really. But derivative doesn't necessarily mean second rate. This book was first rate in 1893 and it still is today. Read it to your kids/grandkids, or give it to them to read themselves. And tell them about your own excitement when you first read it. - Tim Bazzett, author of the Reed City Boy trilogy