''Pretzel'' is a children's picture book written in 1944 by

Margret Rey Margret Elizabeth Rey (born Margarete Elisabeth Waldstein; May 16, 1906 – December 21, 1996) was a German-born American writer and illustrator, known best for the ''Curious George'' series of children's picture books that she and her husband H. ...

, illustrated by

H.A. Rey Hans Augusto (H.A.) Rey (né Reyersbach; September 16, 1898 – August 26, 1977) was a German-born American illustrator and author, known best for the '' Curious George'' series of children's picture books that he and his wife Margret Rey creat ...

and first published by

Harper & Brothers Harper is an American publishing house, the flagship imprint of global publisher HarperCollins based in New York City. History J. & J. Harper (1817–1833) James Harper and his brother John, printers by training, started their book publishin ...

Synopsis

The story begins with the line, "One morning in May, five little

dachshund The dachshund ( or ; German: "badger dog"), also known as the wiener dog, badger dog, and sausage dog, is a short-legged, long-bodied, hound-type dog breed. The dog may be smooth-haired, wire-haired, or long-haired, and comes in a variety of c ...

s were born". Among the five puppies was a male dachshund dubbed Pretzel. Though unremarkable at first and virtually indistinguishable from the rest of the litter, Pretzel soon grew to be extraordinarily long, much longer than his brothers and sisters. He grew to be the longest dachshund in the world, earning a

blue ribbon The blue ribbon is a symbol of high quality. The association comes from The Blue Riband, a prize awarded for the fastest crossing of the Atlantic Ocean by passenger liners and, prior to that from Cordon Bleu, which referred to the blue ribbon ...

at a dog show. Pretzel was so long that he could in fact twist his body into the shape of his namesake. His length and physical prowess drew attention and praise from humans and dogs alike, save for one female dachshund named Greta. Pretzel was smitten by Greta who lived just across the street and who was unimpressed by Pretzel's length; she claimed that she "didn't like long dogs". Despite Pretzel's efforts to woo her with gifts, she continued to snub his affections. While watching Greta from afar, Pretzel witnessed Greta's accidental fall into a dry

water well A well is an excavation or structure created in the ground by digging, driving, or drilling to access liquid resources, usually water. The oldest and most common kind of well is a water well, to access groundwater in underground aquifers. Th ...

. The well was too deep for Greta to escape on her own, but not so deep that Pretzel couldn't hook onto the rim of the well with his hindquarters, lower his body into the well and extract her with his teeth via the scruff of her neck. It is after her rescue that Greta returns Pretzel's affections, agrees to marry him despite his length and the story ends with the same line and much the same illustration which opened the story, except the "five little dachshunds" in this case belonged to Pretzel and Greta. The story was republished in 1997 by

Houghton Mifflin The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , ''asteriskos'', "little star", is a typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a heraldic star. Computer scientists and mathematicians often voc ...

TV series

A 3D-animated television series based on the book ''Pretzel and the Puppies'' premiered on

Apple TV+ Apple TV is a digital media player and microconsole developed and marketed by Apple Inc. It is a small network appliance hardware that plays received media data such as video and audio to a television set or external display. Since its secon ...

on February 11, 2022 with

Mark Duplass Mark David Duplass (born December 7, 1976) is an American filmmaker, actor, writer, and musician. With his brother Jay Duplass, he started the film production company Duplass Brothers Productions in 1996. Duplass has written and directed films, i ...

voicing the title role. A holiday special was released on December 2 the same year. Season 2 was released on February 24, 2023.

References

{{Apple TV+ 1944 children's books American picture books Children's books about dogs Harper & Brothers books