Tiffky Doofky

Tiffky Doofky, garbage collector for the town of Popville, is proud of his calling, and quite a gay dog into the bargain. One fine spring morning, while he's making his rounds, it comes to him that something special is going to happen. Madame Tarsal, the fortuneteller, confirms his hunch and predicts that he will meet his true love that very day--before the sun goes down! "Nothing you can do can keep it from happening," she quacks, and the excited Tiffky kisses her right on the bill.

The day turns out to be far from ordinary, but not in the way Tiffky Doofky, or even Madame Tarsal, had expected. A bad-tempered witch is at work here, though she looks just like a harmless old biddy, with her bicycle and red babushka. Tiffky's adventures under her spell take him so far from Popville and so close to sunset that he begins to despair of ever meeting his beloved. He even decides that Madame Tarsal ought to get a new crystal ball. But just as the sun is touching the horizon, Tiffky has his most perilous encounter, and it brings an ending entirely satisfactory to all.

"Tiffky Doofky is a (dog) garbage collector who's told by fortune-teller Madam Tarsal that 'this very day, before the sun goes down, you will fall in love with the one you are going to marry'...But his fortune gets temporarily waylaid by an old chicken biddy who's secretly Madam Tarsal's enemy and persists in trying to foil her fortune-telling." --Starred, Booklist

"Tiffky Doofky is a (dog) garbage collector who's told by fortune-teller Madam Tarsal that 'this very day, before the sun goes down, you will fall in love with the one you are going to marry'...But his fortune gets temporarily waylaid by an old chicken biddy who's secretly Madam Tarsal's enemy and persists in trying to foil her fortune-telling." --Starred, Booklist

"The engaging tale of a garbage collector who finds true love only when he stops looking for it." —Publishers Weekly

Tiffky Doofky, garbage collector for the town of Popville, is proud of his calling, and quite a gay dog into the bargain. One fine spring morning, while he's making his rounds, it comes to him that something special is going to happen. Madame Tarsal, the fortuneteller, confirms his hunch and predicts that he will meet his true love that very day--before the sun goes down! "Nothing you can do can keep it from happening," she quacks, and the excited Tiffky kisses her right on the bill.

The day turns out to be far from ordinary, but not in the way Tiffky Doofky, or even Madame Tarsal, had expected. A bad-tempered witch is at work here, though she looks just like a harmless old biddy, with her bicycle and red babushka. Tiffky's adventures under her spell take him so far from Popville and so close to sunset that he begins to despair of ever meeting his beloved. He even decides that Madame Tarsal ought to get a new crystal ball. But just as the sun is touching the horizon, Tiffky has his most perilous encounter, and it brings an ending entirely satisfactory to all.

William Steig's Tiffky Doofky, a garbage collector for the town of Popville, has a feeling one morning that something special is going to happen, so he goes to a fortune teller. She says he will meet his true love that very day, before the sun goes down. Tiffky Doofky looks everywhere, but he doesn't realize that a bad-tempered witch has tricked him. As the day goes on and the sun sinks lower in the sky, he begins to despair. Will he ever find his beloved? But a perilous encounter at the end of the day may be the most romantic near-death experience of all. 

William Steig (1907-2003) was a cartoonist, illustrator and author of award-winning books for children, including Shrek!, on which the DreamWorks movies are based. In 1930, Steig's work began appearing in The New Yorker, where his drawings have been a popular fixture ever since. He published his first children's book, Roland the Minstrel Pig, in 1968. In 1970, Steig received the Caldecott Medal for Sylvester and the Magic Pebble. His books for children also include Dominic; The Real Thief; The Amazing Bone, a Caldecott Honor Book; Amos & Boris, a National Book Award finalist; and Abel's Island and Doctor De Soto, both Newbery Honor Books. He died in Boston at the age of 95.