In 1946, a children’s book came out titled My Dog Rinty. The setting was post-war Harlem, and the plot centers around a mischievous dog whose frequent disturbances throughout the neighborhood are mistaken as bad behavior.

As the book reveals, Rinty was simply alerting the neighbors to the presence of rats, and Rinty’s willingness to dispatch them.

The book has great vignettes of 1940’s Harlem, and this interior family scene is wonderful with the entire family engrossed in reading.

My Dog Rinty is written by Ellen Tarry and Marie Hall Ets. Tarry was a Harlem Renaissance writer who first ventured into children’s literature with prompting from Augusta Baker and the Bank Street School’s Lucy Sprague Mitchell.

As Seen In Harlem

Someone built and put up a birdhouse on this beautiful limestone carved apartment building facade.