Did you love Clifford, the big red dog, when you were a kid? I loved this book series, and now my kids do too. There are so many great titles in the Clifford series by Norman Bridwell. What's your favorite? I love the Halloween story where Clifford goes trick or treating.

I was at my local bookstore recently, and I found these two little cuties on display. These are reproductions of the original Clifford stories. I love the hard covers, the original red, black, and white illustrations, and even the way they "aged" the edges of the pages to make it look like it's an old copy. They have the same great stories of everyone's fave big red do with a dose of retro cute.

These vintage style books got me thinking about the history of Clifford. Here's what I found out.

The first Clifford book was written by Norman Bridwell and published by Scholastic in 1963.
Clifford is still the official mascot of Scholastic Publishing.
Bridwell wanted to name the dog "Tiny" but his wife convinced him to name the dog Clifford after her childhood best friend.
If you were to meet Clifford in real life, he would stand at about 25 feet tall!
There are over 80 Clifford titles as well as movies and a tv show.