With his knowledge of Shakespeare, Cervantes, Dickens and Twain, a little dog named Wishbone is one very smart canine. But the new PBS television series based on his fantasies and adventures is even smarter.

The series has been created to introduce and encourage a love of reading books in children. The half-hour, live-action series, designed primarily for elementary school children between the ages of 6 and 11, represents an entirely new concept in educational programming.













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Portrayed in the series by a real Jack Russell terrier, Wishbone the dog represents an articulate, clever and funny character. Everything that Wishbone says is heard by us, the audience.

Wishbone the dog's "real-life" adventures in the same episode, with a regular cast that includes his 12-year-old owner and two other children in the neighborhood, reinforce the primary literary themes explored in "Oliver Twist." The parallel storylines in these modern-day sequences are designed to emphasize the timeless and universal topics that are prevalent throughout all classic literature.

"Wishbone the dog represents the imaginative, playful child inside all of us," Duffield said. "Through his wild adventures and heroic stunts, kids will be introduced to some of the greatest masterpieces of world literature."