Review Detail

The pages are brightly colored, and the lines of the various dogs very crisp, giving this a delightful, slightly P.D. Eastman vibe. There were some readers who commented that the dogs exhibiting bad behaviors were depicted as dogs that often get bad press. I can't say that I noticed this, but I did notice that a vast majority of the dogs are sort of generic short haired hound type dogs, and there were very few smaller, fluffy dogs represented. For example, I didn't see a dog that looked like my own Shih Tzu poodle mix, so it's not a surprise that the dogs exhibiting bad behaviors followed this type.

The real brilliance of this book was the cadence of the poetry. The words in this rolled along beautifully and would be such fun to read out loud! I am very, very picky about poetry, and this passed my stringent requirements for rhyme and meter. I enjoyed it so much, in fact, that I am half tempted to invest in the 100 Cats book even though I am not fond of cats!

There's even a "lost dog" tail for readers to find, and I can envision a child spending many happy hours picking apart the pictures and looking for details in the background. A warning, however; as someone who read an excess of Sandra Boynton to my children, if you get this book, be prepared to be able to quote it back in its entirety thirty years from now! (All together now: "Shaggy dog, baggy dog, wag-wag-waggy dog, dirty dog, squirty dog, watering a tree!")