Review Detail

There are so many facets to understanding the world of dogs, and this beautifully illustrated book does a great job at mentioning many of them. It's a large format picture book, but each page is packed with so much information that it's a good choice for older students who want to dip in and out of a book and find fun facts about dogs.

Different breeds are mentioned, and one of the really interesting things to me was that Sorosiak's own dog is an American dingo, and she wasn't quite sure what that was, which prompted her to delve more deeply into canine research. A lot of facets of dog behavior are covered, and there are snippets of stories sprinkled through the pages which make the book even more engaging. Dog anatomy is not ignored, we see different jobs for dogs, and even dogs in history and art.

While this has a glossary and index, there is not list of resources that were consulted. Considering how many fantastic middle grade books about dogs are out there, I would be very interested in seeing what books Sorosiak used for her research.

Uribe's illustrations are fantastic, and the page design lends itself to lots of information being presented. There are colored text boxes with fun facts, and even the background illustrations are interesting. There is an effort to make the people presented in the book very diverse, which is a great thing to see. The print is on the smaller side, but there's always good color contrast; no orange print on white background, which I find difficult to read. The illustration style is somehow warm and cozy, which is just perfect for a book about our canine companions! This had a very European feel to the design that I have come to expect from Albatros Publishing, and I wasn't surprised to find that Nosy Crow had put this out.