Arlo Needs Glasses

3.8

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Author(s)

Barney Saltzberg

Publisher

Workman Publishing

Genre(s)

Age Range

Release Date

May 22, 2012

ISBN

9780761168799

Buy This Book

Every child who wears glasses will know just how Arlo feels, and will feel better because of it. And every parent will want that child to know that glasses are cool and fun and enable us to do the things we want to do. Take Arlo: He's a shaggy, free-spirited dog who loves to play catch, until one day he can't. He can't see the ball anymore. He needs glasses!

Editor review

1 review

Jeepers! Peepers!

December 16, 2023

Overall rating

3.8

Plot

4.0

Characters

4.0

Writing Style

4.0

Illustrations/Photos (if applicable)

3.0

Arlo's owner loves to play with his dog, but when Arlo has trouble catching a ball, he starts to worry. He even tries to model the behavior in case Arlo has forgotten how to catch a ball, but it becomes clear that Arlo needs to have his eyes checked. At the optometrist's, Arlo has to look through a phoropter and read an eye chart, which helps the doctor determine that Arlo needs glasses. Arlo tries on a wide variety of colorful frams before deciding on a pair with decorate bones at the temple. The glasses help Arlo be able to catch the ball again, and also make it easier for him to read a lot of dog themes books!

Good Points

The illustration style of this is fun; it looks like colored pencil drawings cut out and pasted onto finger painted backgrounds, which gives some depth to the pages. The colors are vibrant, but in a localized way, so that the pages are not overwhelming. I appreciated the dark, chunky, san serif font and wouldn't mind seeing this style in more books.

There have been many books about getting glasses over the years; I remember reading Brown's 1986 Arthur's Eyes to my own children. Aside from mentionin the phoropter, there isn't a lot of detail about what eye examines are like, which makes this good for younger children who might not like as much information.

Readers who might need glasses, or readers who have DOGS that might need glasses (my own dog wears sunglasses because of cataracts) can work through the adjustment process along with Arlo, and maybe also pick up Douglas, You Need Glasses! by Ged Adamson or Princess Peepers or by Pam Calvert. This is definitely a title that all optometrists' waiting rooms should keep on hand!

Karen Yingling, Staff Reviewer Top 10 Reviewer 2014 reviews

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So much fun!

July 09, 2013

Arlo Needs Glasses has to be one of the cutest picture books I have ever seen. I'm not just saying that because the fuzzy dog is wearing some pretty rad glasses, or because my 5 year-old son came home from VPK talking about this book and insisting that I get a copy right away. (Ok, that does have something to do with it.) But honestly, I just think it's darling.

I wear glasses. My dad wears glasses. So does my husband and just about everyone in his family. My kids will probably wear them too. I still remember my first pair of glasses and how awful they were. I refused to wear them. I preferred to fail science than to wear those tortoise shell coke bottles. It is such a horrible feeling for kids. Arlo Needs Glasses handles the life changing event of getting glasses in a fun way, which makes the young readers realize that wearing glasses isn't so bad. (Did I also mention that this book promotes reading as a fun past time too? Bonus!)

This is a very fun read for younger kids. As I read it to my son (and he read it to me and my mom), we had fun playing with all the interactive pages. (Our favorite was trying different style glasses on Arlo and reading all the funny dog related book titles.) Next time you are at the library, check this one out! It won't disappoint.