Joan in the Cone

4.0

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Author(s)

Billy Sharff

Co-Authors / Illustrators

Hala Tahboub

Publisher

Dial Books

Genre(s)

Age Range

Release Date

July 15, 2025

ISBN

978-0593533147

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Joan’s life is wonderful, wild, and grand—
running and playing as much as she can!
Days full of fun, where she’s never alone.
And then . . .
came . . .
the cone.

For Joan the dog, life is different now. With her cone, she gets trapped in the doggy door. And she doesn't command the same respect she once did at the dog park. Through funny challenges and mortifications, Joan reflects on her pre-cone glory days, including what led to her injury (let's just say, certain choices were made). But with time, Joan begins to see there is love and life and joy beyond the rim of the cone—and sometimes popcorn inside it too, because, it turns out, the cone makes a great snack bowl.

Editor review

1 review

Joan and the Horrible, Terrible Cone

August 17, 2025 (Updated: June 29, 2026)

Overall rating

4.0

Plot

4.0

Characters

4.0

Writing Style

4.0

Illustrations/Photos (if applicable)

4.0

Joan the dog normally loves her life; she runs around fields with her girl, digs in the dirt, chases squirrels, and occasionally has fantastic things happen to her, like pot roasts falling on the floor! Contrasting with this exhileration are the events that happen after Joan makes a bad decision to climb on a chair to get a cake but falls and ends up breaking a paw and being put into a cone. After suffering a bit, Joan tries to do what she can to improve her situation, and helps her humans find many lost items that Joan MAY have had a hand (or a paw) in making disappear. Helping others helps Joan feel a little less sad about her situation.

Good Points

Tahboub does a great job of capturing Joan's emotions as she see saws back and forth from puppy peppiness to canine catastrophe. There are lots of details in the pictures that make them fun to look at, from the swirling fall leaves on Joan's walks, to the variety of baked goods at the party where Joan makes her fateful mistake. There are a lot of soft greens and pinky tans that give this a contemplative but not overly sad feel.

The verse is rather rollicking, and has decent rhyme and meter, which can be hard to find. This would make a great read aloud, and I can see some of the lines (like "Some days are magical! Some days are grand!) sticking with readers long after the book is closed.

This is slightly reminiscent of Viorst's classic 1972 Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day and joins the ranks of modern books about emotions and feelings like McKinnon's Nothing Ever Happens, the Langs' Grumpy Monkey, Henkes' A Good Day, and Plan and Min's Benji, the Bad Day, and Me. Joan's antics might put a smile on the face of a reader that has NOT had a great day.