Dogs dominate the pages. Some are playful, like the laser focused dog ready to play in “Ball Is ALL,” and the one who accepts all the blame in “The Truth.” Other poems reveal the emotional adjustments in a dog’s life, from a pup determined to make a new location a home in “Foster,” to an ode to the “Family Dog” whether they have a whole family to love or just a single owner, and a pit bull convincing you his breed doesn’t deserved a “Bad Reputation.” Other highlights include the snuggly kitten in “Warmth,” the mesmerizing cat’s eyes in “Medusa,” and a helpful rabbit in “Bunny Aid.” Non-pets explore their environments. A wolf challenges his opinion of people in “Fear,” a skittish fawn hopes you’ll stand “right there” very still in “Clarification,” a hippo swims cautiously in the river in “Beneath the Surface,” “Sloth Secrets” reveals what these slow cuties really like to do, and don’t ever call a mountain goat a sheep in “Perched.”
These elegant, modest poems infiltrate the minds of anthropomorphized animals as we imagine them to be and hope they see us too. Readers will feel closer to their beloved dog or to animals in the wild with these brief, heartening, thought-provoking poems and dazzling artwork. This is a good, edifying book to keep handy to read over again.
Takeaway: A heartening celebration of animals in verse and illustration.
Comparable Titles: Julie Paschkis’s Flutter & Hum, L.E. Bowman’s What I Learned from the Trees.
Production grades
Cover: A
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A
