Monday, April 7, 2014

Book review: If I Ran the Dog Show (dogs, rhymes)


If I Ran the Dog Show: All About Dogs, by Tish Rabe (The Cat in the Hat’s Learning Library by Random House, 45 pages, 2012, $8.99, ages 5-8)


“Seussian”

The cover depicts the Cat in the Hat so I thought this was another Seussian installment. Instead, it is one in a new series of like-minded books by Random House, which also includes A Great Day for Pup and Oh! The Pets You Can Get! and titles like If I Ran the Rain Forest and Inside your Outside.

First Non-Fiction Series for Kids

This series is for the youngest readers but gives them non-fiction to whet their appetites - dogs are a subject every kid knows something about - pertinent to their world yet giving more information than they may yet know.

Pages are busy with perhaps three paragraphs of rhyme and as many drawings, as the reader attends the Short-Shaggy-Tail-Waggy Super Dog Show.

Where’s the Plot?

The rhyming scheme and storyline don’t quite measure up to what I expected – not really Seussian, but a good try, nevertheless, and a good introduction to non-fiction. Here’s hoping the other books in the series follow a great plot!

Bonus: A glossary, a list of additional books and an index make for a really ‘grown-up’ book for both the young and the young at heart.

Caveat: I borrowed this book from a friend.

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