Book Review: Piper Learns to Serve (children's book, therapy dog)

Piper Learns to Serve, by Dave Osborn (Dave Osborn, 56pp, 2024, grades 2-12, $14.99) Review by Skye Anderson

Can you believe a hungry sickly homeless pup in south Texas can grow into a skilled dog caring for others, if given the right loving family? 

Enter Piper! 

One Ear Up, One Ear Down

Puppy Piper had one ear up and one ear down but with plenty of food, love and training, she turned into a miracle dog who helps others. For proof, see her Pet Partners therapy dog card* on page 47. Piper wrote the second part of her autobiography (after her one ear caught up with the other) to document her transition - she is not perfect, but nearly so and she and her human passed the certification tests to become a therapy dog team!

With short chapters and simple sentences plus photos of Piper, the young reader will soon love Piper, Piper's name and Piper's book and will understand the need for more therapy dogs to visit children in libraries, schools and hospitals, to visit college students during exam week, and to visit all people (even the doctors and nurses) in hospitals and nursing homes.

*note that the registration card is for a team not just for the dog. Each member of the team is trained - the person to work with only that dog and the dog to work with only that person, but a dog can be qualified to visit organizations with more than one individual (and vice versa).