Book Review: The Sit, Down, Come, Heel, Stay and Stand Book (dog training, fun)

The Sit, Down, Come, Heel, Stay and Stand Book, by Claire Arrowsmith (Tfh Publications, $17.95, 28pp, 2008) Review by Skye Anderson

As a scientist I tell my students not to refer to papers written more than five years ago. As a dog trainer I tell my clients not to depend on everything in a book more than five years old. So, what did we here at DogEvals do? Review a book more than five years old! 

I had gone through this book quite a while back and really liked it. Then I took another look at it - today. I still like much of it and will recommend it with some caveats.

The Good

There is a lot to like in The Sit . . . book. A hard cover over a spiral bound book so it lies flat! Each of the six basic behaviors in the title and in the book is covered on facing pages with several steps devoted to how to get the behavior (The Basics). Also included on the two pages are the hand signal, what to do if your dog just doesn't get it (troubleshooting, Overcoming Problems), TIPS, and modifications for smaller dogs. Demo dogs are big and small. Other topics are covered for some of the behaviors and topic names differ.

I like the cardboard pages: this book is meant to be used!

A fold-out achievement chart with steps for each behavior can be torn out from the book. The steps are grouped in threes with award stickers for each three as they are achieved.

A two-page introduction and on the other side of the achievement chart are pages of helpful hints such as using toys instead of treats as a reward, using and fading treat rewards, treat pouches, timing and three golden rules.

The Bad

The pages are not numbered though the book does have a table of contents.

The Ugly

Nothing

There are slight differences between how the author trains and how I train and she may have gradually come over to how I do things as the years have passed but these are minor issues and I would either point them out to a client or simply ignore the differences. For example, the author rewards the dog with a treat plus the phrase, Good Dog, upon completion of a behavior while I would omit the words for a while and then use a one-syllable word. 

Book Review: Shearing Day on the Dean Farm (sheep and a sheepdog, too!)

Shearing Day on the Dean Farm, by Roxanne Dean (Palmetto Publishing, 2024, 26pp PB and HC [$18.99], to age 12) Review by Skye Anderson

A lovely adjunct to the children's book The Yarn Fairy (the previous review) is Shearing Day on the Dean Farm by the prolific* writer Roxanne Dean. We simply love some of the illustrations, like the back cover. Watercolor flowers are especially lovely.

A Sheepdog in Action

Watch Bo the sheepdog fly into action as he guides the sheep into a pen to be sheared. After the shearing, Bo is content to watch over his flock.

The author's grandson gets in on the action, too, as he learns why sheep are sheared: because summer is coming on and sheep will be cooler without an additional six pounds to carry around. Also, it is fortunate that we can use the wool.

Baby Lambs

Baby lambs are seen as they frolic with the newly-shorn sheep and the wool is cleaned, processed, spun and knitted into mittens and scarves and socks.

 Other books by author Roxanne Dean include Sheila the Sheep Goes to the Spa,

The Sheep of Celtic Herd: What are Ewe Thinking?

and dog books, Lenny the Bulldog Goes to the Beach: The Bully on the Beach 

and Junior and Bobo, the Beach Bulldogs - Let Sleeping Dogs Lie.

Book Review: Orangutan Rescue (children's book)(OT)

Orangutan Rescue, by Dougal Dixon (Waterbird Books/McGraw-Hill, 32pp PB, 2004, ages 6-10, grades 1-2, $4.99) Review by Skye Anderson

I am one of those people who won't watch a movie if the dog dies in it. I won't read an article about animal rescue if the animal dies. So, I was leery about Orangutan Rescue. The first few pages were a story I loved, learning about a new-born orang and watching him grow up for two years but then. . . . glad I persevered because Orangutan Rescue is a good good book!

Story and Fact Pages

Orangutan Rescue is a large book similar to a comic book but sturdier and with gorgeous full-page color photos. Words are printed on the pictures but do not interfere with them. A dozen two-page spreads tell how mama orangs make a new bed of twigs and leaves every night in the canopy of tree tops and spends years taking care of and teaching her baby, swinging from tree to tree in the jungle.

Orangs eat fruit such as the durian which receives a photo and word description that omits its terrible stink (ask me how I know!) but puts emphasis on its luscious delicious pulp.

And yes, our wee reddish orang, Chang, at two, is captured by poachers and sold as a pet but manages to escape and be picked up by a rescue. Checked out by a veterinarian, quarantined and then joining a group of other young orangs to grow and learn, he will then be replaced into a jungle in Borneo to live as he was meant to live. Success at age seven!

Shrinking Forests

Two more pages are devoted to the major factor in the demise of this species - habitat destruction. But, where are orangs found and what do they eat? How do you tell a male from a female? What about their behavior and senses, reproduction and young, a glossary? And most importantly, what can we do to help?

These questions are answered in the back of the book so the reader is both told an intriguing story and then learns all about orangs.

The Cover Tells it All

Book Review: The Yarn Fairy (children's book)(OT)

The Yarn Fairy, by Victoria Quinney and Lisa Willis (KDP, 40pp PB, ages 2-10, 2024, $10) Review by Skye Anderson

Perfect Title, Scrumptious Yarn!

What could grab a young girl's attention more than a 'yarn fairy.' Boys will ask questions about shearing sheep. And the watercolors of yarn, spindles and spools by illustrator Mackenzie Elliott are simply scrumptious!

The Story of Yarn - Fun Education

Have you ever wondered how wool gets off the sheep and turns into gorgeous colors of yarn to make a sweater? Wonder no more - authors Victoria Quinney and Lisa Willis share the secret in The Yarn Fairy. And we'll let you in on it!

It all starts with a book-length poem reminiscent of the poem, "The Night Before Christmas,"

but the yarn fairy and her sleigh are pulled by three sheep, not eight reindeer. The sheep wear tassels and pom poms and fairy dust permeates the air on many of the pages.

Learn about roving, drop spindles, drafting and pulling, spinning, knitting, crocheting, felting into gifts of scarves and mittens and socks and more.

With pages of definitions and activities and questions, The Yarn Fairy will start the reader on hours of fun learning.

Book Review: Bookshop Dogs (a collection)

Bookshop Dogs, by Ruth Shaw* (Allen and Unwin, 272pp HB, 2024, $26.99) Review by Skye Anderson 

Deciding on this book was an adventure. Like many items, I didn't buy it the first time I saw it but returned to the bookstore ("Queen Takes Book" in Columbia, MD) and purchased it on my next trip. Why? Because I get most of my review books sent to me by authors or publishers or award organizations and buying a book is an adventure for me, one that is fun.

Perhaps this review should be about the bookstore rather than the book, but I will carry on.

Bookshop Dogs reminds me of an old-fashioned book - no paper front cover but this cover illustration is printed on the book itself. The paper it is printed on is heavy-duty and the book is rather heavy for its size - meant to be kept for a long time and a quality book.

Forty-two short short stories of dogs author Ruth Shaw knew - some of whom lived with her (like Hunza) and others who merely visited the bookshop - or one of the three bookshops (including "45 South and Below") she owned. 

Hunza, her own dog, stars in several of the stories: Hunza accompanied Shaw on her rounds as a therapist for drug addicts and prostitutes and won over many troubled teens. The reader follows Hunza through the dog's life in the book as the dog pops up every once in a while. 

The author lives in New Zealand and therefore the place names may be foreign to you - and even some bird names! 

Not a name dropper but a title dropper, Shaw can't help but mention her favorite books in her own book. Books like Richard Bach's Jonathan Livingston Seagull, How to Walk a Dog,

and Dog Gone, Back Soon by Nick Trout.

And her favorite bookshops themselves,  all over the world - especially British ones.

*The author's first book also has an intriguing title, The Bookseller at the End of the World.

Book Review: Sheila the Sheep Goes to the Spa (children's book)(OT)

Sheila the Sheep Goes to the Spa, by Roxanne Dean (Create Space, 2015, agers 9-12, grades 4-6, 174pp PB, $11.99) Review by Skye Anderson

Prolific sheep author Roxanne Dean has done it again - written another cute yet educational book for kids: this time, mostly for little girls perhaps because the book opens as Sheila the sheep is making appointments for her herd (boys and girls) to be shorn and pampered as they annually are.

Decisions, Decisions, Decisions!

First Sheila has to dial the Wool Off Spa for sheep, then arrange a day when both the Spa workers and the herd are free for the workers to come out to the herd. But what should they get? Some just want their winter coats gone! Others want the works - a sponge bath, oatmeal conditioner, hooves trimmed and cleaned, etc. Some even have their hooves painted.

As "ewe" may suspect, herding 14 sheep together for spa day is no easy feat but food helps as does the promise of an exercise class at the end of the day.

Love the Cover!

With four books 'covered' by a photo and two with a drawing, surely you, too, will love this cover most of all. In addition, Dean has included descriptive poems and photos of her herd, many of whom have starring roles in the book, plus an extensive glossary.

With photos and illustrations by both an illustrator and young school students, the last page reads "Look for more Sheila the Sheep adventures soon!"

Book Review: The Special Prisoner (WW2 and today, POWs)

The Special Prisoner, by Jim Lehrer (Random House, 2000, 227pp HB, $23.95)

Rarely do I not finish a book, primarily because I select good ones - except for the books I am required to read for the five literary awards I judge each year. I finished The Special Prisoner for several reasons: it is short, it is by a well-known author (yes, the Jim Lehrer of "The MacNeil-Lehrer Report"), it is a selection for the veterans book club that I am the token female in, and it takes place in a POW in Japan during WW2 (I am interested in Japan and WW2 and visited a former POW camp in Thailand years ago).

The Japanese used the term, special prisoner, for American GIs who bombed Japan and were subsequently shot down and captured. Their life in a Japanese POW camp was, to say the least, particularly unpleasant to brutal and gory, and author Jim Lehrer spares us no details. 

Young redheaded John Quincy Watson is a pilot during WW2 on a bombing run over Japan when his B29, Big Red, is shot down. The only survivor, Watson finds himself in a POW camp where, each day, one prisoner is selected to be beheaded while the others receive other forms of torture on a daily basis, the results of which follow the survivors throughout their lives while the most evil torturer, the camp commandant ("the Hyena"), at the end of the war, is - well, you will have to read the twists and turns of this book to find out the many ways to die.

Forgiveness, Retribution, Survival

Half a century later, Lieutenant Watson is now Bishop Watson who, in an airport believes he sees Hyena, recognizing him by his eyes, and tracks him down. The fight and conversations that ensue are only the beginning of loss of forgiveness, the main theme of The Special Prisoner.

So very unsettling to some readers, it may be important to discuss this book in a book club or safely in a group of veterans in order to recover from its story.