Flawed Dogs: TheNovel: The Shocking Raid on Westminster, by Berkeley Breathed (Puffin Books, ages 3-12, 240pp PB, $6.99, grades 3-7, 2017)(review by Skye Anderson)
Do you remember the year the Westminster Dog Show* was raided? If you don't it's probably because it happened only in story form but what a great story it makes.
Peopled with numerous unlikely underdogs, Flawed Dogs contains anything but - at least in this reader's opinion. As a matter of fact, it may just be that this book originated the designer dog, such as "A Bolivian flat-nosed spittin' spaniel. An orange-crested Dutch baby dusenstruegal. A Chinese kissin' tellin' terrier." (p37) while, for the dog show: ". . . fur being poofed, nails polished and painted, teeth whitened, noses wiped, eyelashes curled, tails trimmed, breaths sweetened and bottoms perfumed." (p176)
Replete with a myriad of color illustrations as well as black-and-white ones, with full page illustrations as well as smaller ones, author and illustrator Berkeley Breathed has created a unique story line as well as nearly unbelievable characters and plot lines, starting with today and then going back three years. For example, who would win the very first dog show she entered?
Girls will like this book because Heidy (our star) is a girl and boys will like it because of the scare-factor and unbelievable dogs and action as boys try to guess what will happen next.
Love the single word chapter titles and short chapters, too.
Question for you, dear reader: are the flawed dogs really flawed?
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*not the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show
