Book Review: City Dog, Country Frog (dog, animals, seasons of life)

City Dog, Country Frog by Mo Willems (Simon and Schuster, 2010, 64 pages, $17.00, ages 3-6) 

A city dog first visits the countryside in the spring, off leash, and spies a country frog waiting for a playmate: the city dog ‘will do,’ so they play country-frog games. When the city dog returns in the summer, they play city-dog games. During the fall, the country frog tires and slows down so by the water’s edge they soak up the autumn sun’s rays while playing ‘remembering games.’ City dog cannot find his friend during the winter or when he returns the following spring but he meets a country chipmunk and says that he ‘will do’ for a friend.

And so the cycle of life begins once again.

Adults will simply love the delightful watercolor illustrations (check out the cover illustration).

Kids will love the lack of adults and will learn about friendship with those different from us. 

For a deeper meaning, children and their adults can talk about the passing of life, the continuation of life, and the short lifespans in the animal world, including those of our pets. 

On a lighter level, City Dog is all about sharing games and life - with those who are different from us.

City Dog, Country Frog reminds one of a Charlotte’s Web for the younger set: good friends can be found everywhere!

And so can good books.

(Both author and illustrator are New York Times’ best sellers and Caldecott honorees.)

Book Review: Widget and the Puppy (children, dogs)

Widget and the Puppy, by Lyn McFarland (Farrar Straus Giroux, 32 pp, 2004, $16, age: 3 – 6 years, preschool – grade 2)

This little book is a fun, giggly read and loquacious conversation-starter for your youngster, starting with the cover: two dogs – one is Widget and the other is the puppy, but which is which? One looks surprised at being licked/kissed by the other.

Widget lives with a little old lady and six cats when who comes in by way of the dog door but a puppy. The little old lady puts Widget in charge of the puppy while she goes searching for the pup’s person. (Actually, Mrs. Diggs tells Widget to watch the puppy. . . . and so Widget does – watch as the puppy gets into one rip-roaring adventure after another.)

Widget and the cats give a whole new meaning to the phrase, “Watch the puppy.“ Like many adults, they can’t keep up with the antics of a puppy until the puppy gets into trouble.

Will Widget save the day before Mrs. Diggs comes home? Or will the puppy win out?

(Second in the Widget books)

Book Review: A Vacation for Pooch (children, dog)

A Vacation for Pooch, by Maryann Cocca-Leffler, Henry Holt, 2013, $16.99, 32 pages, children 4-7, preschool – grade 2. 

Separation. Love. Dogs and their kids. Grandpa. Snow. Florida. Surely here is enough to keep your child entranced and on her toes waiting for the exciting, heartfelt climax!

Emily is going on vacation to Florida to escape the snow but her pooch, Pooch (of course!), will stay with Grandpa on the farm. Emily packs identical backpacks for her and Pooch. She puts in Pooch’s sleep toy (a cat), Pooch’s red ball, blanket – everything to make Pooch feel at home on Grandpa’s  farm.

Florida is so much fun but Emily misses Pooch so she calls Grandpa to find out about Pooch’s day.

And then they discover the mix-up! Which turns out for the best!

A lovely little book about a girl and her dog and missing her dog on vacation. How grandparents know a lot about taking care of dogs just like parents know a lot about having fun with Emily.

And a surprising ending that your little one will look forward to each time you read it together.

Book Review: Botswana, Travels with Gannon and Wyatt (teen, Africa)

Travels with Gannon and Wyatt – Botswana, by Patti Wheeler and Keith Hemstreet, Claim Stake Publishing, 2009, about 19.95$, 144 pp (with DVD) 

Twins Gannon and Wyatt from Colorado are home-schooled – or, rather, world-schooled.!

They actually travel the world with their parents to learn geography and natural history firsthand - then write up their adventures for credit in English.  And adventures they are!

Meet the Big Five of Africa – the Lion, the Leopard, the Cape Buffalo, the Elephant, and the Rhinoceros: the twins manage to see them all while on safari – some of them too much up front and close. Like the time their jeep is charged by a mother rhino or they see a dust cloud in the distance that soon surrounds them only to discover that the dust is kicked up by 500 Cape Buffalo!

Wyatt and Gannon’s photographs are interspersed throughout the book and their very professional videotaping is included in a DVD that features a narrated interview with the twins as well as a videotour of the boys visiting Robben Island (where Nelson Mandela was incarcerated for 18 years) and Capetown, South Africa (and additional photos).

It is hard to believe that such wild and exciting adventures are still possible in today’s world (picture two young Indiana Jones types). Wyatt and Gannon experience what most boys only dream about – but now you, too, can join YES, the Youth Exploration Society.  (www.travelswithgannonandwyatt.com)

Toss in some hippos, a small tribe of Bushmen, a black mamba snake, Wyatt’s mysterious malady, a wounded lion with four lion cubs and an eye-patched poacher, armed and dangerous!

Botswana is the first in a series that will take the twins to the Great Bear Rainforest in Canada, Egypt, China, the South Pacific, Antarctica, the Australian Outback, Machu Picchu – just for starters. I can’t wait!

(Also see www.gannonandwyatt.com for lots of action and an interview with the boys while they were visiting their aunt in my  hometown of Spokane! Small world, eh?)

Book Review:: Dark Summer

Dark Summer, by Iris Johansen (St. Martins, 2008, $7.99, 378 pp.)

This book has everything and most of it is in the first 20 pages! More action than in most mystery adventure novels I have read. I simply could not imagine what might possibly happen next - how could Johansen keep up the fast-paced suspense? 

Well, she did it with the anticipation of sex and the sexual banter - this borders on a romance novel. And I thought it was a book about dogs! It is, and more. Much teasing and seemingly double-crossing and a few murders and fights and a lot of violence along the way as well as international intelligence missions but overall a woman's book. Even with the body counts and near misses. . . .

Dark Summer or, as I call it, The Dogs of Summer

Four special dogs with special abilities whose ending may astound you. One black lab, Ned. One golden retriever, Addie. A GSD (Germand Shepherd Dog) and an all-American. A greyhound belonging to the female protagonist. A half-breed hunk and a female veterinarian who meet on a search and rescue mission in a foreign country where Ned, the dog, is shot (but recovers).

I keep searching for excellent books about dogs with dogs I like, dogs on every page. Dark Summer mentioned the four dogs often but I never felt that I knew them. I never felt I was part of this book.

Ms. Johansen is probably the most prolific writer of our day - I couldn't even count the books she has written!  Well over 70. (http://www.irisjohansen.com/book_list.html) Reviews on Amazon.com were mixed but most of them panned the book even those who are or were Johansen fans. 

I was not one of them and still am not. 

I do like the cover photo, though!

(This review first appeared in GRREAT News, January 2010.)

DVD Reviews: Pet Video Library Breed DVDs (golden retriever, labrador retriever)

Pet Video Library - “Books on Video”

The long wait is over for pet families! Pet Video Library (www.petvideolibrary.com) has finally come out with informative basic DVDs (dogs, cats, turtles, fish, birds, and small animals - rabbits, hamsters and ferrets). Unfortunately, the dog videos are not the best. Many of our readers are interested in Labs and Goldens so those DVDs comprise the following review.

Breed DVDs

The breed DVDs cover history and development (who really cares?), exercise and nutrition, characteristics and temperament, everyday grooming, health and aging, and helpful training tips as well as a bonus section on training.(Other DVDs in the dog series cover fundamentals, entertainment, and training and sound interesting.)

Value of contents?

I like to know how many minutes of video are on the DVD I am purchasing – I couldn’t find that information anywhere on the product box so I felt I was taking a chance with my 15$ each (they turn out to have more than 20 minutes of content plus the bonus interactive (?) training section). The back of the DVD box does describe the bonus section of live obedience instruction by renowned canine behaviorist Shannon Holstein (why is a canine behaviorist needed for training a dog rather than a dog trainer?), someone neither I nor any of my dog training colleagues have ever heard of.

Identical scripts?

The two DVDs I purchased had almost identical scripts all the way through (not necessarily a bad idea, though) but the announcer was quite good. He spoke v-e-r-y slowly and used constant facial expressions to make his points. 

Good, but. . . . 

These are good first books or videos on breeds and show a lot of great puppy photography that you will want to see again and again (although there is a frequent disconnect between the script and the photography). And while you are viewing and reviewing, more of the information will sink in. For example, at age 2, your dog is a teenager; at 3, an adult; at 7, a senior (for some breeds, however).

Health

An excellent vaccination chart is part of the health section but if you follow it, you will be taking your dog to the vet 7 times from 6 weeks to 20-24 weeks old (and more, counting deworming)!

Viewers will hear many good ideas, including the advice to take your dog to the vet twice a year and to never hit your dog (do we really need to be told that today?). You will generally feed your best friend a pound of dog food a day which amounts to about 25-30 pounds a month at a cost of about 30$ for premium dog food on a monthly basis.

Warnings

A couple of things to warn new dog families about in this DVD – too many small children are shown hugging their dogs, a practice good dog trainers never recommend because even most good dogs only tolerate a miniscule amount of hugging. 

And, secondly, the ever-present pups were shown chewing the bark of trees, a strange practice that I don’t recommend – chew toys are abundant.

Training a smart border collie

The bonus training section covered Sit, Down, Stand, Come and Stay – all the basic skills. Unfortunately, both videos demonstrated with the same dog, a border collie, rather than a golden or a lab, so I suspect that all the breed videos have the exact same bonus section. That is not bad, unless you expect to see goldens on the golden DVD and labs on the lab DVD! The trainer is fairly good and I recommend watching this section over and over.

Recommendation

All in all, with the above caveats, a pretty good buy for the new dog family if you don’t mind being called a ‘master.’

(This review first appeared in GRREAT News, March-April 2010.)

Book Review: Cowboy and Wills (dog, boy, autism, puppy mills)

Cowboy and Wills, A Love Story, by Monica Holloway, 2009, 279 pp., about $24.00.

I really must stop starting books at 10 pm: this is the fourth book in a row, the fourth night in a row, that I have not been able to put down a book until I finished it in the wee hours of the morning. And I am pretty selective in the books that I love. This one I love.

There are several titles currently in bookstores about autistic kids and their dogs. Perhaps you have read Nuala Gardner's A Friend Like Henry: The Remarkable True Story of an Autistic Boy and the Dog That Unlocked His World. Just like Henry, Cowboy unlocks the world for Wills.

Cowboy Carol Lawrence Holloway is a female golden retriever puppy who owns Wills, a young kindergartener with an autism spectrum disorder. In many ways, Wills is brilliant but he is also inordinately shy and simply overwhelmed by noises (like at birthday parties and Halloween) and by changes in routine. Cowboy doesn’t care. She loves Wills anyway and because they are inseparable, Cowboy brings Wills along with her out into the world and shows Wills that he can survive – she gives him the courage. He follows her because she is his ‘sister.’

Wills was diagnosed at age 3 and wanted a puppy from that time on. Instead, he got a  fish and a hamster and a turtle and a bunny but it is not until Cowboy entered his world that little steps became big steps. Cowboy finally arrived on Christmas when Wills was 6 and both he and his mom had the flu.

Mother Monica has done her research and decided NOT to get a puppy from a pet store for fear it will be a puppy mill puppy, but she has promised Wills a puppy before she has located one and there are just no puppies to be found as Christmas fast approaches. Therefore, Monica goes to an upscale pet store that locates a puppy from Missouri. Cowboy turns out to be one sick little puppy but the family loves her and nurses her back to health.

Cowboy is not a trained therapy dog (she is not even trained!) but she nevertheless works miracles for Wills by just being herself. She sleeps with Wills (for the first time, he can sleep in his own bed in his own room because Cowboy is there), she runs around the backyard like a zoomie and digs in the dirt and swims in the pool: eventually Wills relaxes and doesn't let the dirt bother him. He even jumps in the backyard pool (to save Cowboy) for the first time!

Cowboy is so cute and huggable and adorable that everyone loves her on sight - all the kids in Wills' class especially, and, because of Cowboy, Wills ventures out of his shell and really becomes an accepted member of the class. Cowboy brings him right along with her because “Cowboy needs me,” he says.

This is a book you will like - you will like Wills and Mother Monica and Father Michael and you will love Cowboy. She is rambunctious - just what the doctor would order to bring Wills into the world. And that is what happens, slowly. This is a heart-warming story that you just won't be able to put down. I couldn’t.

Interspersed with photos of Wills and photos of Cowboy and photos of Wills and Cowboy, Monica's story is actually two stories: the story of Wills’ awakening and the story of love by and for Cowboy. Cowboy stays around just long enough to complete her work.

In many ways, this is also Monica’s story: even Monica changes from an overly protective mother who cleans and cleans and cleans again (compulsively) to that hardest role of all – a mother who lets go.

I can’t think of a better name for a female golden retriever than Cowboy!

(This review first appeared in GRREAT News, March-April 2010.)