Book Review: Bailey - My Kind of Dog! (dog book, children's)

Bailey by Harry Bliss (the New Yorker magazine’s cover artist and cartoonist), Scholastic Press, 2011, 32 pages, $16.99, ages 3 and up)

Bailey The Dog is always late for the school bus – in the morning because he can’t decide whether to wear the blue collar or the red collar (you gotta look cool in school, you know!) but also in the afternoon (school ends with Reading Time which always makes Bailey sleepy).

But he just can’t wait for tomorrow and more school because, unlike his human buddies, Bailey just loves school. He even brings a bone for the teacher!

Bailey is a light colored pup with muddy brown smudges. All the kids  at his multicultural school want to sit by him at lunch though nobody wants to trade a sandwich for a bone.

Bailey is Everydog and gets into trouble just like every dog would - in school, that is. His best subject is Nature because during that class he can dig and chase squirrels. He even eats his own homework!

Plenty of creative situations let the young reader tell you more about - lots of unique items in the simple drawings add life and conversation to Bailey The Book.

Though your average 3-year-old may not yet identify with elementary school, I’ll bet she can’t wait for the next Bailey book to come out (Bailey at the Museum)! Everyone loves Bailey!

[This review also appeared in GRREAT News, March-April, 2013 (http://grreat.org/Newsletters/grreat242.pdf, page 13), and September-October 2012!]