Book Review: Just a Dog (boy, family, big dog, funniness)

Just a Dog by Michael Bauer (Scholastic, 2012, 135 pages, $9.99 PB, ages 10 and up, especially for the 8-12 bunch)

Can DogEvals pick the Book of the Year for 2018 so early? Can we even pick the Book of the Year for 2018 if it was published in 2012?

If so, Just a Dog is it!

It’s not just a book, just as it’s not just a dog.

The Story

Our hero Corey grows up in about a year, his tenth, though he remembers when he was three, before his two sisters arrived in the family. And you too will remember what you thought at that age – and it just may help with your own 10-year-old.

Or is he the hero? Some might say the big clumsy oaf of a dog (part Great Dane, part Dalmatian) is the hero, the glue that keeps the family together, the family member that everyone talks to – in confidence.

Mister Mosely was a small puppy who grew up to be a very large dog – white except for a black tear dripping down his face and a heart-shaped splotch on his chest. It seems his heart was too big to fit it all inside so part of it stayed on the outside to remind people to be good. Mister Mosely seems to know just what everyone needs in this life and beyond. His stories live on in everyone’s memory.

Everyone Wants a Mister Mosely

Even though Just a Dog was written by Aussie Michael Bauer and takes place ‘down under,’ there are very few clues to that effect  - so few that a young reader may not even notice them.

But young readers will certainly notice Mister Mosely the dog and how he got his name and how he got his home and how he learned to wait - and the one trick he learned that he ended up teaching everyone in the family in the end.

Just a Dog is a book for your second grader to read, one short chapter at a time – to you. It will last a month (29 chapters) so you can discuss the facts of life and death, so you can laugh with your child at the hilarious memories that live on in every unfunny family like the one in the book - and like yours. Each chapter relates to one or two before it and a few to come (very well-written) and each story will tickle your fancy.

Read it First or Read it With

Author Bauer has penned a magical story that may have been based on his own childhood (or yours, to reminisce). There are, however, some adult themes that may be grounds for discussion – unemployment, jealousy, a car accident, cancer – but a mature 10-year-old will gloss over them and just remember Mister Mosely being afraid of thunder and Mister Mosely mysteriously disappearing for two weeks (in the manner of Agatha Christie) and Mister Mosely always being there for everyone and protective, too. And knowing that Mom was going to have a baby before even Mom knew it!

 Caveat: This book was purchased for review because the cover dog looked like a dog we know named Pirate!