Book Review: Piglet (A deaf blind pink puppy changes the world!)

Piglet: The Unexpected Story of a Deaf Blind Pink Puppy and His Family, by Melissa Shapiro (Atria Books, 302 pp, 2021, $26)

The Most Inspiring, Feel-good Book of 2021!

Perhaps you already know rat-sized puppy Piglet from his Facebook page, the Dodo story on YouTube, his appearance on TV, in People magazine - but I didn't know the Piglet before I finally picked up this book at my booksellers' establishment. Now I am a rabid fan.

A Piglet State of Mind

What's one more dog when you already have a six-pack of rescue dogs, four birds, and three kids? Especially a one-and-a-half pound puppy? I mean, how much more work can one little puppy be? 

A traumatized tiny survivor of a hoarder who transforms the world - hard to believe, but true. The reader may recall the story of Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan. . . . 

How much more work can one little puppy be?

It turns out, a lot, when that little puppy is deaf and blind with a voice that just won't stop demanding.

Of course author and Connecticut veterinarian Melissa Shapiro and her family only meant to foster little Piglet for a couple of weeks, tops, until he put on some weight and got back on his feet. The Shapiros had fostered dogs and birds before so they knew the ropes. But they didn't know how close they would become to little Piglet in just a few days. It turns out they needed Piggy and Piggy Sue needed them.

After life settled down (sort of) and word got out gradually, this little special-needs pup became a symbol for acceptance and diversity with his Inclusion Pack of six canines. Grade schools developed a curriculum around Piglet and he inspired others to foster and adopt special-needs dogs plus - you can bring the Piglet home in the form of T-shirts, stickers, and more - all to support dog rescues.

Acceptance, Inclusion, Empathy and Kindness: A Piglet Mindset - Love

A wee little dog teaches children and makes learning about acceptance, inclusion, empathy and kindness, fun. Piglet is a role model for overcoming adversity and the children started it all. Third-graders started a classroom project and "adopted" little Piglet: this, followed by a Facebook explosion may just change the world for the better....

With lovely writing by Shapiro and with Mim Eichler Rivas, Piglet is a warm, family story in two parts. The first tells the story of Shapiro and Piglet. We become part of Melissa's family growing up: we may also be Melissa, as we follow her life with two very encouraging parents. At an early age, she decided to become a veterinarian and totally devoted her high school and college years toward getting into veterinary school, which was more difficult since Connecticut did not have a vet school. Shapiro is extremely goal-oriented and a list-person. And yet, she is supportive and a good friend to have as well.

We meet all her family dogs (and a ferret) and even learn how she met her husband. When two of her kids are off to college, a deaf blind pink pup prematurely falls into her lap, a pup who is a devil barker, screamer, and wailer. But Shapiro understands the pup's fears and comforts him though her husband turns out to be the Piglet's Favorite Dad. With the help of the Shapiro family pack of six dogs, especially 12-year-old Susie-dog who adopts the Pig, eventually the little pup blossoms.

How Piglet maps out a new room very methodically and never forgets it, or how he learns a new person by their smell, is simply amazing. Just because one has only three of the five senses does not make one any less a person - or dog. 

The second half of the book is about Piglet's work (and Shapiro's), being interviewed about deaf blind dogs and how they learn to navigate and to learn: instead of verbal or visual cues, Shapiro uses body taps to mean different things to Piglet. A tap on the rump is Sit, for example.

And Piglet and Shapiro visit classrooms and veterinary and animal conferences, are interviewed on television, and are written about in the media, but mostly they support dog rescues, especially fund-raising for those rescues filled with special needs individuals.

Join Piglet's Inclusion Pack!

If you loved Oogy: The Dog Only a Family Could Love

and Another Good Dog: One Family and Fifty Foster Dogs,

 

you will love Piglet!

Book Review: Montana's Memory Day (foster to adoption, country living, wood carving - for children) (OT)

Montana's Memory Day, A Nature-Themed Foster/adoption Story, by Sue Lawrence (Mascot Books, $16.95, 2021, 38 pages, ages 4-8, grades K-2*)

A New Mom, life on the farm in the middle of nowhere in the middle of a snowy winter that begins with dawn chores - a book to help make the best adoption story even better with made-up words (just a few) that are perfectly understandable! 

This is Montana's Memory Day

A Memory Day could be an anniversary of one's Adoption Day when New Mom says her now forever son Montana carved his way into her heart as they carve shapes out of dried branches. Adoptees, non-adoptees and families will feel part of the story, that this tale is for them and with them. 

Sounds on Nearly Every Page

Splosh, Slosh, Surge of a winter creek. 

Crunch and Stomp in new snow.

Skip, Dip, Flutter - the American dipper (bird)

Whack, Clunk, Thud - gathering firewood

Plus, information in the back about whittling (wood carving). (When I was a kid, we practiced by carving on bars of Ivory soap.) And a glossary. And facts and websites about fosters. And recommended reading about foster kids and whittling (and the difference between whittling and carving).

Watercolors You'll Wish You Could Keep

Lovely watercolor illustrations of brown trees and rocks,  and the whites of snow, and the pale blues of a winter's sky.

*primarily for the under 5 age group

Book Review: Goodnight Little Owlet (OT)

Goodnight Little Owlet, Poems for Little Creatures from the Very Big Wood, by Anne Marie Brown (Wordee Publishing, 2021, $8.99, a board book for ages 0-6 - good for the 2 1/2 year old especially)

A Lovely Little Treat

Goodnight Little Owlet is the third book in the 'Poems for Little Creatures from the Very Big Wood' series (Foxy Moxy and Hazel's First Winter) by Anne Marie Brown.

Replete with absolutely lovable rhyme, meter and social emotional learning, author Anne Marie Brown has given us 'a little gem for little people.' This toddler-sized book is just right for little hands (and strong enough to last) with a lovely go-to-sleep story for naps or nighttimes. The rhyme-scheme actually helps a little (or big) one fade off to sleep with delightful word pictures and soft, soothing illustrations!

The story is very rhythmic, a book of pictures with just a couplet on each page. Baby owl and mom inhabit the book, the mom who protects and teaches (numbers to 5) with stars in the sky and breaths one takes to relax.

This book is a keeper!

Book Review: Don't Bite the Cat (or dog or hamster or fish)

Don't Bite the Cat, by Ryan Allen (Writers Republic, LLC, 2021, 28 pages, $25.99 HC, $12.35 PB, up to age 12*) 

Lovely way of teaching a fun, hidden lesson. 

After reading once, nearly every child can read it to Mom or Dad because the illustrations fit so well to the story plus the words and phrases repeat almost exactly (with four 'chapters'). 

The simple graphics are just busy enough with different parts emphasized and modified on each page, according to the story.

And remember, don't bite the cat, hit the dog, kick the hamster, or poke the fish. Instead, just love them because they love us!

*this book is primarily for the 5 and under age group especially for toddlers

Book Review: That Monster on the Block (ogres, yetis, zombies and more) (OT)

That Monster on the Block, by Sue Ganz-Schmitt (Two Lions, 32 pages, 2020, $10.99, ages 4-8, grades pre-school - 3*)

How Many Monsters? And What Do They Look Like?

That Monster on the Block has very detailed illustrations with primary colors galore. You will see a green monster and a zombie, and what a blue yeti looks like, and a greedy goblin, and an ogre, and a dastardly dragon, and a mummy (oh, we already know what a mummy looks like) - and more, like their unique houses - and especially a creepy cartwheeling clown who surprises all the other monsters. 

Find out why our green monster makes such a huge roar and even scares himself a little bit.

Here is a lovely lesson about new and different neighbors and why sometimes you have to make the first move towards friendship.

That Monster on the Block is more fun than a barrel of popcorn with sludgeberry swirl scones.

Can you guess what happens when a rainbow unicorn moves into the neighborhood?

*primarily for the 5 and under age group