BOOK REVIEW: A Day With Dogs by Dorothée de Monfreid

BOOK REVIEW: A Day With Dogs by Dorothée de Monfreid

Gecko Press
November 2016
Hardcover, $29.99
Reviewed by Steph O’Connell

Picture Book

5/10

 

Things that this book has going for it:

• It’s cute
• It explores daily activities but in a cute way, with dogs and the main characters
• There are pages within that include counting exercises, the alphabet, and the mixing of primary colours to create secondary colours
• It has common, everyday items for young readers to find
• It’s not something you see every day
• It has nice sturdy pages without them being that thick, board book type
• It’s a little bit Richard Scarry

Things this reviewer didn’t like about this book:

• It’s a little all over the place, what with the switching from daily activities to counting and listing animals, colours, names, types of transport, and so on
• It doesn’t seem to know exactly what it wants to be
• It doesn’t have much of a story to it
• There are depictions of anthropomorphised dogs eating things that are REALLY BAD for dogs to eat

 

Now this last one might seem a little nitpicky. It’s about dogs in the roles of humans. But did you know that grapes are actually highly toxic for dogs? Even a small amount can lead to them being poisoned. And on the same page we have onions, corn, and lemons, none of which are good for dogs. The page is meant to be about healthy eating, obviously to encourage young readers to eat these healthy things. But how long before one of them decides to share their grapes with their good pal Fido, and suddenly it’s a very sad day without dogs?

All in all it isn’t a bad book, and a quick google will show that this follows Dorothée’s style, so readers who like her stuff will likely be pleased with the product. It definitely has good elements to it, and could be great for younger readers learning to identify things, rather than those who are ready for a narrative level picture book. But this reader is left feeling a little apathetic towards it.

 

Category: Book Reviews, Other Reviews