Dog Tales - Hardcover

Grade 1-3-Completely dominated by hounds, terriers, beagles, spaniels, and other assorted canines, these six fractured fairy tales are truly for dog lovers. However, cat connoisseurs need not despair, as two curmudgeonly cats appear throughout the stories. These finicky felines slink along the edges of the pages, offering such comments at the end of "Cindersmelly" as, "What kind of a Prince chooses a big stinky dog over two elegant cats?" In "Jack Russell and the Beanstalk," they remark, "Oh, come on now. Dogs can't climb trees. That's dogsense./Cat-a-gorically impossible!" The cats take on more of a role in the last (and funniest) story, "The Doberman's New Clothes," when they play the parts of the tricky tailors: "...every dog in the kingdom, even the mongrels and strays, ordered clothes from The Canine's Couturiers....Which explains how the conniving cats got so smug and why all dogs today run around without any clothes on!" Short and silly, Dog Tales is best suited for readers who are old enough to recognize the humor and wordplay within the text, and who are familiar with the original stories. The accompanying artwork, which ranges from full-page illustrations to spot art, is bold and colorful, further bending readers' perceptions of these classic tales.
Lisa Gangemi Krapp, Rockville Centre Public Library, NY
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

These re-tellings of classic fairy tales with a doggy twist are great fun. I told my four-year-old we'd read one a night, but that wouldn't do. After hearing one, he had to read another right away. That's a good sign.

His favorite was Jack Russell and the Beanstalk, in which Jack, the Jack Russell Terrier, begs a stray dog for magic beans, plants them and then climbs the bean stalk to find a cranky Great Dane and his Bloodhound wife up there. Clever Jack manages to make off with a big bag of bones and live happily ever after.

In another story, Cindersmelly, a mutt who has to clean house for some "persnickety Siamese cats," winds up riding a magic vacuum cleaner to a pet show. And in Rapawnzul, the star of the story has very long ears. You get the idea. Jennifer Rae's tales are great fun and Rose Cowles' dressed-up dog illustrations fit the whimsy just right.

Reviewed by Ann and Don Oldenburg, Parents' Choice® 2000 -- From Parents' Choice®