[alert variation=”alert-info”]Publisher: Schwartz & Wade
Formats: Hardcover, eBook, Kindle
Purchase: Powell’s | Amazon | IndieBound | Barnes & Noble | iBooks[/alert]
In A Dog Wearing Shoes, young Mini was on her way home from her Grandparents when she and her mom discover a lost dog wearing bright yellow shoes in the middle of the road. Mini is excited to have a dog of her own, but her mother quickly points out that because the dog is wearing shoes, it already has an owner. However, Mini quickly bonds with the dog, and takes it to a park where it promptly runs away. They look everywhere for the dog, and eventually go to an animal shelter, where the dog is waiting. Mini realizes that if she had missed the dog so much after only a short time, that the dog’s real owner must miss it badly too.
The story is compassionate, showing the bond between children and animals, but particularly between a dog and its family. One of the best things about the book is that it emphasizes the joy of adopting dogs from a shelter, rather than going to a puppy store. The illustrations are done in pencil, leaving the images in shades of black and white with the dog’s shoes being a bright yellow, and the leash in red. This simple color scheme ensures that bright colors don’t distract form the detailed penciled illustrations, which are a joy to page through. At the very end of the book there is a page that gives a brief guide to adopting a dog, including several websites to adoption agencies.
This is an incredibly cute book, and a good example as to why it is important to teach children to return things that don’t belong to them. A great book for children, but a warning to parents: your kid may want to adopt a dog after reading A Dog Wearing Shoes.
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